America by Heart – Chapter 1, We the People (Part 1 of 2)
OK, I’m saying it flat out. This chapter was crap. It was like a crap sandwich, only the bread was also crap. Crap on crap with a side of crap. I read it in one sitting and I kept checking ahead to see how many pages were left. I pet the dog, I reclined on the couch with a big pillow and still I could feel my blood pressure creeping up like the mercury in the thermometer of a flu victim. Actually by the end I sort of did feel like a flu victim.
I don’t know who actually wrote this swill, but it obviously wasn’t her, or anything close to her. It was a hideous conservative screed, punctuated with “like my Dad used to say” or “I remember when I was a little girl and…” just to make you think it’s plausible that it might have been written by her, if you allowed yourself to believe for one flat second that she’s ever even remotely thought about anything contained in this chapter.
O, ye who doubt that the facile and intellectually curious mind of Sarah Palin was pondering and researching the demise of the Soviet Union as a new mother with an infant baby … read on.
[My internal mutterings in red, direct quotes from the book in quotation marks, and the rest is my summary including snark, sarcasm and utter disbelief]
Page 1 – When she was elected Governor, a friend gave her a picture of Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It hung on her office wall when she was in Juneau, and today it hangs on her office wall in Wasilla. “Call it corny, but Mr. Smith is one of my favorite movies.”(Hmmm. I don’t remember the part where Jefferson Smith quit halfway through his term, and traveled the country making millions in a book deal and promoting divisiveness. But thanks for ruining the movie for me anyway.)
Page 2– More Mr. Smith. It’s hopey and changey and full of idealism, and eventually Mr. Smith “defeats the machine.” She just bets that all those “Hollywood hotshots think movies like Mr. Smith are sappy and uncool, foolish sentimentalism about a country they seem to prefer to run down rather than build up.” Yeah, she bets that’s what they think, because as we all know Hollywood types are rich elite liberals and they’re all bad people who hate movies about hope and optimism. (Wait a minute… I’m a leftist type and I like that movie. How can this be? Oh, that’s right. This book isn’t meant for people who can debunk stereotypes. It’s meant for those who want to have them reinforced. I almost forgot.)
Page 3 – More Mr. Smith. She talks about her favorite scene. Smith is trying to get a loan from the federal government, and… (HOLD the phone. A loan from the federal government? SOCIALISM! Why isn’t he just working hard and saving up? Where are his bootstraps? Why is he spending beyond his means? Huh?) he wants it so he can build a boy’s camp on some land where the corrupt politicos in the state are trying to build a dam.(So now all of a sudden her bestest favoritist movie of all time has a hero who wants to get a federal loan to build a camp on land he wants to preserve and save from private sector resource developers. Really. What would she think if he was trying to build a boys camp on the site of …. I dunno… Pebble Mine? ANWR?)
Page 4– Let’s be clear about Mr. Smith. He doesn’t want to build a boy’s camp so that they can “discover their inner selves or learn to worhip Mother Earth.” No siree. This camp will produce young men who are capable of living a life of freedom, endowed to them by their Creator. (Not Mother Earth, the other one.)
Then there’s a nice speech from Jimmy Stewart’s character that says “I wouldn’t give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn’t have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a little lookin’ out for the other fella, too.” (Lookin’ out for the other fella? Gee, I thought that was socialist too. Like Medicare and Social Security, and the VA, and Welfare. That other fella oughtta just suck it up and not expect handouts like Jimmy Steward asking for federal loans.)
Page 5– We’re finally over Mr. Smith, thank goodness, before I have an aneurysm. Now she contemplates the fall of the Soviet empire which captivated her imagination when she was a young mother with her first baby. For her entire life, apparently, she’d been told by the “propaganda mouthpieces of the Communist regimes” and some of the free world too, that Soviet communism was the way of the future. We were all told (she says) about how great communism was and how much more just and democratic it was than our own system of government. We were told it promised equality and happiness for all. Remember that? (I don’t either. I kind of thought we were all taught to fear communism. McCarthy and those guys… but I guess Sarah never read about that.)
Page 6 – We were all told that America was the authoritarian state, not Russia and China. They were all about the right to work, and equality. America was the bad guy. That’s what we learned. (Nope, I don’t seem to recall that either. Russia IS really close to Alaska… maybe she got lost and showed up at the wrong school?)
Back to Reagan again who explained that those countries really didn’t have freedom, it just said they did in their constitution but they were really not free.
Page 7 – Reagan says that the difference in the two constitutions is that ours starts “We the People.”
If government can grant you a right, it can also take that right away. But our rights are God given and so, apparently, nobody can take them away? (Unless they do. Think Patriot Act, FISA, TSA…)
Page 8 – She remembers memorizing the preamble to the Constitution watching Schoolhouse Rock at a friend’s house. (Hey, I memorized the preamble to the Constitution watching Schoolhouse Rock, but I’m a progressive. I don’t understand… Aren’t I supposed to hate the Constitution? Maybe the mystery will be revealed later. And thanks for killing Schoolhouse Rock, too.)
What struck her most about her travels is that Americans really love their country. (Shocking.)
Page 9 – “Everyone claims to love the Founders of course. But so many of our so-called academic and cultural elite talk out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to the founding. They pay lip service to revered American figures such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson at the same time that they bad-mouth the principles they stood for.”
(So, let me get this straight. The people who study up on this stuff and become historians and college professors and scholars only CLAIM to love the Founders. So, if you’re really unpatriotic and hate the founders and America, then dedicate your life to studying about it and reading it all. Now, I understand….)
“They think the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are just documents written by old white men to benefit other old white men. To really have a just and equal society, they argue, we have to change the documents, update them for the times, and make them no longer mean what the Americans who wrote them intended them to mean. Either that or we have to ignore them altogether.”
(I wonder if they’re talking about how only white male landowners [old white men] could vote? Or how slaves were counted as 3/5 of a person? Or how women couldn’t vote? Could THAT be it? Yeah, let’s go back to the good ol’ days when people were free!)
“No government can – or should try to – change our fundamental human nature. Deliverance is for the next life.(Ummm. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Defense of Marriage Act, Abortion… If deliverance is for the next life, does that mean you’re finally going to quit making this stuff an issue?)
Page 10
Huge citation from the Declaration of Independence. (Which I’m supposed to want to mow down)
Page 11
The Declaration of Independence gives her chills. We are all equal in the eyes of our Creator, who also gave birth to this country.
Page 12
We believe in freedom, but not the kind of freedom that says “whatever feels good, just do it”
“It’s the kind of freedom that says Don’t Tread on Me.”
Page 13
The “wrongheaded beliefs” that the founding documents are bad can now be seen coming from our universities, our high school textbooks, and even our churches.
(The only one we can believe any more is Sarah! Save us, Sarah, save us!!! Save us from the higher learning and books!)
Barack Obama wants to redistribute wealth. Quotes an interview he gave in 2001.
Page 14
Barack Obama must be one of those sneaky elite university brainiac types that CLAIMS to love the Constitution, and became a Constitutional scholar and law professor, but he really doesn’t get it. She’s the one who understands what the Constitution is all about. Don’t forget that. She learned everything she needed to know at Wasilla High, and five colleges somewhere NOT on the East Coast.
Page 15
The Supreme Court has too much power. They can even keep the government from making choices about your reproductive health! (Hypocrisy Alert!) The government apparently should have every right to combat “human nature” and tell you what to do with your uterus. This is only because the people who appoint liberal judges make sure they are activist judges. The conservative ones are the good ones. Conservative judges, apparently vote properly on stuff like Citizens United v. the FEC, and Bush v. Gore and Baker v. Exxon? (I hate this page)
Page 16
Reprint of the oath taken by Supreme Court judges. “Progressives want Supreme Court justices who will violate their oath of office.” (Yes, that is a direct quote.) Empathy may be nice, but it’s not what we want in our judges. No mercy. “After all, one person’s empathy may be another person’s antipathy.” (Oh, she is so erudite!)
Page 17
Take a deep breath…
“It’s no accident that progressives view the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as obstacles to be mowed down or maneuvered around to create bigger government. After all, their name itself, progressives, implies that there is something defective or at least inadequate about America. Progressives exist, their name implies, to “correct” America and to “correct” all the rest of us in the process.”
(Rubbing my temples to make the throbbing go away)
Let’s consult the dictionary to see what progressive actually means. I know, I know… that’s all elite and scholarly of me to suggest, but let’s do it anyway, just for giggles.
progressive
–adjective
1. favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, esp. in political matters: a progressive mayor.
2. making progress toward better conditions; employing or advocating more enlightened or liberal ideas, new or experimental methods, etc.: a progressive community.
-noun
1. A person who actively favors or strives for progress toward better conditions, as in society or government.
Perhaps, Sarah Palin (and whatever angry ghost writer you have who got rejected by a hippie girl in the 1960s) if progressives were what you say they are, they’d be called Correctists, or Obstaclites, or BigGubminters. But no, they are not. They actually want *gasp* to improve things, and make them better. You, apparently think that even though you admit that America is not perfect, we shouldn’t try to move in that direction. Thanks for the clarification.
I’m going to stop now, just to be kind to you, gentle reader and to me. There’s about half the chapter left to go, and we’ll do it in another post. If you’re feeling anything like I am, you’ll need a cool cloth and maybe some gin and a nap.
I leave you with the happy thought that maybe out there somewhere is a Sarah Palin/Tea Party person who is actually going to get as wrapped around the axle by all this nonsense as you and I are. That maybe, just maybe, not ALL of them will be this gullible. I can hope, can’t I, or is that too progressive?
If “Hollywood hotshots think movies like Mr. Smith are sappy and uncool” then why would they make them?
I once again complained that Fred Meyers here in Wasilla had put this in with the books instead of the Toilet Paper where it belongs.
So where exactly was Sarah living when she was hearing all that fantastic stuff about how wonderful communism was? We must have had much different texts, and certainly different teachers, because that’s not at all what I was taught. In fact, I don’t remember hearing any of that sort of nonsense at the very liberal university (University of Kansas) I attended either – the one that conservative Kansans thought was a disgrace because we were too progressive.
Maybe that’s why she had to go to five colleges to get a bachelor’s degree – she doesn’t hear proprely and is not able to process what she hears. Oh, that’s really not good for someone who was trying to get a degree in communications.
Thanx AKM,
This has been a great read. I have tried to interject a few comments that may encourage someone else to study and learn Alaska history and world history.
I’m still hoping that she is just a flash in a pan. I am currently estranged from my greatest and favorite cousin because of this weirdo. I want my family without this as the qualifier.
I’m hoping that she will be the instrument of her own destruction. nem
….are you guys sure she is for real ? not just some Joaquin Phoenix music career hoax, marketing scheme. I managed to read the first Uook..spelling is correct…and now I’m just about finished with this mangling of a Uook. She’s definitely “OUT THERE”, after reading Meghan McCain’s “me..me….me….me” book, I was able to take away some interesting views on political party view from the younger gen, pretty and dumb doesn’t make you a leader and its an insult to women……Palin’s I’m left with an “trashy white culture” image and view points.
