Open Thread
Hey Mudflatters,
I’ve ended up taking the weekend…. “off” I believe is the expression. It feels really nice. Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful weekend. Do have fun leaving links and chatting in the open thread while I’m busy with some of the other matters of life.
Be back at it soon!
Speaking of oil, has this been posted on the ‘flats, yet?
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Official: Oil spill hasn’t reached Great Salt Lake
SALT LAKE CITY – Emergency workers believe they have stopped a 21,000-gallon oil leak from reaching the environmentally sensitive Great Salt Lake, one of the West’s most important inland water bodies for migratory birds that use it as a place to rest, eat and breed.
But the spill has taken a toll on wildlife at area creeks and ponds, coating about 300 birds with oil and possibly threatening an endangered fish.
The leak began Friday night when an underground Chevron Corp. pipeline in the mountains near the University of Utah broke. The breach sent oil into a creek that flows through neighborhoods, into a popular Salt Lake City park, and ultimately into the Jordan River, which flows into the Great Salt Lake.
The 10-inch pipeline was shut off Saturday morning, when workers at a nearby Veterans Administration building smelled oil and called the Salt Lake City fire department, which notified Chevron. The pipe carries crude oil from western Colorado to a refinery near the Salt Lake City International Airport.
[Full article here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100613/ap_on_bi_ge/us_oil_leak_utah_12 ]
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And people still think there’s too much regulation on drilling/oil companies and that ‘free enterprise’ oil is *always* a ‘safe’, environmentally-responsible industry? Aiiiiii! beth.
Wants hair tips from Maggie T., whose hair was said to be sculpted from quick-drying cement.
Although I refuse to Wiki-[anything] –in and of itself– as a factual source of information, I often use it as a ‘jumping off point’ for exploring information I want to know about/on a given subject. I use Wiki-[whatever] to get links that I then follow to ensure what the Wiki says about the topic is true and that it has legit‘ sources to back what it ‘says’, up. Its having in one place so many links on a topic, makes Wiki, in my mind, a great research tool. So, then…
BuffaloGal’s link to $Ps current FB rant (and $Ps “snark and smarm” on that page) citing Newsmax, got me interested in exploring the background, contributors, and leanings of the mag. After what I read on/from Wiki, I’m a-thinkin’ the credibility of Newsmax as an unbiased ‘source of information’ about POTUS and what he’s doing –or not doing– is … not so much. To my way of reckoning, going to Newsmax for straight-skinny info on ANYTHING *other than* conservative/GOP-lovefest issues, would be like me wanting to get unbiased reporting about birth control pills and turning to the Catholic Digest site for that info. I wouldn’t trust Newsmax to be unbiased, fair, and/or balanced any more that I trust Faux to be any of those things, also too. Maybe that’s just me, though. beth.
Wikipedia on Newsmax: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsmax_Media
[chortle, also too] “Although I refuse to *use* Wiki-[anything]…” (It’s contagious, no, benlomond2?) b.
Shoot me. or better yet, shoot her .
Palin’s Facebook rant is a new level of snark and smarm –
http://fb.me/zZQENxQu
***** Shoot, I must have lived such a doggoned sheltered life as a normal, independent American up there in the Last Frontier, schooled with only public education and a lowly state university degree, because obviously I haven’t learned enough to dismiss common sense (a prerequisite for power in Washington these days). Help me out, friends! Help someone like me – and the majority of Americans – understand why we would ever kowtow and bow to foreign regimes that hate us, instead of doing all we can to starve the beast of terrorism in our plight for security, prosperity, and peace.******
She does realize Citgo (/Petro Express) is Hugo’s ‘company’, doesn’t she? She does realize Hugo, therefore, sponsored “Have you seen Todd”, doesn’t she?
She does realize that just because *she* thinks the way to wean the US off of ‘foreign’ oil is to slam Venezuela and have that country declared a “state sponsor of terrorism” does *NOT* necessarily mean that doing so will be the best avenue for the US to take? [i.e., that there are *other* considerations to take into account when making diplomatic decisions — not just GOP/T-baggy talking points and myopic meme ones], doesn’t she? She does realize that her every whim is *not* always in the best interest of the entire nation, doesn’t she? {Oh wait — don’t answer that one. I already know the answer…her being Saint Sarah, and all.}
How the hell is making a further enemy of a nation in our hemisphere [by thumping them to ‘make a point’ about how much the GOP hates Hugo Chavez and that POTUS dared to diplomatically/politely take a book from him], going to make us any safer? How will *that* move make us *less* dependent on “foreign oil”? Goodgawdalmighty – is *everything* knee-jerk with her?
And, of ALL the oil coming out of US wells, what percentage of *it* is used domestically? I was under the impression that ‘we’ took the royalties on the [domestically/our waters drilled] oil and the companies who pumped it out of the earth were free to sell it anywhere they wanted to — be it to China, France, wherever. Ditto with oil coming from the UAE, Nigeria, etc. — the oil companies pumped it and were free to market the product to whichever nation they could get the biggest bucks from…including the US. Am I completely ‘off’ in that impression/understanding? beth.
well…she’s just demonstrated why people with journalism degrees can only write about what others do, and not actually DO anything that produces goods or services… I don’t think anything beyond 1st year algebra is required for a journalism degree. The US doesn’t produce enough of it’s own oil to supply it’s demand. She still hasn’t gotten that thru her head. MOST of that oil is used to fuel transportation..So ..when she comes up with a concrete plan to wean transportation off of oil, and shows how it can be done without goverment involvement – no tax breaks, no goverment sponsered research, no goverment paid construction of the infrastructure, then we can take her seriously… as far as Venezula, they’ll just sell the oil elsewhere, except for those donations to the poor in the Northeast, and those alaskan villages she brought cookies to keep them warm.. yup… a lowly journalism degree is NOT the best qualification for energy policy, high stakes finance, running a business, pontificating on foreign policy, understanding laws, understanding the Constitution, understanding Christianity, or understanding the world in which we live and how to get along with one another. It teaches you how to supposedly how to write in complete sentences, to answer a reporter’s basic questions for a newspaper article .who, what, when, where and how…. to describe an event… She’s already proven that complete sentences are beyond her ability – look at ANY of her interviews… and I have yet to see any evidence that she can accomplish five items in answering the five word bit.. so Yes , Sarah… you’re degree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on… and you DON’T have the common sense to understand that !
chortle… and it’s obvious I’m NOT an English major, either !! 🙂 just HAVE to stop hitting that submit button before proof reading everything !
But it was a very good rant! Congrats on your garden.
Don’t worry. It was a great rant.
Someone needs to tell her there is no domestic oil that is ours unless we nationalize the oil business in America. Oil companies take the oil and sell it on the open market like every oil company all over the world. America does not get first dibs or a discount. They pay $70 a barrel in France, we pay $70 a barrel here.
Some oil goes to refineries for gasoline, some goes to factories for plastic and lubricants and the thousand things that oil is used for.