I am 4 months younger than SP and went to American public schools same as she did, albeit in CA rather than AK.
I don’t know what they were a-teachin’ up there, but the idea that we were ALL in America being funneled pro-Communist propaganda is sheer nonsense. Same with my post-secondary education. Granted, a couple of professors had a few ideas that were new to me, but isn’t that what an education is all about? Why bother to get one if you think all your ideas are already the right ones and refuse to consider other ideas?
I’d seriously like SP to document her educational experiences where her teachers were ‘pro-communist”. Unless she names names, gives years, and a cogent description of what they said, I can’t help but think she’s making serious revisionist history of her own history … and that’s pretty weird, not to mention it doesn’t lead one to trust anything she ever says or writes again.
My one thought on this first part of her book is that $P desperately wants to return to the Cold War. I believe that she (and many others) felt that things were so much simpler when we had an out-in-the-open enemy (clearly defined) and the “us” vs “them” was easy. It allows the military-industrial complex and propaganda machine (with the “patriots” and “do you love your freedom”) to work at full speed and no one asks any questions. GWB tried it with his “war on terror” and “axis of evil” but when truth came out the lies were so obvious…we are still paying the price for that one.
The real question is, in what way does all of this help her corporate masters?
I have heard other people up here parrot the “socialism is the death of the soul” rant. They love her.
Yes, SP needs enemies to define herself.
They love her because they are terrified of the world, especially Europe and the Middle East. These are the same people that freak at other languages being spoken, the idea of global currency, and the immigration and freedom of religion which our country’s freedoms are based on. Go figure. This taking the country back – it’s all fictional. They want to go back to something which didn’t exist – I guess if you don’t study history then you can just make shit up.
It’s easy – they love her because they are terrified of the world, especially Europe and the Middle East. These are the same people that freak at other languages being spoken, the idea of global currency, and the immigration and freedom of religion which our country’s freedoms are based on. Go figure. This taking the country back – it’s all fictional. They want to go back to something which didn’t exist – I guess if you don’t study history then you can just make sh!t up.
A question for anyone who might know more about the presidential election process than I do…
She seems to be getting increasingly frantic, angry and manic as time goes on. I sincerely doubt that she could survive the pressure and constant motion of a presidential campaign without cracking, but I suspect her ego and her increasingly delusional image of her importance may force her to attempt a run.
Suppose she actually does manage to get the Republican nomination. What happens if she implodes during the campaign and has a complete meltdown? It’s not like the ticket has a backup candidate sitting on the bench, dressed in uniform and waiting to take the football down the field. Would the VP candidate then become the Presidential candidate?
Anybody know?
I don’t know, and I can’t find anything worthwhile on Google. I am hoping someone knows the answer. If not, I will call my US Representative on Monday and ask.
What a good question! Lord only knows it is very possible. She is getting worse and worse.
Drat. I knew this would happen. I decided to try one more time on Google. Lots of hits. I tried (not using the quote marks), “What would happen if McCain died after the nomination”, and found a lot.
This one is fairly interesting, but I don’t know the validity of the conclusions. I am going to call my US Rep on Monday anyway.
http://www.fluther.com/22052/what-would-happen-if-after-john-mccain-accepts-the-nomination-he/
There are a lot of hits, but some are seriously creepy.
Use this Google search “what happens when a presidential nominee dies before office?”
I read through a few of the results, but this one stands out:
http://www.slate.com/id/2201173/
Sorry, response to Leenie #80
jimzmum,
I hope your congressman is not Don Young.
LOL! No way.
Thanks, Martha. I think this is interesting.
Don’t think it has ever happened before. I suppose the Republican National Convention might have some sort of bylaw that said the runner up in the primaries would then step in. Or they might have to convene an emergency Convention. But I just don’t know.
No, but the VP slot came open after the convention when Thomas Eagleton needed to step down. More info to follow. nem
Eagleton was replaced on the Mondale ticket with Sargent Shriver. An opportunistic choice because Mondale really wanted Ted Kennedy as VP from the convention. Teddy had declined.
It’s in a little-known clause of the Constitution: if a major party’s nominee dies before the election, the position will be filled by Regis Philbin.
LOL!!!!!!!
Great points. I agree she is mentally and emotionally unstable. It would be a good thing, and a valid argument to have the answers to your questions if she does implode.
I would think whoever got the 2nd highest # of votes in the primary would then win the nomination, by default, ya’ know? Then THEY would choose their running-mate. (The VP is selected, not elected.)
Had something happened to McCain before the election, Huckabee or Romney (I forget which, to be honest) would have stepped up.
Sorry, I must have hit the wrong key.
My observation is that any party decision about replacing a presidential candidate should go back to a convention of the ‘elected delegates’. It is for them to decide how to reorganize their votes. nem
Scarah is the freekin’ Anti-Christ.
My mini rant.
VernD
VernD I totally agree…somewhere in Revelations I’m sure you’ll find a passage:
“Beware of the one with the winky eye and red monkey shoes for she will bring about the plagues, pit man against man, women against women and locust upon the fields, etcetera etcetera etcetera.”
mag the mick has some good points. Why give attention to someone who does not deserve it.
I do enjoy however, reading this blog and the posts. This has become a great community. I just wish the topic was a positive one. A female politician who deserved media coverage.
A female politician who is smart, articulate, educated, courageous, kind, creative, fair, open minded to both sides, and honest.
Who is this woman, and will she please step forward.
JudyChicago: Welcome. Indeed Mag has some good points.
An old newspaper adage is, it sells advertising. I heard on the radio that Glen Beck has no public advertising and the Rupert Murdoch likes him so much that he underwrites his time on FacistNews. I keep a whole list, which I add to periodically, of FacistNews advertisers so I know from whom not to buy.
Here’s a concept, economic sanctions. Have been effective in some instances, not in others. If each of us failed to shop at one of their advertisers, and made sure that at least one other friend or family member understood why not to, imagine! nem
JudyChicago:
Perhaps you were not with us during Alaska’s last election debacle. We pups have great enthusiasm still for a Democratic candidate, Scott McAdams. There may be Alaskans who will push Lisa for the description you describe. Correct me if I’m wrong progressives, Lisa is not that girl. She has demonstrated that she is mostly none of the above. Alaska seems to have been a great laboratory for the Supremes’ decision to give Corporations personhood.
I have no doubt that a really good woman candidate will emerge within the Democratic/Progressive camps. Personally, I hope that that won’t happen until ’16.
Political and community organizing is where good candidates develop. nem
Mmmmmm, gin.
Thanks MonaLisa—-that’s it!!!!!!
Time to send around that video of her sitting at the desk—-as one can click on to see all the “funnies”. It was so popular during the election with McGramps. Wish I could find that thing again. We need to start sending it in around again. A few things could be added now.
Your wish is my command!
http://www.palinaspresident.us/
I hadn’t seen this before, ML, it’s FABULOUS!!!!!
Not sure I got all the clues . Sort of like an Advent Calendar! Thanx, nem
If you have ever been to a place like Herford Texas which has lmany many feeds lots where cattle are fattened before they are trucked to slaughter, and you stand down wind on a humid warm day….
Just a hinit 90% of what goes into the cow comes out of the cow and lands on the ground well soaked in urine, It is bulldozed into big piles, hundreds of them.
The more she talks the insaner she looks.
Her book is absolutely trash aimed toward her targeted fans, the undereducated blue collar worker. Say what you will, but these people are rebelling against the higher educated managers who they worked for in their blue collar jobs. They always thought they were smarter than their managers because they had “common sense” and that colleges just taught their manages worthless propaganda from communist professors.
I think she also appeals to many of the new rich – those who spent more time acquiring money than on thinking as a well-rounded human being. Many successful business people got where they are because they had blinders to block out everything but their path to big money. Morals don’t count, education isn’t valued unless it enhances the bottom line.
So many of the higher economic class have attended her speeches because they are no smarter than she is. They resent the “elites,” because they fear educated people as they fear any unknown.
Perhaps the ‘elite’, upper class?, just want to be sure to be seen in the right place. I ag ree, we should not credit the moneyed class with depth of thought or conviction, but they seem to like rubbing shoulders with all those beautiful people.
So, we know $arah’s position on birth control, what does she think about STDs?
http://www.adn.com/2010/11/25/1573143/alaska-fighting-uphill-battle.html
A truly appalling situation.
Sorry, Sarah doesn’t think per se. She has three modes:
1) Lying
2) Reacting
3) Lying More
Thinking just isn’t in her vocabulary or personal arsenal.
Great summary of Palin.
You have to wonder how the people who really know her can read her lies or watch her perform her circus act on TV. I had a friend years ago that lied so frequently about her life and about her accomplishments that I couldn’t be around her any more. Sadly for that woman, most of her other friends, at the time, reacted the same way. When will Palin’s wake up to the farce that is the real Sarah Palin.
I want proof that the photo of Jimmy Stewart was on her wall in the governor’s office. AND I want proof it’s in her office now. That sounds like another one of her convenient lies.
Good point.
AKM, This book is bad for your health, and you need some relaxation, and good herbal tea to help you cope.
Thank you for doing this. I just couldn’t … there is no way. 🙂
Wouldn’t she make a GREAT ambassador to North Korea?
.
Great idea!
Or better yet, ambassador to Antarctica.
No, she have them sending missiles in a moment. She loves anger and warfare.
…or the Soviet Union.
So reminiscent of a spoiled rotten three year old. I want attention and, by God, I will get attention. The angry attention works best of all. Sadly we can’t really ignore her and we can’t send her to her room till she can behave.
I know this will sound like child abuse but most of the time when a 3 year old acts like this a swift kick in the behind gets their attention and they shut up due to the shock of reality
Sarah Palin as Lonesome Rhodes:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/11/palin-as-lonesome-rhodes.html
Funny, I always thought Glenn Beck fit this persona as well.
Do you know who her ghost writer is OMG?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/meet-sarah-palins-ghostwriter/going-rogue/
First book?
http://www.theawl.com/2010/11/a-non-readers-guide-to-sarah-palins-america-by-heart
Second book???
Why doesn’t she write her own books for the love of writers? She has a degree. Can’t she put her own thoughts on paper. Glenn Beck, ask her questions about her book stat! I think he is one of the only media persons that can talk to her…
Just back from my local Barnes and Noble and nary a “America By Hater” book in sight!
There were 4 of them on the counter at my little local bookstore (25% off). The owner said “you’ll be happy to know that they aren’t flying off the shelf like the last one” but then she qualified this with “but all of her fans may be onto me and are just going to buy it at Wal-Mart”. Didn’t see any at the local Fred Meyer, but then, I didn’t really look.