I know this and I was not the gov of the largest state wtih 20% of the energy for AMerica, and I even know those are LIES!!
Don’t forget. FLAG DAY, Monday June 14th. I live 2 miles from the Birth Place of Flag Day, Waubeka, Wisconsin (Ozaukee County). The Stony Hill School where Bernard J. Cigrand was a teacher in 1885, still stands. I’m going out there tomorrow and I will take some photo’s.
TOTALLY OT….. but I just have to brag a little,,,just harvested my first small bowl of cherry tomatoes , and some radishes….JUSTA !!! the dang deer got into my green beans !! Venison Jerky time, I think !! Spent this afternoon stringing more netting…..tonite, I may dust off the shotgun and look for some buckshot shells.. 🙂 mess with my car, my house and my wife, but don’t mess around with my vegatable garden !!!!
My sympathies for your critter problems and a smattering of applause for your mini harvest!
The only things large enough for me to eat in my own veggie patch is my leaf lettuce but, between the slugs and the rabbit who, after nine years, suddenly discovered he can jump over my fence, there aren’t a lot of undamaged leaves left for me. Since it’s cut and come again, I think I’ll head out there tomorrow, just cut it all down and let it grow again…this time with a higher fence! I already planted more mixed and red leaf seed 2 weeks ago and it’s coming up already so I should have some ready to munch on pretty soon.
Too early for anything else, but all my seeds seem to be busily sprouting and my transplants have been happy campers with all the rain we’ve had lately. Can’t wait for my first grape tomatoes!!!
and don’t mess with Ben’s blue suede shoes neither !!!! 🙂
Anybody else watching the Tony Awards ?
As a former theater junkie who regularly went to Broadway shows during high school and college and was part of many a local musical, both on and back stage, I never miss them!
Did you notice something weird going on with the sound? It was like a small plane was coming is for a landing every time they opened up the mics in the house. Drove me crazy! I couldn’t tell if it was just on the broadcast or if they were hearing it in the theater also. Several presenters glanced at the ceiling when it was loud so I wonder if they could hear it too…
I was following the Twitter feed for the show and the Tony people were apologizing for the sound. I didn’t notice it because I came in part way through.
I wish we would’ve been in chat during the show!
I didn’t mention in my post earlier, but I heard the interview Anderson Cooper had with some of the men who survived this disaster. One of the men said that he overheard a BP official and a member from Trans-Ocean arguing about the drilling. Since BP was behind on the drilling, and losing money, they took a short cut.
Now they find themselves up the well know estuary , without means of propulsion.
I’m confused about the media’s reaction to Obama’s emotions – do they expect him to cry? I would think not – all they can do is ridicule his “fancy” pants and too cool demeanor. It’s not his job to stop the leak – it’s BPs! Personally I’m surprised “Saint Sarah” hasn’t shown up with a passel of polar bears in tow to throw into the Gulf and soak up the oil. And while it may be creepy for the writer to be living next door to her I think it’s funny as all get out. Karma is a b*itch!
I was on a long car drive today and thinking about Scarah’s “experience” that she thinks gives her the cred to tell our President what to do.
Alaska has about 700,000 residents.
Philadelphia has twice as many.
The Mayor of Philadelphia is, in all seriousness, far more qualified than Sarah to give advice.
The City of London has ten times more residents than Alaska. I wonder if she’ll notice when she visits poor old Maggie.
Who the hell does she think she is? She is the quintessential big fish in a small pond.
The other thing I was stewing about is that her state has been a state for only 50 years and in a unique situation as to the control of natural resources. Also unique in that it hasn’t had 400 years to develop multiple industries that have eventually collapsed. Steel for example. Here in PA the iron and steel industry drove the industrial economy from before 1700 until about 50 years ago. Now it is pretty much defunct, with the result that the steel towns have to try to reinvent themselves. Some are doing ok, some are pathetic. Government isn’t “getting in the way” in the steel towns. She cannot possibly understand the complexities of dealing with poverty in the rust belt. We simply CANNOT abolish the welfare system here. It would result in a humanitarian crisis and anarchy. Then the government would have to use force to suppress people. Think Les Miserables.
The worst part is that she is so ignorant that she has no clue how clueless she is. It makes me sick.
AND she is advocating policies that WERE in place here 300 years ago. No regulation of building. No oversight of environmental matters. Those of us in the Northeast wish we could go back in time and say “Ya’ know – putting I95 right next to the Delaware River isn’t going to work out real well in the long run.” and “Decentralized electricity production is better for supply and demand as well as for national security and environmental responsibility.” and “Don’t get rid of ALL the wolves – you would not believe what happens with an unchecked population of white-tailed deer.” Oh, and “Whatever you do, don’t import foreign species in a clever attempt to create a new industry. Gypsy moths are NOT our friends.”
But no. We are the ones who are deluded. We have a rich and storied past here in the east and our forebears made many mistakes. And Sarah seems determined to repeat everyone of them and tell us all how stupid we are at the same time.
She spent 8 yrs as Mayor of Wasilla with a population of about 5,500. She needed a town manager because she couldn’t handle it.
I grew up in a Village. It had twice the amount of population as Palin’s little town and we had a barber who was acting Mayor. He worked as Mayor on Monday, the day most Barbershops are closed. The rest of the week he was a barber and barbershop owner.
The frightening part is that when she speaks her fans listen. She knows nothing and has not in any way shape or form earned her place in politics, and yet here she is. There is something seriously wrong with a country when a flim flam artist is considered as a presidential candidate?
If she was truly sincere about making this country better and improving people’s lives, she would have taken the opportunity during her whirlwind book and speaking tours to visit some of that ‘rill America’ she’s always talking about. Travel around in that bus instead of a fancy private plane we average folks can’t afford.
See what kinds of problems people in towns like the ones you’ve mentioned are dealing with. Talk to people in those elite northeastern towns that have lost industry to foreign countries and see how they’re coping with the loss. Maybe she’d actually…gasp!…LEARN something!
I live in Rochester, which has reinvented itself several times throughout its history. First as a mill town along the Erie Canal, it was known as the Flour City. Farming and nursery-related businesess (along with our famous Lilac Festival) changed the spelling, if not the pronunciation, to the Flower City. Then Kodak, Xerox and Bausch & Lomb became the life blood of the vast majority of residents and our entire city’s economy depended on them, through both industry and philanthropic development. In the past 15 years, the ‘big three’ have laid off tens of thousands of workers and the city is still scrambling to find other ways to support the economy. With a respected technical college (RIT) and many highly trained out-of-work people, some telecommunication and machinery companies have set up offices and factories here, and things are slowly beginning to stabilize. Our history is typical of so many cities throughout the northeast but our issues are very different from those in a state like Alaska.
Unless she makes a real effort to educate herself about the problems of (and show respect for) citizens in ALL parts of the country, she has no business and absolutely no right to criticize those who are actually working to make things better.