The good news is that no one can win a presidency in this country without a number of moderates,females,& independent voters. Plus some moderate right wingers.I just can’t imagine anyone outside of desperate republicans,tea party activists & extreme right wingers voting for palin.I really can’t.Can you imagine how much bigger her delusional-“I am the hand picked savior of the world”ego is going to get by 2012 as her media fame & wealth continues to grow? The smart Republicans know that she would never listen to them, if elected, or follow any advice from any one other than Todd & a very select group of sycophants as she did when Gov.All Demagogs eventually self-destruct, & are brought down. So will palin.She can’t help herself.She scares the hell out of the Republican party because she is a loose canon.If you really study the viewer figures of Fox news,(her pulpit),Limbaugh,& Beck’s (inflated) numbers sound impressive, but their following wasn’t strong enough to defeat Obamma.Beck is good theatre,but his audience isn’t politically active. A lot of them are yrs.old or over.Many of them don’t know how to critically think,& they are set in their ways & terrified by a black president.Palin is too polarizing within the country, (& she is really starting to get crude,using words like “screw you”, & “crap” very presidential).The repupublican party knows she is polarizing,they really aren’t all stupid.Romney,Scarborough,Huckabee:they know how to come off less threatening to the undecideds, & moderates, who are disappointed in the democrats & Obamma.I’m not so thrilled with the democrats or the Obamma admin. myself right now.We have to keep hammering home what Obamma HAS accomplished & ignore palin’s every utterance.She thrives on attention, thats why she stokes the fires that keep her name in the bright lights.She’s dumb like a fox, & she has some very good p.r. people working for her.She was a lousy Gov.(besides resigning the Gov. & Oil & Gas Commission),lets focus on that, get her record out there, instead of wasting time being petty & hammering her for getting North & South Korea mixed up.She is a liar,she has no scruples,she uses people to further her agenda & then shuns them,the republicans in the legislature didn’t even like her after the campaign, has no scrupples.Lets get the media to hammer her for those things.
I don’t know. Kentucky voted for Rand Paul. I kept hoping that wouldn’t happen, but…..
When you factor in the early primary contests that generate buzz (everyone loves to follow a winner – certainly the big money does), the corporate interests such as Koch Industries and NewsCorp which would benefit greatly from a Palin presidency, and the electoral college (which has been gamed successfully in the recent past) and a Supreme Court that is dominated by the likes of Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy – well, I don’t think we can afford to sit back and relax.
After all, didn’t Gore have the popular vote in 2000? Does anyone really believe the elections in states such as Florida and Ohio (and others) are run fairly? Do we not remember how many scandals about voting went unchallenged or were challenged unsuccessfully? Do we really and truly trust the voting machines?
Not until I see her sorry a$$ totally disgraced and her looks as haggard as her voice sounds will I dismiss Sarah from the political scene. The impossible has been made possible before. As tiresome and irksome as it is, I think we cannot afford to relax and her ride off in what we hope is celebrity has-been-ness. She and the people backing her are not done yet — mind you, she is doing a great job of making herself less palatable, but anything is possible – even a Pres Palin.
I’d like to try to respectfully and gently intervene here with another point of view. I didn’t read the main article, and just skimmed down to the bottom of the comments section to write this, so please forgive me if I’m echoing anything that’s been said before, and if I offend anyone reading this. I’ve decided that Mrs. Palin and her literary foolishness is simply not worth wasting any of my precious time on. If we devote any time at all to reading these passages or commenting, then she has sucked us in and taken from us minutes or hours that we won’t get back. And she’s not worth that. We all know what kind of person she is, and we can all stand up on our own to any of her fans, should we encounter them. I’m not wasting any more time discussing her, moving her books around at the local booksellers, etc. Unlike Mrs. Palin, I have a life! And I think the rest of you do too.
Mag: How right you are. She is almost like a bad drug addiction. I find that I am not able to go completely cold turkey but I have my days where I am able to put her completely from my psyche. It requires no TV, no newspapers, no news, no facebook, no mudflats, no talking to any family or friends from down south. It is quite difficult to get away from her in Alaska. I was able to do it for 5 days when I was laid up in excruciating pain and unable to move my head in any direction. I can do it for short stints when I go out and run my dogs….Still workin on it.
Yet, the adage that it is better to hold one’s friends close, and one’s enemies closer is one we cannot afford to ignore. We ignore her at our peril. Another truism reminds us to: know your enemy – the better to fight him (or her). We have to understand how her mind works (I know, I know, it doesn’t work very well, but . . . ), what she believes or is trying to project she believes, and understand both her strengths and weaknesses.
To turn her off or turn away is not, in my opinion, a viable option. People wrote off smaller threats in other countries and other times and lived to regret it. Yes, she is a joke. Yes, she is foul and stupid beyond belief. However, she is a genuine phenomenon and unless we all stay alert and aware and ready to act, she could just turn out to be a genuine danger.
That she has already ginned up so much hate and unrest is evidence enough for me to take her seriously. Never underestimate the power of her little ole push-up bra, shiny smile, and the ambitious glint in her eye. She’ll put on her red Naughty Monkey heels, shorten up her skirts and play the victimized female to the hilt as her flag jewelry, troop mother pin, and cross dangling from her sagging neck mesmerize the unthinking. If no other blatantly Xhristian candidate is in the mix, evangelical churches will still whip up their congregations for her as she denounces gay rights and abortions. Sarah Palin knows her snake oil and her audience. To ignore her could be tantamount to running away (and we would all love to do that whenever we hear her screech hit the airways), but running away leaves everyone else vulnerable. Just my opinion, but I think AKM is doing us all a favor by exposing the underpinnings of Palin’s campaign.
KS Sunflower, In addition to the amazing constitution of AKM, I believe you are aboslutely correct. Ignore at our own peril. There is not that much time left in our lifetimes to get this right. I could not care since I have no children, but I care intensely nonetheless. We cannot leave this country this way. I believe we must ensure the futures beyond our generation. I don’t want to think about the alternatives for my younger friends, children. nem
Under the circumstances,I forgive you for quitting halfway through the first term – er, chapter….
AKM,
You are a hero of mine! Thank You!
Page 6 – We were all told that America was the authoritarian state, not Russia and China. They were all about the right to work, and equality. America was the bad guy. That’s what we learned.
=============================================
OMG! Chuck Heath is a commie!!!
I’d wondered when Dad’s turn under the bus would come….
Knowing what we do about $carah, it is a wonder that she did not insist on her books be named “The Old Pestament” and “The New Pestament.”
Actually, she would probably choose “First” and “Second” so she could continue her temporal bowel movement ad nauseum. Of course, there is always “Plus New” and “Double-Plus New.”
What a nasty nutcase. What verbal diarrhea.
I don’t think I could wade through that crap, but then boots are handy sometimes.
Thanks thanks thanks on so many levels…
1) for making the supreme sacrifice, and having the courage and fortitude to actually buy and read this scabrous pile of dog vomit – you’re at least twice the woman I am. Kudos!!!!! (besides my blood pressure wouldn’t survive reading it first hand!)
2) for your hysterical insights and asides… I needed a good laugh this morning, although my computer screen is now splattered with the tea I was drinking….
3) for taking this airheaded and potentially dangerous *#@@ (rhymes with witch) to task for her inconsistencies, idiotic pronouncements, lapses in logic, and just downright unmitigated festering crappola.
All jest aside, other than the yuck factor, her “writing” these books is probably a good thing – if the Republican party actually takes leave of its teeny and tenuous senses and nominates her for President there will be plenty of incontrovertible evidence of her inability to govern, think, or form a coherent and reasoned opinion about anything more complex than oatmeal. She is busy manufacturing the rope with which she will hang herself in the eventuality she wants to run for anything other than dogcatcher, and for that we can be grateful, relieved, and try very hard not to hurl when faced with her book in the aisle at the grocery store.
Thanks, gracias, danke, merci, etc.
OK- I’ll confess to having an almost irresistible urge to draw a mustache on her smirking (and overly airbrushed) face on the book cover while waiting in line at the grocery store… Luckily I left my sharpie at home…
Sarah DOESN’T defeat the machine, does she? She walks away and buys a prettier newer machine with a beautiful reflection of herself in it.
Real constitutional experts do not spout catch phrases about that document When they look to find the intent of the writers, they also examine the Federalist Papers, which are the written record of arguments for or against, and discussing every article as it was drafted. Even today, scholars cannot agree on the intent behind some of the articles. For Sarah to weigh in with her pat explanations is laughable. And, it is equally difficult for Sarah to analyze Communism, the fall of the former Soviet Union, and Communism as it is practiced in other countries. Sarah’s concept stops at “Mr.Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” (By the way, it didn’t come down for another two years, but that is an entirely different store).
Sarah often refers to Common Sense Constitutional practice. To look at the fundamental laws of the land, the framework of our government as “common sense” is missing the point. One would never go into court and argue the law on the basis of “common sense.” One has the follow the law as laid out, and far more learned authorities will debate the intent of the law or the Constitution, but I do not see Sarah as part of that scholarly group. Catch phrases yes, scholarship no.
Discovering that she obtained her Constitutional expertise from Schoolhouse Rock DOES explain a lot about the depth of her understanding.
As ‘they’ say: “If ‘common sense’ were ‘common’, *everyone* would have it.” Clearly, some do not — she doesn’t appear to have the sense G_d gave geese. beth.
Maelewis,
Such a necessary reminder, thank you. The debate about “intent” continues to this day. Miller vs State of Alaska!!
I was just thinking if any other politician would admit to learning the preamble to the Constitution on School House Rock?
I wonder if the phrase “Schoolhouse Rock” even shows up in ANY other politician’s book at all…
AKM — All I have to say is you are one brave woman to wade into this book. I hope you brought your hip waders. 🙂
Just an observation about page 15 (The Supreme Court has too much power… The government apparently should have every right to combat “human nature” and tell you what to do with your uterus.) vs page 7 (If government can grant you a right, it can also take that right away.)
Seems to me that Sarah Contradicts herself ( big surprise) — a government that can force you to continue a pregnancy can also force you to terminate a pregnancy.
Scenes from the new Palin Wholesome Values Hour dramedy on Fox:
Wife: “Those kids down the block shot out the streetlight again.”
Husband: “Those 2nd Amendment lovin’ rascals! They’re future patriots!” (canned laughter erupts)
Wife: “That unemployed single mom, Yurethra, had her ninth kid!”
Husband: “Now that’s what I call usin’ your uterus for what it’s meant for!” (gives camera a very suggestive wink)
Wife: “Johnny said he wants to drop out of school and just watch videos all day!”
Husband: “As long as they’re videos of Schoolhouse Rock, this country’s future is in good hands.” (removes socks to do some figurin’ on a complex mathematical problem)
Wife: “Glen Beck says he’s really, truly losing his sight and now needs glasses to read fine print!”
Husband: “God bless that man! I’ll make sure to print bigger when I send him a check!” (wife gets visibly emotional)
Beautymous! beth.
I just shake my head at this new reality of Palin. She has been hanging around the water cooler with the folks that make stuff up…
Next thing you know, she’ll be saying that the Pilgrims escaped the “socialism” of a monarchy to come to America.
“She remembers memorizing the preamble to the Constitution watching Schoolhouse Rock at a friend’s house. ”
She fails to mention that she was 28 at the time. Small detail, I know, but still……
I just looked it up. It first aired in 1976. I was in high school then.