Just stared reading ‘The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right’
excerpt from review
“Since the 1990’s, this country has been undergoing…para-fascist tendencies going mainstream as those once on the fringes have begun infecting one of the two major political parties and co-opting conservatism, making of it the paranoiac, reactionary–and, most frighteningly–increasingly violent crew we now hear regularly on Fox News and on talk radio.
Fascism is passionate nationalism, allied to a conspiratorial dualism and a crude Social Darwinism, voiced with resentment toward the forces, or conditions, that restrain “the chosen people.”
I hear Newt Gingrich spouting off about the Left and Secular Socialism.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37489.html
I am far more fearful of Fundamentalist Fascism which is becoming the GOP’s new ‘Contract for America’.
I share your fears.
Maggie Thatcher was a curse on humanity. I have no love for that woman. She cried when she was voted out…..who does that remind you of?
Having said that, I think SP is evil trying to get a photograph with her. She hasn’t recognized her own children in years. The woman is suffering from dementia.
I had no idea about Thatcher. During my 20s and 30s I never paid attention to politics or current events. I was asleep to everything that was happening in the world beyond my own little life.
I’d like to learn more about her. Off to do some digging.
And I agree – $P trying to get this photo op is sickening. I wonder if she had planned to have it happen under the radar and then have it floated to the news outlets.
Google Falklands war. Coal mines and Northern Ireland. She was an ultra b*tch.
You know Palin’s gonna lis and say Mags had a miraculous moment and became lucid while Palin was there. She’ll say Mags annointed her Queen of the US, or some other foolishness to bolster her cred. Poor Mags won’t be able to deny squat.
I agree. Palin’s photo op is shameful.
I still say that when Sarah’s plane touches down in Heathrow—-“release the hounds!”
Word is the daughter has a book about her mother coming out so this may be part of the PR machine for the book.
This is really late for a comment, but “Maggie Thatcher was a curse on humanity” deserves a “true dat”, even if late. What an enormous pile of Tory.
Article from The Guardian , 2009 – “The Making of Maggie ” . The similarities between Thatcher and Palin are rather startling. These are things I had no idea about –
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/apr/11/germaine-greer-margaret-thatcher-anniversary
**** She was fond of saying that she knew her own mind, but that was really all she knew. Certainly she mastered her every brief in astonishing detail, but she used the data as ammunition, pelting her adversaries with assertions they couldn’t counter. She used the same technique to discomfit her civil servants, ambushing them with searching challenges of her own devising. She never defined an overall strategy, developed no theory of the state, had scant regard for democracy, and no scruples whatsoever. Thatcher’s Thatcherism was whatever worked. Thatcherism is now being vilified throughout the English-speaking world as an evil ideology that exalted greed and selfishness to the point of unstringing the sinews of the body politic.****
( h/t to ontohertricks at PG)
Pig headed, yes, cold hearted yes, but Thatcher had intelligence and knew stuff, like the difference between North and South Korea!
just a note from Idaho–the state with the largest ratio of federal owned land to private owned land.
(in the lower 48? or all 50? Does Alaska have 65% of it’s land owned by the federal government?)
Idaho has the largest wilderness area in the lower 48 and that is probably totally underwhelming
compared to Alaska; also probably 4 , 5 or so provinces in N. America. Idaho’s politics is simple.
We’re still Nixon Republicans. I wish it would change but most of us are too busy hiking around our
foothills. Here’s my question– Is Alaska’s politics going all out to out-rival South Carolina’s??
Just a very interesting, rational, and sane article. Gives one pause for a great deal of reflection.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/05/25/f-rfa-macdonald.html#socialcomments
Enjoy it. You deserve it.
BP official admits to damage beneath the sea floor :
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/06/evidence-points-to-destruction-beneath.html
I want to shove this article right in $P’s face and tell her to STFU from here on .
***** Yesterday, recently-retired Shell Oil President John Hofmeister said that the well casing below the sea floor may have been compromised:
[Question] What are the chances that the well casing below the sea floor has been compromised, and that gas and oil are coming up the outside of the well casing, eroding the surrounding soft rock. Could this lead to a catastrophic geological failure, unstoppable even by the relief wells?
John Hofmeister: This is what some people fear has occurred. It is also why the “top kill” process was halted. If the casing is compromised the well is that much more difficult to shut down, including the risk that the relief wells may not be enough. If the relief wells do not result in stopping the flow, the next and drastic step is to implode the well on top of itself, which carries other risks as well.*****
Before we all go off on a freak-out, remember that the blog you linked is putting together the “worst case scenario”.
Note from a commenter:
They don’t know what the “damage” is beneath the sea floor. Perhaps you would like to go dowh there, beneath the sea floor 13,000 ft and make an assessment? Please tell us exactly how you will get there.
BP stated from the beginning that the Relief Well was the only way to get this one under control. The relief well HAS to be drilled to very near the bottom of the blowout. It is the column of mud and the weight of that column that keeps the flow in check. That is how it was done to drill this well and drill almost all wells. The relief well will intercept the blowout, pump weighted drilling mud into it, and reestablish the control. Note that the blowout well WAS under control when drilled, and when the drill string wis tripped out of the hole. The mud had it under control while the casing string was run to the bottom and the cement job pumped. The pressure at TD was about 13,500#, not the 50,000 that Simmons states. The well blew out only when the pressure was reduced by removing some of the mud and causing a pressure reduction. There evidently was some failure of the cement job.
The relief well will intersect the blowout and pump mud into it from the bottom to reestablish the mud column and kill the well. Pump the heavy weight mud at a high rate and it will make the flow heavier and slower, then slower and heavier, then heavier still until the column of mud becomes heavy enough to kill the flow. Then they can pump the cement job again from the bottom, and include any formation sealing / blocking additives that they need to keep it from leaking out.
Simmons has made the claim that the wellhead with the BOP attached has been blown out along with the casing. You can see it on all of the ROV camera feeds. It is in the ground just where it is supposed to be. If 13,000 ft of pipe had been jacked out of the sea floor as Simmons claims, how did no one notice it when it came up through the rig floor? It is nonsense.
All of this speculation reminds me (frighteningly) of the run up to the war in Iraq. Remember all the retired generals weighing in with their opinions?
LoveMyDogs – since I read that article and posted earlier, I’ve been rolling around the ponders. Is it being tossed out as BP propaganda ? Is it bracing us for the very worst so that we feel better when we find out the worst didn’t come to pass ? Or, are there perhaps things going on that we have no clue about and we’re being slowly braced for the news ? Distraction ? Manipulation ? What ?
Right now I don’t trust any of the news coming from anyone. Ok – Maybe Kevin Costner and Cameron. If they can report back directly I’ll listen to them.
But, although one aspect of the article was a worst case scenario, other parts of the article do seem to bring forward information that we’ve not really heard about via MSM.
All of it just makes me tired. Your point is well taken though. ( if I can find the wine, I’ll pass along a glass !)
I think there is a lot going on that none of us (outside of the oil drilling business) have a clue about. That doesn’t mean that it is all hinky, black ops, meant-to-keep-us-in-the-dark stuff. I have been talking to several people who work on drilling rigs and they basically tell me that the present problem with stopping the leak is that the pressure behind the oil (from deep under the earth, in the formation) is too great to stop it with anything other than a relief well. This isn’t their first rodeo with this kind of thing. We’ve been poking holes in the earth for a long time. The guys that I have been talking to smile patiently while they try to explain it in layman’s terms to me. Most everything else that BP has been trying is window dressing in response to a PR disaster and the public screaming for their blood. What disturbs me most is the flying monkeys in the media (and yes that includes $P) who are using this disaster to make political hay. The “experts” that the news puts on, don’t seem to be any different than all of those retired generals supporting GWB’s WOMD, etc.
This, to be fair, includes those of us on the left. We respond emotionally to things that we do not understand and are out of our control. We also have a bit of interest of our own because this is the perfect time to push back against drilling in the oceans and to be looking at alternatives to oil. Sometimes a disaster is what it takes for people to open their eyes.
Thanks for posting this. Very true, in all respects.
I ditto zyxomma, LoveMydogs.
I truly hope POTUS lays out ALL of this [the facts you’ve just presented us] to the nation on Tuesday night. I don’t think the nation’ll be pleased to hear it, but it’s something that we –all of us– need to hear. beth.
(And, speaking of “those retired generals supporting GWB’s WOMD, etc.” I cringe every time I think about them… I curse their blackened hearts. They were *not* ‘giving *their* considered opinion(s)’, they were giving the opinions they’d just gotten from ‘briefings’ on the issue, and passing those talking points off as their own…from ‘their military experience”. What a crock! ! That many of them were asked to ‘comment’ when *they* AND the media *knew* they were *also* being paid (along with being paid retirement by the US Govt) by industries/’think tanks’ that were *pro* invading/*pro*-Saint-GWB, one has to wonder how ‘accurate’ and honest their comments were. Money’ll make people say some mighty strange things — throw in misguided loyalty (to GWB v. to sanity, logic, and the entire nation) and add a fancy military rank –possibly even a beribboned uniform– into the mix, and voila!, instant ‘credibility’ of the pre-packaged and well-choreographed talking points. Bleeck and gaack! Truly despicable, the whole ruddy lot of them. b,)
Funny how articles ‘analyze’ $P and thereby give her ‘credence’… all the while, totally disregarding [among other urgent matters] a) her factual errors, b) her lack of deep (or even anything more than superficial) intellectual thought, c) the base (evangelical/Seven Mountain) from which she comes and to which she wants our nation imposed.
Hell, it’s as if she’s constantly flipping a coin (with a 50-50 chance of ‘picking a winner’) and the media *only* focuses on her flipping… If she picks a winner, isn’t she a brilliant strategist?; if she flops magnificently, (as she is more likely to do, than not) wasn’t she a brilliant strategist when she did pick a winner? The media’s coverage of her, ALL the media, is as superficial as she is; when covering her, their attention span and attention to facts and details, is equally as negligent as hers is.
No wonder she’s riding high – no one in the mainstream media has the balls to really investigate her inconsistencencies, her record, and her bs; none of them seem willing to –or seem capable of– setting the record straight on/with her every blathering, *for* the public. If NBC, ABC, CBS, Yahoo, AP, etc., were doing their job, $P would by now be an entry in history books as the running mate of John McCain in his lost bid to become this nation’s president…*NOTHING* more.
Instead, we get this sort of drivel: “Palin more pragmatic than friends and foes expect” – http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100613/ap_on_el_ge/us_the_palin_effect
It’s enough to make one sick. beth.
By the by, $P… per one of the quotes from you from the above linked article: It’s “milquetoast”, NOT “milk toast”. At least it is for those who’ve read more than four-dozen books in their life (one’s ‘autobiography’ does not count…no matter how many times you, personally, read it) and who actually remembers what they’ve read. Just in case you were wondering… beth.
Quote from the article: “I guess you got co-oped by the milk toast moderates. I thought you were better than that,” she [$P] scolded.
Milquetoast: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-mil1.htm
Actually, the use of “milk toast” was a commenter on Palin’s Facebook page.
From the linked story, the quote, in context:
“Man, what a terrible choice in Iowa, Sarah,” Meghan Swella wrote on Palin’s Facebook wall after the former Alaska governor announced her support for Terry Branstad in last week’s gubernatorial primary. “I guess you got co-oped by the milk toast moderates. I thought you were better than that,” she scolded.
My bad – I read the first part [the paragraph] as what Swella wrote on $Ps wall and I read the second part [the line sollowing the break in text/paragraph] as SPs tsk-tsking of Swella. Good catch, KarenJ; thank you. Again, my bad – sorry. beth.
— I use to be a blonde. Could I chalk the misreading up to that? Or maybe I’ve just read too much of $Ps garbageosity and didn’t bat an eyelash –or second guess/look– that that would be a response she’d make… 😉 b.
*following* the break… b.
Oh, SouthPaw….good one. It is soooooo obvious that SP’s Girls have blossomed since that video…..she’s flat as the proverbial pancake! And now ? Yikers.
I just had a thought –
Dya think Camp Crazy is going to attempt arranging a meeting between $P and someone at BP while she’s in the UK ?
oh absolutely Buff.
$P PRE-BOOB JOB…video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuNjEE4BqzE
…and AFTER…she is such a liar..but we know that don’t we!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/09/sarah-palin-breast-implan_n_606596.html
I dunno – I’m still guessing that she was wearing a big ol’ padded bra. But even so, that would mean she purposely chose to enhance herself and wear a tight tshirt as she was dressing to go out in public where media would be waiting to get you on film. You only make a choice like that if you’re looking for very specific attention.
Oh – and she lobbed this tweet while on her road trip, heading home :
Todd@wheel thru Edmonton;much developmnt/on-shore energy production here;USA needs more land open,ramp it up,don’t halt Gulf oil/gas activty
about 2 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®
I loathe teh Palin.
I agree with you. I think she targeted her chest and reloaded her bra.
This reminds me of a bad movie when a little girl stuffs her bra to get attention. Come of Palin, atleast admit that whatever you do is going to be addressed. She missed the opportunity to make another bumper sticker. “Elect a boob instead of an elite!!!”
She just does NOT get it. Oil companies have leases for exploration outside of ANWR up here that they have not touched. It would take 10-15 years before they could start drilling in ANWR. And for 2% of the oil that we presently consume daily, that is crazy talk. I say the same to our Congresspeople and would-be congresspeople. What really flips my lid about all of this is the constant spewing of “jobs for Alaskans”. BS I say. Yes, there are Alaskans working on the North Slope. There are also a whole bunch of people from out of state (TX, OK, Louisiana to name a few) who come up here, work for 2 weeks (where all of their needs are taken care of-food, clothing, shelter, etc). They buy nothing, contribute nothing to our economy. There is no state income tax so they don’t even pay taxes. It’s a good old boys club where brothers, sons and nephews and brothers and nephews of friends get hired and promoted (regardless of their qualifications). It is not about Alaska or Alaskans.