Here’s where Palin got her expertise on the Constitution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_TXJRZ4CFc
Thanks for posting this. I was on a fishing boat in 1976, until, about 1980, and had no idea what “schoolhouse rock” was. Do you mean to tell me that the person that wants to be our next President admits to having learned about the constitution from a cartoon? I mean really? Seriously?
What is “Schoolhouse Rock”?
Refudiate Palintology!!!!
Uh, didn’t $arah violate her oath of office when $he bailed on Alaska. ??
It may be interesting to see how this plays with her crowd of followers. If the demographics of the viewers of her TLC show are indicative of who may be reading this book, most of them will be old enough to have lived through the time period she is referring to and will be astutely aware of the history of the US/Communist tensions. They may have a hard time getting through that much nonsense without a crashing awareness of how nonsensical she is – talk about shooting oneself in the foot.
Isn’t that what she always does — shoot herself in the foot? The problem is that there are still those EMTs out there who are ready to collect the blood and help heal her right back up! 🙂
“…most of them will be old enough to have lived through the time period she is referring to and will be astutely aware of the history of the US/Communist tensions…” — but that’s the beauty of it WfA!
She *tells* them what history *was*, and they are so eager to find ‘deliverance’ in/from her, they’ll believe her version! It’s perfect.
They want *sooooooo* badly to have that pretty little no-nonsense gal from Alaska, that commonsense [sic] best-selling author, that sweet lady conservative who can run the largest state in the union *and* have a family of 5 children, one of whom is special needs, show them the way to a better life…a better Amurica, that they’ll do anything for her.
Wanting so desperately to believe *they* are ‘just like *her*’ [the converse of: “I am just like you”], they will even misremember their own history if she tells them to — because misremembering it so conforms with what she is telling them [it was] and ensures they are ‘on board’ with her and the direction she will lead the nation…with their help, of course. *Anything* for $arah!
Once she has rewritten *their* history, they are even *more* putty in her hands. Much like a victim of physical or mental abuse is for the abuser…*anything* to please. beth.
“….maybe some gin….”….”maybe”???…and ONLY “some”…i think not…we are talking some serious beefeater martini’s (at least two jiggers, and i only wave the bottle of vermouth at it to make it seem traditional)…or possibly gin and tonic with a large slice of lime…i’m thinkin’ martini’s because summer is over up there and gin and tonic is a summer drink (for alaskans that probably means you have one or two days of opportunity in the “summer” there…..)…this book could turn me into an alcoholic….thank you for taking the bullet for us on this one…we owe you big time…..oh, and go ahead and put vermouth in yours…i’d have to do mine straight…..
silverball, a little bit of history after a martini or two 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVMnlbZrDxU&feature=related
I’m tempted to mix alcohol with my painkillers after just reading the synopsis from AKM!
NOLA, it’s not worth that. Take a walk!?
Does anyone know how the book is selling?
Yes, we are making her rich.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books
She has been in the top 100 for several days. However, from everything that I heard about the book and from reading the reviews. She is both adored and well let’s face it Quella Deville might have better ratings.
The negative reviews of this book on Amazon are very interesting. You need to log on to read them. I think I will buy the book, Attmept to read it (then return it) just to give a review.
A review by “cdmusicline’ CA
I thought this was going to be a book of virtue and faith. Instead it was a book in which Sarah Palin puts down anybody and everybody who does not agree with her philosophies and beliefs. I read Barack Obama’s book “The Audacity Of Hope” and that was a fantastically written book and not once did Obama complain or whine about people who do not agree with his philosophies. Obama’s book was truly about faith and virute – Sarah Palin’s book is not.
What Sarah Palin’s book does is point out the people and viewpoints she does not like. This makes me wonder how is this induce faith. What her finger-pointing does do however is create divisiveness and hatred amongst fellow human beings. Just take a look at some of the reviews for this book and you can see the divisiveness she has created – it’s right here on this amazon.com page.
In her book Palin says; “We may be creating a generation of entitled little whiners. … there’s no other word for it, spoiled. These young people feel entitled to jobs and salaries they haven’t earned.” – my thoughts on her comment are, how dare she. Palin is a prime example of someone who wants a job she hasn’t earned or is qualified to do. Yes, she was a half-term governor (she quit her position), and she was the vice presidential candidate on the losing ticket and she’s written two book – this does not sound like the qualifications for president – but I’ve heard her whining quite a bit on how she feels she’s earned and is qualified for the position. I guess Palin is one of the whiners she speaks of in her book.
How is going after the president of the United States and continually bashing him on a political, personal and even spiritual level an act of restoring and encouraging faith? It isn’t an act of faith – her bashing is an act of hostility and alienation of speaking in good faith.
Palin also mentions the making of war movies while the wars are being fought. She particularly mentions Matt Damon’s “The Green Mile”. My take on that is here in the U.S. we have freedom of speech and Matt Damon is exercising his right. I say to Sarah Palin if you have a problem with that then you are not a true American.
Palin only seems to agree with the first amendment when it is inline with her viewpoints. She only agrees with freedom of speech if it is the same what she is saying.
If Palin feels that the cross can be displayed on public property – then she must agree that we can display symbols of other religions on public property – that would only be the right thing to do. But she doesn’t feel that way – because she does not believe that all people are equal.
She particularly mentions Matt Damon’s “The Green Mile”. ????
“The Green Mile” was a Tom Hanks movie set death row – she didn’t, did she?
WfA…was just quoting a review from Amazon, sorry left out the “,s. Methinks he became so befuddled reading this hogwash and confused the two. Although I know Damon did have some very choice words about $P. But we are jumping ahead of AKM’s review. I’m sure she will address this when she gets to it.
In the meantime, I will be joining silverball with a martoonie or 3.
I think that should have said “The Green Zone.”
She probably meant Damon’s ‘Green Zone’, the story of the soldiers assigned to find those Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6urw_PWHYk
He nailed it!!!
One needs to keep in clear sight that this person is a racist and she is perpetually stirring the racist base. This makes me so sick. Without her our government just might have willingly produced some egalitarian legislation for all of us. As long as the likes of her racism makes headlines what we have is what we shall continue to get. nem
Yes, but she is not #1 as to her book….quite a difference when compared to her first book. She IS dropping in her popularity….focus on that. Remember, her TV special has dropped in popularity already, the numbers have dropped in her current book signings…..
There is hope for us yet!!!!
Oh My FREAKIN’ GAWD!!!!! I can’t even think straight when reading the latest this woman “writes” or says or does. The word salads, the lies, the slander just scrambles my brain to the point I can’t think one coherent thought!!! This country simply MUST stop her – I cannot fathom America were she to be in the WH. As I said in the beginning – Oh my FREAKIN’ GAWD!!!!!
My dear AKM, thank you for wading into the muck and refudiating all of that stinky stuff. I don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or reach for the Pepto! My high school history teachers are all probably wantin’ to put her in permanent detention for terminal stupidity .
Sorry to say, but I believe her recollections of the mood of Americans towards communism during the time she was [supposed to be] growing up, are wrong.
I do know, I, personally, *WAS* told ‘about how great communism was and how much more just and democratic it was than our own system of government. We were told it promised equality and happiness for all.’ [AKMs paraphrasing of ‘her’ writing]. BUT that telling was *always* in context of: *That* is what the communists say to their people and *this* is how wrong, untrue, and faulty that line of propaganda is, because (and then there would be a point-by-point debunking of the communist’s “line.”) With ‘counter propaganda’ offered at *every* turn, Americans *knew* where they had to stand…and they were *more* than willing to do so.
*ALL* Americans were enjoined in the fight against communism — we heard the arguments against communism in our schools, in our houses of worship, in our public discourse, everywhere; it was “us” (America) v. “them” (communism). Why, does she suppose, “Under G_d” was *added* to our Pledge? Why, does she suppose, Vietnam (the ‘domino theory’)? Why, does she suppose, “Animal Farm” and “1984”? Why, does she suppose, …
And, hello…The Cold War?
When $P was [supposed to be] growing up, America –as a *nation*! — was in FULL battle-mode *against* communism! We did NOT ‘learn’ it was “good” — on the contrary, we were ALL shown again and again and again how evil it was.
Leastwise, that is how it was for me, for my family, for my school mates, heck, for every single person who grew up in this country (and/or was somehow affiliated w/ the USA overseas), that I know! We were *all* in the fight, together, as Americans, against communism.
Possibly things were different in the Heath household, though. With their bent towards AIP, and all, it would not surprise me, in the least, if Papa Heath did not insist to his family that Americans were being ‘told’ how good communism was and therefore, he (and his kin) had to resist it [and the inevitable *complete* takeover of our country by communist elements] by AIPing. I can only imagine what their dinner table conversations were like.
Ahhh, revisionist history. Way to go, $P. beth.
—AKM – in ‘her’ writing, does she ever write “I believe” or “To my way of thinking” or give any ‘disclaimer’ of that sort, OR is all of ‘her’ writing put forth as solid, stone-cold “fact”? b.
i’m 64 y/o and you are absolutely correct about the reality of how it was taught to us when i was growing up…strictly us vs. them…i still have my military training manual from when i was in CERE training in va, before being sent to viet-nam…very clearly, it was literally us fighting to prevent the “domino theory” from happening….what pure drivel….you betcha….
I’m almost 40 and had the same thing as a kid. I remember drills in school, too. I remember the Wall coming down in Germany. We were not ever taught that communism was good or that it worked. We were told of bread lines and misery, iron curtains and “Red Dawn” scenarios. We were shown freedom and prosperity in our daily lives. What effin country is she talking about?! (pardon the language!)
I am the same age as Sarah Palin, born and raised in Anchorage. Sitting atop mount Gordon Lyon (in the Chugach Range, right next to Arctic Valley Ski Area, and visible from downtown Anchorage, Muldoon, etc.) is a Nike missile site. Site Summit was one of three Nike missile sites in Southcentral Alaska, the other two were Site Point (Kincaid Park) and Site Bay (Knik, Sarah Palin’s back yard).
Growing up in Anchorage we were very aware of the Cold War. Nobody, and I repeat NOBODY ever said anything nice about the Russians or Communism. Anyone who ever attempted to get close to one of these sites was met by three layers of fencing, barbed wire, and armed guards with German Shepherd attack dogs. It was common knowledge that Site Summit housed nuclear warheads!
Sarah Palin grew up in a Matsu Valley hunting and fishing family and I am sure that they were well aware that they could not go near Site Bay. I knew a small plane pilot who once had to do an emergency landing near Site Bay and he was immediately taken into custody.
South Central Alaska was often on “high alert” because of the activities of the Soviet Air Force. Site Summit wasn’t deactivated until 1979, when Sarah Palin would have been 15 years old. If she grew up hearing nice things being said about Communism, she must have been raised by undercover KGB agents!
Many, many villages in Alaska had Cold War emplacements. Ever heard of the Dew Line? Before “all Sarah all the time” changes Alaska history also, learn that part of the debacle over statehood that included national defense (that was before the term national security was within the common language). Ike was adamant about the need to protect America from the Soviet threat, over the pole and an accomodation was made.