She is a whore for big oil just like our mainstream media is a whore for ratings.
Yeah, when I read that I twittered back, “@SarahPalinUSA — Remember when you as Gov Allowed Hugo Chavez to Fuel Alaska with Terrorist-Tarred Oil? #sarahpalin #oilspill #BP”
When you really notice the difference (whether it’s padding or implants, doesn’t really matter) is when she stands up in that video. She was an nice size, very proportioned with the rest of her body. But the photo in the tight white shirt with the black bra shows a considerable enhancement. And yes, one would only select that particular outfit to show them off.
BTW, that latest tweet just shows that she is really an idiot. She’s like a pitbull all right – she’s gotten hold of the “more oil” bone and she’s not letting it go, even with the disaster all over the news. I can’t believe she is still stupid enough to say that, but then, that’s Palin for ya.
There are, apart from padded push-up bras that make any chest look like that of a 1950s mannequin (inflated-looking breasts without nipples), silicon forms that add at least a cup size (it used to be one of those as-seen-on-tv products), as well as small “chicken cutlet” forms that when placed under the breast give it volume & lift (kind of like a titty-bumpit).
Also, too, recovery from breast implants (according to a nurse I know who left the ER after 15 years to work as a private duty nurse attending plastic surgery patients post-op) involves drains, bandages, and more. Has Sarah been out of the spotlight for long enough to have not only surgery, but post-op recovery? Perhaps, but I doubt it. I think she enhanced herself externally. The boob made herself a bigger boob, but I don’t think she did it surgically. Wonderbra. Black Wonderbra. Worn with an inappropriate V-neck tee to Belmont, where she should have worn something from the trash bag in the belly of the plane, if you know what I mean. You know, something with class, like that Valentino number. She could even have gotten away with a big corsage; it would not have been out of place. Instead, she & Todd showed up like the Beverly Wasillabillies attired for one of Track’s high school hockey games that she pretended to attend.
I think she just found out about that petition going around to use her to plug the oil leak. It’s a new set of water wings.
(sorry I’m on a roll)
Now.. let me get this straight…
“Foisting the likes of SARAH PALIN on the American People”… ((check))
“Insisting on PERPETUATING the worst environmental DISASTER in our HISTORY“ … ((check)))
“Denying their OWN people extended Unemployment Benefits…” ((check))
“Enabling & CHEERING hecklers in the Gallery of the House of Representatives & ENDANGERING Capitol police in the process … ((check))
“Enabling & CHEERING as teabaggers SPIT & hurl racist & homophobic epithets at Members of CONGRESS” … ((check))
“LYING outright to the American People regarding pending legislation” … ((check))
Holding up Ambassadors & hurting foreign policy”… ((check))
“Holding up the appointment of the TSA chief during a time of heightened airport security”…. ((check))
“Voting AGAINST Consumer Protection”…. ((check))
“Voting unanimously against Wall Street Reform”…. ((check))
“Blocking HCR despite the popular mandate”… ((check))
“Blocking limits on Credit Card Interest Rates”… ((check))
“Denying their OWN people extended Unemployment Benefits AGAIN”… ((check))
“Voting against the Democratic GI Bill providing college educations for Iraq Vets”… ((check))
“Voting against Franken’s RAPE Bill”… ((check))
“Belittling your OWN COUNTRY when your President receives the most PRESTIGIOUS AWARD in the world on YOUR BEHALF”… ((check))
“CHEERING the loss of thousands of AMERICAN jobs & BILLIONS in revenue when the IOC decided to go to Rio instead”…. ((check))
“Obstructing HHS & allowing a void in the chain of command during a HEALTH CRISIS”… ((check))
etc etc etc…
Don’t forget trying to block a bill to increase the cap on financial liability for companies causing ecological disasters…..((check))
Or basically saying NO to everything that would help anyone besides themselves and the corporate fat cats, even if it was THEIR ideas in the first place!…((check))
Amazing list, isn’t it? As you imply, it goes on and on and on, When will the majority of people say “enough,” and demand that the Republicans start working on behalf of the American people instead of against them?
The Tea Party is not the answer. They want all the benefits of a government, but none of the hassles. They are like children who want to be able to do what they want, they way they want to when they want it to happen. It is split into so many factions because none of them want to make compromises. Governing is all about compromise, of working towards a viable balance of competing interests, of protecting the minority while allowing the majority to select the path. It is never perfect, but it is practical if everyone understands that their rights do not outweigh the rights of others.
Hopefully, we will grow up as a nation and as individual citizens, accepting that for every right we demand or are given, we have a corresponding responsibility – to ourselves, to each other and to our country. Why is it so difficult for people to embrace the idea that “we are all in this together. We sink or swim as one.”
Great list, SouthPaw. I bet if we listed all the obstructionist moves of the past 18 months, we would be stunned at long that list became – and that would just be on the federal level!
Here’s the link exposing/explaining the *real* roots of the Tea Party (or, as Keith Olbermann calls them, “the something for nothing crowd.” Without Koch Industries funding them, there would probably be no teabaggers.
http://www.alternet.org/world/147124/tea_party_flacks_are_drill%2C_baby%2C_drill_messengers_too/
Whenever something really awful happens in this country (apart from natural disasters), the same oily crowd always seems to be behind it.
The Koch’s also sell many grocery store products that I will not buy. Certain toliet paper, paper towel’s etc.. There is a list out there somewhere.
Teapartiers are a dangerous group. Ignoring the facts, misquoting the constitution, and making up bizarre “plots”, they exert too much political pressure to ignore, yet they are not informed enough to be taken seriously. They are being manipulated into creating a diversion from meaningful conversation that could solve actual problems by collaboration.
Koch just had to wind’em up and pointed them at the cameras.
also, too…great poster and/or bumper sticker…love it!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32527116@N06/4688455739/
Love it!
It could also read “Dope”
Perfect!
“…Taking more from the Producers”…Yikes watch out Hollywood!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDhyvwsOaPM&feature=player_embedded
Great video!
Well, we all know that our dear Ms. Quittypants never let a silly fact get in the way of a good soundbite spew.
Thatcher’s connection to the privatization of BP should go a long way toward explaining to the 1/2 wit 1/2 governor’s followers how it’s all good now.
Forget $arah Palin…McCain has a new BFF
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/06/mccainsnooki-2012-forget-sarah-palin-mccain-has-new-partner.html
apparently gramps is attracted to know-nothing, bump-it headed bimbos.
Now, now. Snooki went on TV with Wendy Williams and proved to the world that it’s all her hair; no Bumpit. It’s just full of air, like the inside of her head, also, too.
That must be the supersized bump-it! Snooki will be a better partner for McCain, she’s much more articulate then Sarah.