Then you may learn about the “new” voting district created for the bases (Elmendorf & nemRichardson) and the influx of personnel before the Statehood Vote, 1956.
I guessing here that these people were not even in alaska at that time. No wonder they cant figure out history.
Good summary, Beth. Heck, even Superman stood for “truth, justice, and the American Way of Life.” Be sure to give the kiddies a little dose of American superiority along with their Saturday morning entertainment.
Beth,
I think this is how she keeps her fan base. I agree with you, I am pretty sad about the rewriting of history. She just seems to be a very insulting person. Was she always like this? I have a friend in Anchorage who actually liked her, but he has been disappointed by her change.
The song, as I recall in the early ’60’s was something like .. ” .. well I learnt to hate Russians all through my whole life .. if another war started to them we must fight… to hate them and fear them .. to run and to hide … and accept it all gladly with .. God on our side .. ” Baez or Dylan .. cannot recall but …
even at 8 years old I knew the satire of the lyrics.
The nuttiest part of it .. to me .. is that .. she is getting away with her .. ummmm
PROPAGANDA .. ya know.. like that stuff that they said was subliminal?
Those flashes on the TV that conveyed a message .. a message embedded in our minds and hearts that we would never have believed in if we weren’t addicted to and/or watching a tv (internet) or .. it’s a crazy double edge sword.
But …. this insane, opportunistic, awful woman (who says she’s fom Alaska .. or rather .. IS Alaska) has done it and we have not been able to stop her.
(sorry I was at a party .. drinking too much cranberry cordial .. that I picked in the midst of BEARS and MOOSE and those dang awful WOLVES that we should … Ummm kill from helicopters .. unless it’s a Mamma Bear that looks like a pitbull wearing lipstick … and so I’m ranting .. Sorry …
I’m just overwhelmed by how far the bitch (sorry) has taken my country to scary nuttiness .
And what the flippin’ sheesh is a dictenory?
Sorry Mud, but I gotta tell you… I lost my breakfast this morning just reading your summary… This is genuine, down-the-beam crap and I’m amazed the publisher would allow this kind of stuff to actually go on the market with their name on it… But times are pretty slow in the book world (not)…
It is really time to out her new ghost writers to check if they’ve even met the Swag-Hag…. It seems unlikely..
I think the Heath family should get a lot of credit for not aborting this retarded little girl.
AKM…take a break and have a few gut-busting laughs!
My favorite so fas…If you call yourself a Mama Grizzly but you are afraid of Katie Couric #youmightbeapalin!
Enjoy Mudpupies!!
http://twitter.com/search?q=%23youmightbeapalin.
OMG that is so cool! That one was mine, I get bragging rights!
The #youmightbepalin thread is hilarious … it’s been said many times, and we’ve seen it on SNL and other comedy shows, but jokes about Palin just write themselves!
A funny one I saw was #youmightbeapalin if the art on your walls used to breathe.
Or, #youmightbeapalin if you stock pregnancy tests in your medicine chest
Totally worth getting TweetDeck just to read that thread!
Archivist1000 on Twitter
I just read on another site a posting from a person in deep Redstate Ohio and what transpired on their Thanksgiving…
seems that the 80+ year old grandmother, out of the blue, stood up and shouted “Palin is an idiot!” (maybe she’s a closet fan of KO?!). Much to the shock of the poster everyone clapped and hooted. The writer realized that if Miss Quiity Pantsonfire has lost their household of relatives, the future is not looking too bright.
Do you have link?
From my blog, sit-rep:
http://diagramatica.blogspot.com/2010/11/i-wish-they-were-rose-colored-instead.html
Well, I didn’t find it funny at all that she referenced Mr. Smith. It’s always been one of my favorite films, one that addresses politics with a kind of gentleness and idealism that we never see. It’s a feel-good movie. By bringing it up in her book, the first word that comes to mind is Smarmy!
I wonder where in that film that $P sees herself. Certainly not in the desire to help people get something that they can’t get on their own. To me, that is what this movie was about.
All $P portrays is a person who has no focus on anyone but herself, always taking something from other people and treading on those that think and do differently — a constant barrage of greed and self-centeredness. Jeff wasn’t like that at all. He worked toward a positive end, thought the best of everyone, exhibited anger only when he realized that corruption paralleled his efforts, and maintained a set of values that could be understood. He is the perfect image of Trust and Public Service. Need I say more?
Maybe she is projecting her need to be like President Obama. If she makes him to out to be the one she warned us about, she wins. I wonder if she would have mellowed out if she was the VP? I think she likes what the President says on one level but is bummed because she isn’t up there to say it. Blinded jealousy can mess a person up. She can’t let the lost go.
Let it go Sarah- let it go. Free yourself!!!
‘I wonder if she would have mellowed out if she was the VP?’
From all that has transpired in the public eye to date, I don’t think so because that wouldn’t have been top billing. She displays a seeming unquenchable need to be noticed and appreciated.
Had she been VP, I think McCain would be toast by now.
The crap doesn’t fall far from the horse’s behnd, does it?? I’m embarrassed to say I’m from Alaska these days.
Don’t fret Marilyn. Just remind people queen sarah is a carpetbagger from I da ho.
You can still say it. Sarah isn’t there much anymore.
Marilyn,
Just remember this country in Alaska. It’s bigger, and grander, and more magnificient, certainly longer lasting, and changing and repositioning itself each day, than any one person whose lived/lives here. nem
Marilyn,
My younger sister was Gov. Knowles’ pilot – she is EMBARRASSED to mention it these days – people tend to think there was only “one governor of Alaska” – rather pathetic.
Where can I find the book? In the fiction section or the humor section?
How about horror? Or occult?
My goodness. She’s got enough straw men in this chapter to have a good old fashioned barn dance!!
Where does she actually cite and quote the “they” who say they want to mow down the Constitution, hate the Founding Fathers, and despise the founding documents? No footnotes?
She just invents straw-progressives, writes their words for them and then refudiates them. Brave Sarah!
You;re right this is crap.
She’s got enough straw men in this chapter to have a good old fashioned barn dance!!
LOL!
Sarah Palin had to have McCain’s handlers explain to her what the Vice President does. And now we’re supposed to believe this rubbish about Sarah Palin’s lifetime obsession with America and its history? And there are idiots out there that actually believe this stuff? It’s a scary world we live in.
Okay, page 12 really got me:
We believe in freedom, but not the kind of freedom that says “whatever feels good, just do it”
“It’s the kind of freedom that says Don’t Tread on Me.”
Wait a minute – if I can’t do whatever feels good because “you” say so – aren’t you treading on me?
I’m not talking about criminal behavior, I’m talking about just living my life the way I choose.
I’m confused….
Let me see if I can clear that up for you. The ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ part…..that does NOT apply to people who want equal pay for women; the right to not be forced to bear a child conceived through rape or incest, the freedom to practice the religion (or lack thereof) of their choice, the ability to marry the person you love even if they happen to be the same gender, the ability to join the military and serve your country if you happen to be gay, the right to not starve or be homeless, the right to have appropriate health care if you’re poor, have pre-existing conditions or become sick when your insurance company decides you cost too much, the right to have the government enforce regulations that protect the air, water, food, workplace and environment from being destroyed by industry, the right to…
It ONLY applies to the things SHE believes in. Is it clearer now?????
What a pile of Mumbo Jumbo!!!!!!!
I’ve come to realize that SP grew up reading only John Birch Society tracts. It’s the only source of such drivel that makes any sense. It also seems that the ghost writer hasn’t read much either, given the overall poor quality of the research. SP didn’t read her own book either, that is only too obvious.
Time and again I am reminded of the Manchurian Candidate, where the uber-patriotic mother is actually the Communist sleeper agent. Given SP’s recent gaffe about “our North Korean allies” and how how bad the US was and is, this theory is unfortunately starting to make sense: she’s really a North Korean SPY!
Jeanne, please don’t impale yourself upon this dreck so badly that we never hear from you again. Would a Permanent Fund for Domestic Libations be in order, just to ease the pain? Let us know!
I can’t remember for certain, the Queen of Spades, or the Queen of Diamonds? please advise. nem
Queen of Diamonds!! The movie, starring Lawrence Harvey as Raymond Shaw and Angela Lansbury as his mother, was superb. However, if you really want chills, read the book by Richard Condon.
In hindsight, it is very clear that we have been paving the road for someone like Sarah for many years. We have all seen life become more complicated, and even those of us that try to keep up with the political, social and economic direction of our big blue marble, oftentimes find ourselves confused and lost by the goings on. All of this instant access has not made things easier, its made it more confusing. We have all watched our friends, family and the world in general slip into accepting sound bites, twitter feeds, emails, 30 second commercials, etc for forming our opinions about complicated issues. The recent election for senator shows it all. How many people were reached in face to face meetings with the candidates vs how many were reached through short snippets through instant media? Most based their opinion on Joe from his warts being exposed in short bits and pieces. Scott got very little mass exposure of any sort. Lisa benefited from both with name recognition and the fear of Joe.
I think people have just become overwhelmed with it all. They don’t have time to research, myself included at times. We look to those that we can identify with to give us direction when we can’t understand it ourselves.
What this has set up is the perfect coming together of someone like Sarah appealing to the masses. The frustration is there, the technology is there, and she brings the two together. She doesn’t have to define what she means by taking our country back, or going back to the intent of the founders. We all have our own picture of what that means. So she just paints in the broad brush strokes in terms that are simple, then lets us identify what the details mean to us. Simplicity. Thats all people are looking for. We all know if she ever attempted to talk about specifics, it would blow her out of the water. But she doesn’t need to. She has discovered the pure form of telling the people what they most want to hear and let them decide how it applies. And we have reached the point where we’ve had enough of life’s complexity, so her line is good enough for way to many of us.
I remember her resignation speech. She never really said why she resigned, she just touched on multiple possibilities (I loved the lame duck one!), then let her believers decide on which one fit best. Whether it was best for the state, it was the lamestream media, or the ethics costs, or family, or that she accomplished all she set out to do, or whatever. She babbled on and on, never really told us why. But gave her followers the freedom to pick multiple choice.
We should be very afraid, not of Sarah, but of what we have allowed to happen. With complication and confusion comes complacency. If not Sarah, then someone else would fill that void.
Cortez –
You are extremely astute. But here is our American dilemma and tragedy; the very people who need to read and learn from your articulate explanation will never take the time it takes to read it .
Excellent and astute observation, Cortez. You should post these remarks widely.
This kind of communication reminds me of talking to an alcoholic. No straight answer and lots of words and round about bs to avoid accountability and ulitmately “the truth”.
And their drinking binges are always someone elses fault…
I remember when the moral majority wrapped itself up in the flag and the bible, so if you attacked them, you were attacking the flag and christianity. Sarah has gone a step further. What document is more sacred to more Americans than the bible? The constitution. Attack her, and you are attackiing the constitution. And being delusional on top of that, for her to actually think that she is “The Way”, she becomes a very formidable entity.