I am upset with the news media , including Cnn, on BP’s oil spill. I don’t know what more they want of our president. Tearing him down, is not the answer to the problem. He —the president–can not stop the oil leak. It seems as though, people want instant results. This is one time, that this problem needs time, and it we will have to depend on BP to solve it. With all the millions of barrels of oil that is spreading onto our beaches and destroying everthing in its path, will take time .
There was a time that I remember, that we did not have fast food places. We were the generation that cooked our food at home. Now, it seems, people want instant service.
If these people lived in the days when one didn’t have indoor plumbing, they would understand that it takes time and manual labor to get their life in order.
Hopefully , we can give our President credit for doing his best to solve this problem. Also, to leave politics out of the equation.
I pray for the people who have had their livehoods destroyed. Just as I pray for the people who have lost their jobs, when companies have closed down, and their jobs went south.
And last of all, we can thank God that McCain and Palin are not in office.
LacyLady: I so agree with you. It is so hard to be patient when all that oil is doing so much damage. However, the important thing is to STOP THE LEAK. If all of the energy that was going into pointing fingers and blaming was put into efforts to stop the leak, it might have been done by now. The time for pointing fingers and blaming is after, not during, the crisis. Big Oil cut corners, the MMS let them. Everyone is corrupt. Now, fix the leak. Get the smartest people in the world together and figure it out. If you can’t do that, you shouldn’t be drilling off-shore. It sickens and amazes me that there was no contingency plan for this. They hit the mother lode and have no idea how to get it under control. Mother earth is speaking. We need to listen instead of shouting.
And you are so right that President Obama cannot stop the leak. His job is to assess the damage and figure out what the people of the gulf need to weather this storm and send as much help as he can. BP needs to get with some really smart people and figure out how to stop the leak. When your plumbing goes bad and water (or worse) is spilling all over your floor and flooding your house you call a plumber, you don’t expect the mailman to come in and fix it without any tools. If the plumber can’t fix it, call another (better) plumber. If you continuously yell at the plumber and threaten to sue him while he is trying to do his job, he will be so busy covering his butt that he won’t be able to do his job.
There will be plenty of time (years and years) to sort through the blaming and finger pointing. Right now, they need to stop the leak and try to get this horror cleaned up before hurricane season or people in the entire south (and perhaps north) will be dealing with it spread all over the country.
Don’t get me wrong. I am mad that it happened. I am crying for the people who depend on the gulf for their livlihoods and the ecosystem that is being so horribly damaged. But the most important thing at this point is to Stop The Leak. If we foul our oceans, we are done.
“When your plumbing goes bad and water (or worse) is spilling all over your floor and flooding your house you call a plumber, you don’t expect the mailman to come in and fix it without any tools.”
Best analogy I’ve heard yet!
I second that.
AKM, also, too, have a relaxing weekend.
yeah AKM have a nice weekend…but where is our picture? there is no picture on top. we can’t has no nice weekend without we has our picture!!!!
bubbles, here’s your picture for a nice end to the weekend…especially if you like to fly fish…
🙂
http://img706.imageshack.us/i/summergreen.jpg/
I agree the President is in a tough spot. But I must admit, that I did want him to show emotion. And that was simply empathy i.e. a hug or something. He moved me when he was running for President, so I expected him to come up with a speech that would emote empathy for the people of the gulf. I think that he is in a tough situation of riding that rainbow of hope and change. I think he is awesome but this just bugged me a bit. And I realize that he isn’t Superman and can’t plug the hole. One thing about the coverage- “Atleast it shows that regardless if you are Republican or Dem, you will be held accountable. If there is a Republican President in the future- he/she might be smart to realize that what goes around comes around and (they will be held accountable!) The way it should be.” No President hopeful is safe from critics.
The media being what it is these days, none of us really know whether or not moments showing the President hugging a Gulf resident or two or dozens have been excised from the videos available…
oh absolutely….also the President has been busy trying to get more unemployment benefits for those in need…. empathy is a quality that acts. sympathy can be shown or expressed in a card or words or a photo. empathy is a deeper feeling that causes a human to be able to ‘feel’ what another ‘feels’ and then to act.
totally agree. Am tired of hearing tv news media “guests” yacking on and on, criticizing the effort, blaming the President. A spill this size, and the ungoing leakage is going to take weeks, if not months of expertise, mechanical research. Don’t think people are aware how time-consuming it is to get huge equipment delivered into that area, by land or sea. Getting qualified staff, giving them safety classes before they go out there and dig in…….the logistics of this clean-up alone is going to need patience. All the while sending oil rig experts, engineers, working around the clock, while trying to prevent affecting other rigs nearby………huge undertaking that can’t just be done in a blink of any eye
Was watching a news clip of the sandy beach on the Gulf, reporter was giving his delivery while in the background one could see workers cleaning, picking up oil clumps off the sand; couldn’t believe my eyes when a few feet away two sunbathers were lying on the beach soaking in the rays.
Looked so unreal.
I echo your frustration about the criticism being hurled at the President. Although I do believe that, since the beginning, he should have been sharing more information with the public about what was going on, I have no doubt that he has marshalled the best and brightest minds to deal with the situation.
While it is unfortunate that we are forced to depend on the company that caused the disaster to be trustworthy enough to fix it, it is absurd to think that anyone in Washington would have a better chance of stopping this thing than people in the oil business. As the POTUS and Admiral Allen have said many times, the oil companies have the equipment and expertise that our government simply does not. Even our military, as wonderful as it is, is not trained or equipped to deal with this type of tragedy beyond what it is already doing.
It infuriates me that the MMS has apparently been allowed to continue the shoddy practices started under the oil-friendly Bush administration. However, I recognize that the President had several major military and economic disasters to take care of first, and has not yet had the time to focus on repairing all the damage done by the previous administration to every single agency.
Based on his historical willingness to seek advice from respected experts in fields beyond his own personal experience, I trust that the President has been working with the brightest and most creative minds he could find to solve this problem. I am relieved to hear of the next steps he plans to take in regard to insuring that BP follows through on their promises to pay for their damage and the independent commission he wants to handle claims more rapidly and objectively. I hope that the perception of him merely sitting around and casually chatting with scientists can be changed as he shows more visible ‘boots on the ground’ control of the situation.
It is a catastrophe that will undoubtedly continue to affect our country for years to come. I hope that government and private business can find a way to work together to resolve it as soon as possible and minimize the pain to the people and the environment of the Gulf.
I also second your thought that this would have been a far worse disaster if the election in 2008 had gone the other way. McCain would have likely turned to his ‘energy expert’ to take the lead in the response…and that possibility should give us all nightmares!
If you get a chance today to watch Fareed Zakaria, the last rill journalist, he devotes the first five minutes to the idiocy of the media in the oil spill coverage and how the president is/isn’t showing enough emotion. Beside the fact that he has a whole country to run, with economic and employment problems to stay focused on, there are a number of world conflicts to keep up with. Do we really care the he is wearing ‘fancy pants’ and not emoting enough? Good grief.
Carville took a shot at him the other day. Not literally.
Carville…blechhh!
Thanks, I’ll have to watch that online.
I used to like him when he was on another show (This Week, maybe?) but I haven’t watched him in a while. He’s very smart and always has some good insight into political ‘stuff’!
Fareed Zakari is indeed one of the last journalists with integrity and depth. Christiane Amanpour is another. I thought CNN treated her badly, but CNN seems intent upon becoming more an entertainment channel rather than a news network.
I miss Ted Turner at the helm of CNN. He has his faults, but they were mostly personal and did not extend to color the accurate and full reporting of events – including the causes and consequences.
Whenever I tune into CNN, MSNBC or broadcast news either local or national, I am dismayed to find the same footage and same sound bites running repeatedly. Whenever the news “hosts” start chitchatting or giggling, I turn it off. What a waste of time the current style of “reporting” is with clueless hosts ranting their personal opinions and interesting but useless input from twitter and facebook and emails. I can ask my friends and family or forums on the blog for opinions, I look to newscast to give in-depth background and facts as well as “as it is happening updates.”
Sorry to rant about this, but really Fareed, Christiane and Rachel really seem to be our only hope of getting thorough coverage of events and issues. There should be more like them.
Ooops – guess I have to modify my comments about Fareed. I agree, before CNN started changing his approach, he was one of the best. I, too, have noticed a difference. At least he still recommends books to his audience – honest books, not self-promoting trash like Beck does.
Personally, I don’t want my President on the verge of tears or ranting about the oil spill. I’m doing that, and so are a lot of others. However, none of my tears or ranting has had any positive effect so far, except that it makes me feel better. I’m much happier to have our President being presidential – calm, intelligently trying to solve a horrible situation.
And I am getting tired of hearing the yappers on TV criticize him because he isn’t emoting like Glenn Beck or yelling like Limbaugh, which is, I guess, what they want to see. None of that solves the problem. And in a crisis the last thing anyone needs is to have someone start yelling along side them.
Think about when a toddler falls and gets a skinned knee and starts to cry. If the adult nearby goes into a frenzy, the kid will cry harder; if the adult remains calm and reassuring, the child quickly calms down and then can be taken care of.
Would that the problems in the Gulf were so easily handled. But the point is, someone has to show some methodical and clear thinking. It’s unfortunate that we aren’t getting any of that kind of reassurance from the idiot CEO at BP either. Now, there’s someone who needs to lose his job (and benefits) when this is over – and my guess is that he will.
bless you Pat…. i concur whole heartedly.
Agree with you about emoting being overrated and overstated. It’s a political meme and not something that real people in the Gulf care about. I also agree that Pres. Obama cannot fix the leak and it’s ridiculous to be hounding him to “be down there” and “get some boots on” and other photo-op-y stuff which doesn’t solve anything. There are so many bad things going on and he’s been required to dig us out of so many holes that the mess in the MMS wasn’t on his radar screen. I’m very disappointed in Sec. Salazar for not taking a more aggressive approach to cleaning up his agency. He needs to be replaced, but there’s no sense in making him a sacrificial lamb right now.
However, as much as I still like and hope for the Pres. to do well, I must admit that I’m with Rachel with regard to the clean-up efforts in the Gulf. So we can’t stop the leak, we do have the technology, low tech as it is, to do a much better job of preventing the oil from reaching shore. The footage she’s shown of boom snagged in the marshes and floating fruitlessly around without being pegged is heartbreaking. This is both an equipment and people problem. The Pres. needs to delploy a LOT more people, hundreds of thousands of people, to be sure the boom is placed properly, tended and maintained. We need small crews replaced frequently cleaning up actual spillage on the sand (they can’t work very long due to toxins so you need many more people to do the job).
Finally, so BP can’t get bigger tankers to the site until Late July, what about other oil companies? Maybe Conoco or Exxon or someone has tankers closer in which they can lend to the effort to allow BP to extract more oil from the bloody break. It would be in their best interest to cooperate and help salvage the reputation of deep water drilling if they hope to get approved to ever do it again.
That’s the kind of leadership I expect from the President or his designee Adm. Allen. Let’s get on it!
LaceyLady, you spoke wisely. I wish your maturity were more widespread. You look at a problem and see it in a long-term context as well as acknowledging its short-term reality. We really need more leaders who have this ability to think calmly about both short-term and long-term consequences. We need leaders who remind us of our need to plan ahead, to sacrifice in small ways now to avoid catastrophes later.
I came of age in the late sixties and early seventies. Even though we lived in the largest city in our state, our house was not connected to a sewer system. We had both a septic tank and an outhouse. When the septic tank overflowed, there was a huge mess to deal with, and it taught us firsthand about the need to conserve and think about the consequences of how we handled water and waste so I agree with you that today’s lifestyles are often divorced from the real nuts and bolts of living. Our taxes provide systems and pay people to take care of our basic needs such as sewage, drinking water (we also had a well as a backup to the city water supply which sometimes didn’t work), trash removal (we had to burn most in a 55-gallon bucket and tote the rest off to the dump ourselves once a month), and other basic aspects of daily life.
Most people today simply do not understand how complex and time-consuming handling just the basics of life can be. My mother had to use a wringer-washing machine and hang our clothes on the line year-round. I’ve never had to do that and would feel overwhelmed if I did.
You are so right when you say, we need to step back and be realistic about the enormity of the problem at all levels. The simple physical aspects and transportation elements, let alone the man hours and brute strength it is taking to do some of these tasks in the Gulf is staggering. Anyone who has done hard physical labor knows the truth of “things take time.” Thank you for reminding us to get a grip and think things through.
The media is showing the horrific photos which we all need to see, on the other hand, it is not really showing us the enormity of the response.
My Dad just got back from Louisiana and said there were thousands of workers there on boats skimming the waters, some were fisherman and some were not. The workers are living in big “camps” along with the National Guard. There has been a hugh response, we just don’t see alot of that on t.v. for whatever reason.
I must say, the 11 families, the oil coated animals and the out of work fisherman are what breaks my heart, but I certainly don’t blame the President.
Now if he doesn’t take this experience and rethink the expanded off-shore drilling then I will be deeply disappointed.
I signed up as a volunteer through Audabon, but it looks like they really need people who are trained in oil clean-up and in taking care of the animals. It very clearly said in the response that I got that people who are not trained/certified can do much more damage than good, no matter how good their intentions are.
About all I’m qualified to do is computer work, which I will gladly do if they give me a time frame or a suggested job. It seems they are also looking right now for people to volunteer who actually live in the Gulf region rather than the rest of us who would have to fly to get there and then find some place to stay. But that is something else I’m willing to do if I can be of any help – unlike many others, my time is available and fairly flexible. So, I’m still waiting.
In the meantime, I plan to make another donation.
This is a nice list to see!
http://philanthropy.com/article/More-Than-4-Million-Donated/65884/
Thank your dad. That had to be hard, filthy, backbreaking, heartrending work. I’m glad to hear there’s such a large response. I hope they’re wearing respirators to go along with the Tyvek suits and rubber boots.