As in Jesus’ words…I am the way, the truth, and the light? HAHAHA!
Queen Easter is rolling in the grave!
Cortez, the arguments you offer are exactly why I believe she is dangerous. She says nothing, but her nothing makes sense to so many who can’t follow logic, or truth, precisely as you explain. They pick out the ‘answer’ that coincides with what they had already been led to believe, so of course she makes sense. Not only does she make sense, she is their kind of people because she speaks their language. Also, no one wants to admit that s/he is not the ‘sharpest knife in the drawer’, so when a beautiful, animated winker has the same viewpoint as you – hey, that shows your own brilliance. Look at how the news media hang on her every word! Look at how they pick on her! Yada, Yada. The fact that Bush was allowed to serve two terms, that Palin hasn’t faded yet, and that the electorate made such dumb choices in the last election, are all reasons, IMHO, for progressives to be vigilant and proactive heading towards 2012. I wish there were good ideas out there as to how to stop this particular politician, without building up more pity for her among her acolytes.
I remember a promise to continue as “the loyal opposition” after another arranged presidential election. Interestingly the concept was not derided, actually stuck as a good thing.
Bravo. Well said, unlike someone’s second book.
loved your post Cortez.
You nicely described a demagogue.
Demagogue: noun – 1) a leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises to gain power. 2) a leader championing the cause of the common people in ancient times.
While modern technology and society influences the latest permutation of the demagogue’s armamentarium of “pitchforks and torches,” demagogues are as OLD AS SIN….. and just as predictable.
Palin is nothing more than a demagogue, and history will not be kind to her.
I agree, history will show her as she really is. But as Writing from Alaska noted, how do we deal with her now, or a more polished successor in the near future? She’s a rough cut, someone else out there, like a blend of her, Beck, Hannity with a touch of Billy Graham, can come along at any time and mesmerize a lot of people.
There will always be a spin master. I am kind of sad to think about some little girls thinking she is a real hero. They might though. Yikes.
The more I comtemplate your identifying her as a demagogue, the more I see how it really fits. Not saying she is a nazi, but she is very Hitler-esque. She has an innate ability to know what appeals to the confused masses, she can manipulate those that have a hole in their life, something akin to Charlie Manson able to take lost souls and turn them into followers, or street hustlers prey on the runaways, or Jim Jones type cults gather their believers. She can manipulate the media, while demonizing it at the same time. She knows the buttons to push, although I’m not sure she is cognizant of it. A mama grizzley may be an apt comparision, living on well honed instincts.
She may not be very educated or intelligent in a political, social or economic sense, but she has found that she doesn’t need to be, that her instincts serve her purposes quite well. That could explain why she exasperated the McCain team with her unwillingness to learn current events.
I remember reading details about Sarah’s gubernatorial debate soon after she was tapped by McCain.
The thing that stays with me is a comment she made after the debate when she said that people don’t really care about the details of policy or facts figure’s, etc. Apparently, she complemented one of the other candidates for knowing so much detail, but then said that it really doesn’t matter to the voters. And despite her not knowing any details or having any in-depth knowledge of policy she was elected.
I remember reading about that. In fact, it’s comments like that, plus her attitude, and the SUCCESS OF HER modus operandi to date that sometimes make me wonder if she isn’t ‘very’ smart. She lacks class; she’s thin-skinned; she’s mean-spirited and she’s vindictive, but at this point I lean towards the conclusion that she is very ‘street’ smart, in that she knows which buttons to push.
I do believe she is smart. I also believe there are different kinds of smart and hers is a totally self-serving smart. She can always “see” how to manipulate people and to advance herself. The politics thing is a game and some play it better than others. She is especially good. But just because someone is good at politics does not mean they are good at governing. Her skills are better suited to being a celebrity.
I don’t think she’s all that intelligent, actually, and the lack of intellectual curiosity is a major detractor and would make for an awful president (GWB, anyone?). However, I believe she is quite good at self-promotion and has a serious ability to pretend that nothing adverse can touch her if she just goes on to the next item on her to-do list. Unfortunately, the media and a huge chunk of the establishment let her get away with all this BS.
I think she is smart in this way, she grew up attractive. Women learn to manipulate with their looks. She had that as a plus when she got into politics. She definitely has ambition and is strong in what she believes, but she is narrow in understanding that people are very different. She likes power and she loves the attention. She has some smarts but I still think that her husband is the brain behind Palin brand. She is a quick study and she uses her looks to wink and smile. Men are marshmellows when it comes to this, women more skeptical.
Her test will not only to be study and spit out what she reads, she can do that well. The question will be can see remember what she is learning and respond accordingly. If she is challenged now, I think she will unravel. The President is brillant, Sarah may be smart. However, Sarah is not the President.
Sly is the word that comes to my mind when I think of Sarah and Beck. Sly seems to be to be a very primitive kind of intelligence that must originate in our reptilian brain for survival purposes. Part instinct, part opportunistic, sly seeks out the weaknesses in other for its benefit.
That was Andrew Halcro. He said:
“On April 18, 2006, Palin and I sat together in a hotel coffee shop comparing campaign trail notes. As we talked about the debates, Palin made a comment that highlights the phenomenon that Biden is up against. “Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I’m amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, ‘Does any of this really matter”
I have always thought, that this comment is one of the most enlightening glimpses into Sarah. In fact, I am working on a blogpost around that very quote atm.
“We should be very afraid, not of Sarah, but of what we have allowed to happen. With complication and confusion comes complacency. If not Sarah, then someone else would fill that void.”
Precisely – which is why I have come to believe that too much attention to Sarah also opens the way for someone else, more slick and presentable who could be even more damaging to our country.
Newt Gingrich? Haley Barbour? Mitch Daniels?
Yes. Thank you. We should not be thinking, “where did Sarah Palin come from?” but “what have we come to?”
Excellent analysis. Thank you.
Superior post. Thank you for the truthiness.
Correction: Jessica’s husbands name is Jonah
Whose mother is Lucianne Goldberg. Such a heritage.
And, isn’t she special.
And most liberal blog people on the web refer to him as “doughy pantload”
EWE, he’s married? What a group.
I grew up in Connecticut. That’s a pretty blue state, don’cha know. And all I remember from the 1970’s was growing up to root against the communist countries in the Olympics. Cheering when their ice skaters fell, and booing when their gymnasts scored 9.8s on every apparatus. Where did she get the idea that we were taught that their system was better than ours? I’m calling “bullshit” on that one. And on the rest of the book, too.
Some of the other blogs are saying the ghost writer is Jessica Gavora, daughter of Paul Gavora of Fairbanks and is married to Jonathan Goldberg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessica_Gavora
http://aclu.procon.org/view.source.php?sourceID=001915
If this is Jessica, please don’t let her hijack your words. What an interesting conversation that must have been.
Sarah what are your favorite books and why?
Sarah why don’t you like the President?
Sarah we love you!
I went to the link and read her profile and think it makes sense that it could be Jessica ghostwriting Sarah’s latest crime against literacy.
Jessica was Chief Speechwriter and Policy Advisor to former Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Everyone remembers dear John, right? He of TIPS fame? John McCutcheon, folk singer and songwriter extraordinaire wrote about Ashcroft’s Army. Couldn’t find anything on YouTube with the song and McCutcheon’s website doesn’t have its downloads working, so visit the following link to refresh your memory of the TIPS program which wanted us to all become spies against our neighbors. Maybe Jessica influenced, advised or advocated for that horrid little concept.
If she did, it would make perfect sense for her to work for and with Sarah Palin.
http://www.folkmusic.com/lyrics/ashcrofts-army
In reading your take, I can actually FEEL your frustration. Scary.
So she thinks that the Supreme Court has too much power, but she couldn’t remember a single decision of theirs that she disagreed with (other than Roe v. Wade). And as for her reading of the word ‘progressive,’ wasn’t she the one running all over the country in 2008 screeching about our need to ‘progress’ our country?
YES, that is exactly what I was thinking when I read this part of AKM’s synopsis! That tired, over-used “verb” of $arah’s: “Progressin’ this, and progressin’ that”
Bingo on the continual speeches re: “progress” the state, country, and anything [*everything*] else she wanted Palinized! beth.
“Palinized” — that’s a good one!
A few days ago my son was describing the way of speaking used by someone he’d overheard in a coffee shop. When he used the word “Palinesque” I almost fell off my chair laughing because I knew just what he meant.
It appears that the Palin phenomena is causing a host of new words to be added to our national vocabulary.
I hope they one day revisit Roe and use it to ban idiots like her from breeding.
Not really, but it’s a fun thought.
Would she please stop using Reagen!!! That is all I have to say.
Oh, and amnesty would be nice for 3 million people in the lower 48 from $P. Merry Christmas!!!
Who was told China and Russia were good and all about the right to work and other good things? Where did she go to school? I don’t know about her but when I was a kid we were jumping under desks and wearing dog tag type bracelets in prep for a Soviet attack. How could one misconstrue history so badly and for what good purpose. This garbage is made up to further create divisiveness. Disgusting really.
I’m with you. I grew up in Omaha, home of Strategic Air Force Base, and we had regular bombing drills during school- as if hiding under desks would protect us from a bomb. I knew people who dug bomb shelters in their back yards– the Soviets were admired, my *ass.
This should be titled “The True History of the United States, as Revealed to Sarah Palin”.
Time for another title contest, mudpups?
She isn’t just taking some kernal of truth and twisting it beyond recognition….she flat out makes things up.
I had a house in Fresno, CA that had a 20×20 bomb shelter under the backyard. You climbed down a ladder in one of the small bed rooms and had to walk down a hallway to get in. Had an air scrubber too. Just plain weird that $P grew up learning that USSR was good. I grew up in NorCal – Hippy/Flower child central and we didn’t learn any of that.
Maybe Greta can ask her about this some time. So….Sarah….who taught you that the Soviets and China were good? Was it the public school system? Your parents? Your church? Your friends? Who, pray tell, Sarah taught you these things?
maybe her parents were communists????……
I wish she would ask her about Alex de Tocqueville and to explain Americain Exceptionalism!!! I watched (Parker & Spitzer) the other day and they had Nicolle Wallace on. She told them that she thought Palin would potentially ride the AE concept. I am paraphrasing here. I just think they need to start asking her a bit more. Some of the clips of her book are not written in her voice. I realize that this is a ghost writer, but she does not have that type of vocab. Why does the media let her get away with this? I have an idea, but it is pathetic.
I grew up in southeast Alaska and recall the drills that were done as to going under our desks too. But, I’m older than sister Sarah – in my late 60’s. I also recall Juneauites driving ‘out the road’ should we experience a bomb attack.
Having President Obama in office brings me so much more comfort than had McCain and Palin been elected. Can you imagine? It’s tough enough for President Obama being constantly derided by the Republicans….thank God he is the success he is in spite of them.
Millie,
Every time that I think of Palin as the VP after the course of the last two year. I am ticked at John Mc cause us pain, what in the **** was he thinking?