So True. Even the Army Corps of Engineers can’t stop a deep water well disaster. NO gov entitiy can, only the oil companies have the expertise so we have no choice but to let them do it and they do want to stop it, I firmly believe they would feel they have much to lose.
Once again, Sarah is using a mentally-incapacitated person to her own ends. First, it was Trig, now Thatcher. I simply do not know why Thatcher’s caretakers are allowing this to happen. Must have been paid handsomely to set-up the photo op. I doubt Thatcher has a clue who Sarah is or what she is trying to do.
I was never a fan of Reagan or Thatcher, but, the Brit Iron-Lady in her prime would probably never have agreed to meeting this grifter.
I wonder if Sarah will make a photo op tour of all the places President Obama visited when he was a candidate. Her jealousy of him knows no bounds. She will try to one-up if she can, but the attempt will hopefully embarrass her. I’ve read that right-wing evangelicals have been gaining some ground in Europe, particularly France. However, I still feel confident that most Europeans are sophisticated and educated enough not to be taken in by her smile and wink. Boobies are not so powerful there either, so Sarah may finally have to rely upon her wit. LOL.
If she really wants to be like Reagan, she should visit a WW II grave site and talk about her memories liberating Europe. Of course, when Reagan forgot that he had never actually done that (except in movies) it was just early dementia. Not sure what SP’s excuse would be.
She venerates RR, so her excuse would be “rill early dementia” also too.
Well, don’t forget all her ties to Canada, going over the border for medical care and such. And then there was that speech she gave that seemed a bit underwhelming.
Are there people in Europe that even remember who she is? Surely she doesn’t have the same cult following outside the US. If so, I’m really worried about the rest of the world. There are all sorts of better people to adore.
We are finally having a whole weekend of lovely weather. I think the last time we did was almost a month ago. It’s so nice to see the sun shining for a change.
There are fundies in England. They don’t get as much traction because of Europe’s history of religious intolerance and wars so they know what happens when the religious get too much power, but England does have some fundies.
Sunday Funnies
If The Post-Impressionists Were Dentists
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/06/if-the-impressionists-were-dentists.html
Sarah Palin is hoping to visit London and get her picture taken with Margaret Thatcher. (No matter that Thatcher is suffering from dementia and doesn’t know who Sarah is). People say that Sarah wants to cloak herself in the mantle of Ronald Reagan. So, I would also suggest that Sarah visit Berlin, stand in front of the Berlin wall, shake her fist and demand that they tear it down again. (What, are you telling me that there is no wall?)
We owe it to Sarah to think up other significant places to visit and people with whom to be photographed, because this will polish her Reagan credentials and count towards her international experience. (All that she has so far is visiting the troops, a refueling stop, and Russia). My first suggestion is to visit France to resume her conversation with Sarkozy. Please add to Sarah’s international whistle stop tour.
In the ’08 election young people were a significant force in mobilizing and getting out the vote. That demographic was key to the election and I imagine will be again in ’12. So please explain why $P’s handlers are trying to connect her to Reagan and Thatcher? These people are irrelevant as far as today’s politics and will not resonate with young voters. She might as well have her picture taken with the dinosaurs. Not to mention that with time the glow from Reagan’s presidency has diminished and we are clearly able to see the negative effect of many of his policies. This makes no sense to me and I think Paylin will look like a fool. Again.
SSSSSSHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Don’t give her any pointers !!!!! 🙂 chortle.. Maybe they’ll elect her to the House of Commons over there !!!! ( although she’d prefer to be in the House of Lords ! )
My kids have absolutely no idea who Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher were/are, so I agree, don’t know how relevant a picture would be for the younger generation of voters. Even I, who would have voted for Reagan if I hadn’t been stuck in the wilderness of Katmai during the election, am amazed by the footage of Reagan when he was in office. I always think, my god that man was too old to be president! I imagine an 18 to 25 year old is even more amazed, seeings how he most likely reminds them of great grandpa who they go visit at the nursing home.
This visit to Thatcher reminds me of my mom’s cousin, who arranged to have his mother and my great aunt get together for lunch. They were both suffering from dementia, and kept up an hour long conversation that made absolutely no sense to anyone else there. He said he felt like Alice attending one of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Parties. But the women both enjoyed themselves immensely!
Perhaps Palin (who never makes a lick of sense when she opens her mouth even in the best of health) and Thatcher (who began suffering from dementia in 2000) will have their own Mad Hatter Tea Party?
The problem is, they don’t remember, so they will buy into the soundbites and have no knowledge of the negative to counter that.
You know, Mikhail Gorbachev is still alive. Any odds on that one?
And yes, as an Alaskan of 21 years, Palin continues to find new ways to embarrass me.
Sarah is gearing to run for President in 2012. Maybe waiting a little. My guess is that she will run as an Independent. Stating: “I am a conservative at heart but the country is middle right.” By keeping “right” but somewhat in the middle road- like Todd, she can do the best for her people. If she does not win in 2012, she can then endorse the Republican values which still adhere to the real solution in getting the country back for flag loving Americans. Don’t underestimate her role. Therefore, why the Republicans are letting her gain more power. They want to use her then toss her under the bus. But, I think Palin will be the one tossing under the bus.
Remember when everyone wanted Oprah to run? Celebrity can move people to vote. The bigger problem is that the Republicans did not toss her earlier. And therefore, their hopes to live off of the Palin Power may come back to haunt them. (Be careful what you wish for).
“I don’t care if she is running because I will never vote/and only see her causing a split of votes in the Republican party. She is too polarizing and only has other countries to take on now. But if people see the President not fulfilling his promises- and women don’t read up on her record… funnier things have happened. I agree with Chris Matthews. Let’s just hope NOT!”
I suggest she visit the border of South Korea and North Korea. Once there, she should take one itsy, bitsy step over the line. There will be plenty of “dignitaries” there to meet her along with free room and board.
MaeLewis….. i would love to see her take her road trip on to Baghdad to chat with President Talabani of Iraq. then a quick stop to admonish Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Christianity and judaism. then on to Dubai so she can bask on the beach and show them new teetees and do some shopping. next stop on her international show, Afganistan and Pakistan, where she will singlehandedly kick ass and take names. let us not leave out Israel. sarah can start Armeggeddon and appoint herself as general to the forces of Gog and/ or Magog. then she can come to New York where we will throw her a parade down Broadway (the avenue of heroes). good old sarah. our hero.
…and, of course, when SHE uses the term “kick ass”, the pundits will think it’s cute and so “mama grizzly”, not rude, impotent, and unpresidential like they’ve accused President Obama…
Bubbles, Be careful, Quittypants and the Palinbots might think you are one of them and get all excited. LOL
Where did you hear she wanted to meet Margaret Thatcher? I don’t follow her on twitter or FB.
Sarah’s ability to prove herself an idiot amazes me, but not as much as her followers. sigh.. I hope she goes away. Far, far, away…
There’s a link of yesterday’s open thread.
Thank you!