I was right under the desks with you. I lived in the same town as Sperry Gyroscope which made all sorts of important navigation and other such equipment for the military. During WWII it was surrounded by barrage balloons to prevent attacks by German or Japanese planes. The elementary school I went to was right down the block from the factory complex. We were ALWAYS warned that being close to Sperry and only about 30 miles from NYC made us a target for ‘them dreaded commies’.
She has passed delusional and progressed to…….what IS beyond delusional???
I didn’t know elementary school kids in the USA were gearing up for the attack, too! I attended elementary school in Germany as a military brat. We had stashes of rations stored -just in case. The rations were a requirement for military families. I remember thinking a lot about an impending war during my youth.
I grew up in Albuquerque, NM in the ’50’s. We didn’t duck under our desks. In hindsight, it was because the adults knew that Manzano Base, in the foothills to the east, had an underground storage bunker for nuclear weapons, and Sandia Laboratories, adjoining Kirtland AFB, which shared runways with the municipal airport, was a nuclear weapons research center. in the event of nuclear war, we could expect a very large bomb up close and desks would be useless. No one in my generation learned that Communism or the Russians were benevolent. I learned from my parents (Roosevelt-Truman-Stevenson liberals) that pre-WWII many Americans of good will had believed that they were, but knew better. Palin is slaying a boogyman.
I had a LOL moment imagining her showing up at the wrong school, in Russia, or maybe Canada.
I grew up in the bomb shelter/jumping under desks era too, and learned “the evils of godless communism” at an early age. I with you, Jean, in asking where she went to school. I knew more about the constitution and how our system of government works by 8th grade than she seems to know right now.
What utter revisionist blather! For years “they” have been trying to rewrite history to prove that America was founded as a Christian nation. But she’s trying to rewrite history of a more recent era, one that a whole lot of us lived through. She’s a bigger idiot than I thought….and that’s saying something!
I think she’s conniving. She’s trying to revive or create divisiveness using every generational fear tactic she can. This is just chapter 1. I’m guessing the whole book is laced with mistruths designed to stoke fear and divisiveness.
McCarthyism revival – We were taught soviets and China was good.
Wrong!…. but she’s reaching back to the kinds of issues that galvanized the republicans. They always do better when they have something to be against.
Freedom – Don’t tread on me vs do what ever feels good.
She’s conjuring up the divisions of the 60’s and 70’s.
Elites are bad and teach bad things about the founding documents.
It is the educated elites that you can’t trust. They must be the ones who taught her and everyone that Russia and China were good.
Full circle. We’ll be enduring a lot more of this crap while we watch a segment of the population eat it up.
She is clever about how she wants to keep her based fired up. This is who the book is for AND for her personal pocketbook. This is win-win for Sarah. She probably won’t become president but she’ll become rich trying and leave in her wake as much divisiveness as she create because it serves her, not our country.
America by Heart is designed to strike fear in the hearts of those so predisposed to follow her to further engrain and enmesh their loyalty.
I think those who want to call her on her mistruths should be doing it with wary eye of what her intent is because, I believe, it is insideous. It let’s her off the hook in terms of being accountable of what she is feeding this country if we believe these atrocities are pure stupidity rather than calculated.
I have to wonder about just WHO is targeted as a focus group when she wrote this 2nd book.
Surely it can’t be the 50-60-70 year olds who actually REMEMBER the under-the-desk drills and why we did them. Won’t they be saying, “what’s she talking about?” when they read this chapter?
There are fewer 20-30-40 year olds who dote on Sarah Palin enough to buy her books and wait overnight in freezing weather to swoon over her, but it’s conceivable that a good proportion of these people have been home-schooled, who know nothing about McCarthyism, Hollywood blacklisting, and the Cold War history of the 50s and 60s.
That latter group must surely comprised a single-digit percentage of the American electorate, should it come to that.
Who are the first people taken out and shot in an authoritarian dictator takeover? The educated elites. Gotta fire up the “proles” and get them behind the removal of the educated people who can think and reason and would dare to speak up against the dictator.
I do believe the Snowbilly Grifter will go the way of so many lottery winners – she will BLOW the ton of dough she has made and then be poor and without power or applause. The good ole whyte boyz in the Rethug party will DESTROY her in a debate – they actually want the job.
I was a conscious, albeit young, American in the 50’s, came of age in the 60’s, set off on life in the 70’s. “All Sarah all the time” cannot change this. Too many baby boomers really did live thru it. Granted, boomers grew up in both the north and south of USA. Experiences were different, but the history is documented for this time by not only the well written but also television, the new medium.
She can’t change that. When will she just go away!!
AKM, I’m for the contributions to you. I am so glad that you have a good dog and an adequate liquor supply and selections of tea. Forecast is for snow. Hope you have alternative reading, or other happy and gratifying pursuits. You are the deserving. nem
All my instructors taught just the opposite of what she is claiming was being taught, and our local bomb shelter was at the public library and marked by the yellow and black radio-active warning symbol. But remember, Sarah lives in Opposite World, where up is down, and liberal, progressive, and conservative are all antonyms of their dictionary definitions.
Could it be that’s what Chuck Heath was teaching? Does she really believe the garbage she spews, or is it just that she will say anything to continue to line her pockets at the expense of her faithful minions?
I’d love to hear her try to explain the Cold War in this context.
Me too. I started elementary school at Talkeetna Elementary in Mountain View, Anchorage. A lot of people don’t know that Talkeetna Elementary burned down in the 50’s, after which Mt.View Elementary was built.
We had the under the desk drills and I also remember on drill when we actually walked to the Glenn Highway as part of our drill
I went to 3rd grade in a quonset hut on the park strip. Don’t recall any “atomic bomb” drills that year, though.
Well, the Snowbilly Grifter was not around during the “atom-bomb drills” that we were subjected to in the public schools in the early 60s — guess there was “no history” if Snowbilly Grifter did not know about it – she sounds like she gets all her information from Beckanoia.
Just a heads up as you try to make sense of Sarah’s new book… McCains handlers tried to pump Sarah’s head full of basic high school civics facts (like telling her what the Vice President actually does) during their failed campaign but it was too much of a mental challenge for her…They found her attention span to be close to that of a six year old.. They then came up with the idea of using classic movies to form her world view…Here’s the list:
American Government: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
African affairs (so she could bone up on the “country” where Obama was born): Tarzan of the Apes
Asian affairs: Kung Fu Panda
European affairs (including dangers of European socialism): The Adventures of Robin Hood (Errol Flynn version)
Russian affairs: From Russia with Love (James Bond outsmarts the commie Russian spys)
Australian affairs: Crocodile Dundee
Middle Eastern affairs: Beau Geste starring Gary Cooper
Mexican affairs: The Alamo starring John Wayne
Canadian affairs: Sergeant.Preston of the Yukon
Alaskan affairs: Balto (Disney animated version)
To quote “Bill the Cat”…..”GAAAAAKKK”!
benlomond2:
PERFECT!!
Of course, that would involve reading, and Ms. Quittypants seems to have a problem with that.
Schoolhouse Rock, indeed.
She reminds me of people who know their “rights” – from watching Law & Order.
*I’ll have to*
Do you think that if she drinks what Sarah drinks she’ll be able to make sense of it all?
I’ll have send AKM some Baileys.
There isn’t enough booze in the WORLD to make me wade through this tub o’tripe.
Who’s going to take our fearless blogger out to get her blind drunk? Or send a couple vats of vodka her way?
I guffawed at her “Mr. Smith” references too–as I happened to have read about the political views of many of the people involved in that project.
You know what? I *almost* hope this book gets a very wide reading by more than just her ardent fans. She’s shown her hand (covered in scribble) and she still got it all wrong. Spectacularly wrong. Almost like the kid she bullied into telling her the answers to the test (’cause she had skipped school the day before) deliberately gave her all the wrong answers and she DIDN’T catch it because she COULDN’T catch it. Lacking the intellectual curiosity to open a text book after all.
Wow. How many more chapters of the crap to go?
Should we sponsor her for reading this?
Let’s make it the 2010/early 2011 Mudflats Fundraiser! For every chapter that is read and “distilled”, I pledge to donate $1 to keeping this web site up and running.
Dagian
Dagian – I’m with you on the need to further AKM’s much needed libations. Perhaps we should set up a fund to be used in purchasing such items as gin and chardonnay? Also, too, maybe treats for Buf, since she’s heavily into the therapeutic massage end of the deal.
I like the 2010/2011 pledge idea. The quitter’s book would then serve some useful purpose.
I second that! You’re a stronger one than I, AKM!
done and raised you a dollar. let’s go pups. this blog takes money to run…although i sent my donation for booze to help AKM to get through this lunatic’s screed.
I forgive you for quitting halfway through your first term – er, chapter.
I think we can stick a fork in Sarah. She’s done. Even Shep Smith was laughing at her on Fox about the North Korea gaffe. And when you have Greta and Beck questioning her parenting abilities….the writing is on the wall.
I am loving these book chapters though. I haven’t stopped giggling all day. 🙂
your comment gives me hope, Irishgirl….
I am bummed that she is trying to hijack feminism. According to a crush of hers, we are a bunch of fat women who don’t like to bath. (Tammy Bruce)
http://www.frumforum.com (Why Republicans make better dates).
Tammy Bruce recently tweeted or retweeted something absolutely horrible about Michelle Obama and coat hangers. She also attended the bots meet-up in Chicago a week or so ago. She is scum.
When Sarah Palin goes down, which is sooner rather than later, all these hangers-on will go down too. They feel empowered at the moment and feel that they can say anything. That won’t last.
As regards fat women, I had the great pleasure of meeting fellow mudpups in Washington recently….not one of us was on a motorized scooter.
I think liberals are more into showers, also too.
I thought that Tammy was a Dem? I agree.
Irishgirl..you’re cracking me up…lol!
Isn’t Tammy a lesbian? Does the Snowbilly Grifter realize this?
I didn’t even know Beck had kids!
Oh, my gawd! This book sounds even worse than I expected. Who was her editor? Piper, Tawd or Trig? You would think she would have learned from her previous book that a little research goes a long way. Is she so dense that she believes everything she “thinks” is true, or does she just have so little respect for her fans she doesn’t even have to try being accurate? I can hardly wait for the point-by-point refudiation mentioned by Nola, above. Surely someone will do a job on this load of crap. I don’t have the stomach to do it.
Damn it, I wish people would stop using “refudiate”, in any form. I don’t care if OED said it was the word of the year, continued use of it, even as humor, brings it closer to acceptance. Besides, the humor value has long ago drifted away.
Poor ole whatzername and her ghosties skipped right on by Thomas Paine’s contributions to the time and place which delivered us the Declaration of Independence…
Probably too scary to think about…
his work still scares people…
Why, he even knew common sense was two words !
Dear whatzername,
The history of thought regarding American exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny , and related ideas has led us hither and yon for over 2 hundred years.
Our first confederation of states fell apart pretty rapidly, you know, the government first arrived at after the Revolution.? This was crafted by the same folks you call the founders with such unquestioning reverence dear.
Our founders worked hard then to try to make a Constitution which might better be used to bind us together without suffocating us. They did ok there- with the seperation of powers thingy and leaving room to duke it out between states, fed, Congress , Supreme Court.They gave us the ability to amend the document so we could keep what still worked and chuck what didn’t.
So- they did a better job the second time. So- we know there is always work to be done and a critical eye to whether we are meeting our own expectations of where we want to go and what we want to be as an ongoing work is a logical outcome of the work by those founders.
While you toot around the country talking about freedom of the American people in the face of pesky federal intervention I hope you stop in eastern Kentucky :
http://www.kentucky.com/2010/09/21/1443725/inspectors-hit-kentucky-mines.html
You can feed those poor souls who work in these mines more of the same crap about individual responsibility that keeps them down already. You can encourage them to be part of the social darwinist structure which has them owing more to corporate creeps who give them jobs than to their own families and neighbors.
Please keep encouraging them to stay afraid for their economic future so they will hide threats to their lives to keep crappy jobs.
We certainly don’t want them to get any crazy socialistic/communistic ideas about their lives and environment being worthy of dignity and parity with made-up on-paper citizens like the corps… do we?
Keep their eyes on the hereafter, the supposed place of peace and security, ok?
Don’t let them look at the sorry sad place supposedly liberal economic theory has landed them, where their only freedom is to leave their homes or take crappo jobs… because we all know it is the entrepreneur/capitalist who is really to be most valued… hunh?
You are a piece of work m’dear… all this hearkening back to a time most people would find themselves disenfranchised in (the ladies, Native Americans, African Americans, immigrants without land… ) as if it was the only moment in time when everything was good and pure and new…
It’s called dreaming and yours is a nightmare hon.
Y’know – I’m quite sure Katie Couric did not mean for it to be a big ol’ “gotcha” question, but I’m beginning to think that asking which publications Palin reads that help to form her world view might be one of the most important to be asked. I wonder if it was not so much that she couldn’t answer the question but rather that she realized she shouldn’t answer it.
If any of the above is really her own world view, well who the heck is she reading ? I don’t happen to believe she is stupid or that she doesn’t read. I do though fully believe she’s incredibly naive as well as manic. I think she’s all about scanning through things and collecting nuggets and believes that is research. For those of you in the know, has she always talked like this or is this Constitution obsession new ? I’m hearing AIP mixed with Assembly of God ” the government has set itself up in God’s place ” but then a whole bunch of Glenn Beckian spew. And his spew is new, too. ( ha . dr. seuss ) So where is this coming from ? All the same ranting points and they seem to have shown up in the past 2 years.
I am guessing she is just parroting what she has heard from her new BFF – Beck – for a lot of this. Some of the constitution/God stuff seems reminiscent of what she has said in the past, but with some changes to make it a little more cohesive, if you will. It still makes no sense to me, but it does read easier.
Gak! Read easier!? She combined Jimmy Stewart/movie/critique on socialists, with Regan/Soviet Union, with activist Supreme Court judges, with an analysis of the Declaration of Independence/Constitution, using Schoolhouse Rock as support– all in the first chapter!!
Ok, I’m digging out every red pen I have, testing the ink supply, rolling up my sleeves…this chapter is going to bleed, drip with red ink. I’d give this book an “F” before I read past the first page, hand it back, and tell Palin to reorganize her ideas and include legitimate proof (if she has any).
I’ll throw the ghost writer under the bus…
LOL!
It wasn’t written to please you, and I’m not being nasty. Nixon appealed to “the silent majority.” Jerry Falwell appealed to “the moral majority.” She appeals to “the ignorant majority.” If someone with name recognition writes it in a book, it must be true, if it matters.
Only makes sense to the “DEFIANTLY IGNORANT”.
Excellent point, Buffalo Gal! There is a photo that has been going around, taken when she was mayor of Wasilla. If you look really closely (as is pointed out by the heroic blog-corps) the pamphlet featured on her desk, positioned as though she had just closed the cover neatly to pose for the photo, is from the John Birch Society. Gosh, remember them-?
Wow, what a “gotcha” question: What do you read? Scary. Couldn’t she even have answered ADN or Frontiersman?
Oh Poor AKM. Yet again you boldly go where others fear. You may just earn a medal for this one!
I, for one, REFUSE to let her have Schoolhouse Rock! She won’t understand any of it anyway!
Hollywood liberal elitists WROTE, ACTED AND DIRECTED Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Imagine that! Not only THAT but Sidney Buchman, who wrote her favorite movie was a COMMIE:
1951—questioned by the House Un-American Committee, admitted being a Communist Party member, 1938–45, and blacklisted from 1953; moved to Europe; 1961—hired by 20th Century-Fox as writer-producer, and worked in Europe for the rest of his career
Read more: Sidney Buchman – Writer – Films as Writer:, Films as Producer:, Publications http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Bo-Ce/Buchman-Sidney.html#ixzz16UaIgIA9
Thank you for pointing that out! That the dreadful commie elitists were the ones that made her “favorite movie” in the first place. Humpf.
As for the McCarthyism of the early 50s, many many lives and careers were ruined by the mere suspicion of communism. Many in Hollywood fled to Europe (think Charlie Chaplin, Larry Adler, many more) or wrote/worked under a pseudonym in order to remain in the county that (apparently) condoned McCarthy’s witch hunts.
and SHE would have supported the House Committee on UnAmerican activities, just like her hero Reagan, who sold people out too.
And don’t forget, her BFF Crazy Shelly Bachmann would like to start that committee up all over again.
I think more than anything, it’s that part of Reagan’s history that irritates me the most. He was willing to step all over anyone and everyone to get ahead. That’s not a character trait that someone should be proud of.
yes nan. i remember the adults around me discussing what was going on. it was a shameful time.
Haha! That has me cackling on the couch! Great point! Someone should publish a point-by-point refudiation of the idiot!
LILYBART!!!!….good catch.
Yep that was a good one for sure.
That is my fav movie as well, but I see it totally different then she does and I have seen it so many times I can quote it word for word.
And I do not remember him asking for a loan from the federal government, but that he said the land would be purchased by the pennies of the boys who would camp and learn there.
Tell her to go back to the “old” days and that way we can get rid of her as the old laws would put a woman in her place and she would be barefoot and pregnant and told to keep her mouth shut.
She ought to kiss the feet of a progressive, ones who gave her the right to spew her crap.
That woman ins an idiot!!!!
OMG! It all makes so much sense now!! Up is down, North is South, and Sarah is the most amazing recruiter that the Communist Party has ever had! What a brilliant ruse she has been orchestrating – she’s not stupid, she’s just slowly, insipidly wooing her followers over to her Communist beliefs! I should have KNOWN that her favorite movie was written by a Blacklisted Commie!
She cleverly insinuates “Schoolhouse Rock”, the product of those Leftie Communists at PBS, into the book to slowly bring her followers into the fold. How clever….
And surely she threw in the bit about the “Constitutional Literalism” to call attention to all it’s glaring and obvious problems in an attempt to plant the seed among her followers that, taken to its logical outcome, most of them would NEVER be able to vote (wealthy male landowners only, please).
It all just make so much sense now…. all the stupidity, all the hypocrisy, the craziness and just plain wrongness of Sarah has been a ruse. She is clearly using it as a Trojan Horse in a brilliant scheme to eventually point out the wrongheadedness of the Radical Right. How incredibly selfless and altruistic of her! And who woulda thunk it?
Wow. It just gets better, the deeper you look!
I am curious if she did well in her Alaska debates? Does this woman have any substance or is she all fluff? I am trying to be open. Although, I find it hard to be serious. I am about over the Palin all the time stuff. I can’t bring myself to watch her show or read her book. Thanks for doing it, brave soul!!!
Hope, what I recall from the gubernatorial debates is that it was all sound bites and platitudes then as well. She never really said anything. And yes, she was snarky then too. She was up against two very intelligent and accomplished men. In one debate she said that when governor she would hire him as her cook (he was a deli owner) and that the other (a man very sharp with statistics) could be her accountant.
Why Alaskans didn’t notice this meanness, I don’t know. They ate it up.
I am thinking this will be her style. Yikes, I am just hoping that people start asking her some tough questions. I don’t think we will have to worry about this but I am concerned that the Republicans (males) are not saying a word. She would probably be a great puppet for them. For me, I will cry. I can’t believe that we have watched this mess for the last two years. Depressing, I say depressing. I don’t understand how some people do not find her offensive. Just don’t get it.
Great catch. Please, oh, please someone ask her about this on camera. Bill O’Reilly? Are you there?
Thanks, AKM.
Looks like there’s more fun ahead:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-26/sarah-palins-america-by-heart-distorts-feminist-history/
Excellent article.. and the fact based comments are very good… along with the pathetic trolls defending Sarah…
BTW, thank you, thank you, thank you, AKM. Whatever would we do without your courage?
The only worse thing to do would be to have to listen to this crap in a recorded book version – one recorded by the alleged author. Now, that thought, ought to make reading it a little easier (though not by much perhaps).
That’s assuming she could read what the ghost writer wrote.
I saw the book at Barnes and Noble the other day and then I saw the audio book of it. I couldn’t bring myself to touch it (wouldn’t want someone to think I’m actually interested in buying it – I like all the staff there and their opinion of me matters) to see if she read it or if they found someone else to slog through it. Some books read well aloud. But I can’t imagine that anything she “writes” would be easy to read out loud.
I’m having nightmares just thinking about that (listening to Sarah read her book out loud)! Hey — this could be more effective than waterboarding, and {somewhat] less likely to violate the Geneva Accords — at least until other nations catch on, and insist that we stop.
Sarah is going down in history. Down, down, down. America has had its share of crackpots, idiots and just plain silly candidates for President, but Sarah Palin is going to down as THE worst candidate ever.
Congratulations, Sarah. You’ve set a new low, which, if we are lucky, will remain yours to treasure for decades.
Good d_g! Precious Puppy Buf is going to be bald from all the petting to lower AKM’s blood pressure after reading this crap!
Who is writing this garbage for $P? Although, should she run for presidential, hey it’s all laid out in print so Mitt Romney (or whoever) can take her to the cleaners to fumigate. Crazy in motion.
I need a Margarita………………………..or 10
Oh. Lord have mercy. That is just wrong in so very many ways.
I heard a guy on the radio the other day talking about this book. He said it was 400 pages long, but she quit after the first 200.
And, it is already $12.99 at Amazon.
Page 16 really underscores this woman’s belief system. Disgusting. Although, I keep remembering her opinion of some judges. I guess only the Supremes count? And, only some of the Supremes if you think about it.
I have one better than that. We took our son to 1/2 Price Books last weekend after he had recovered being ill and they have a LARGE display of it, 1/2 price. Palin’s people must have bought it in bulk and then resold them to the used market to make up the purchase. That way it doesn’t cost as much to be called a “Best Seller”.
But people were getting plenty of laughs off the display because it made it look as though even Palin’s supporters couldn’t stand to have the book in their homes any longer than necessary.
Which Supreme? Because that Effie was a bitch.