Palin Won't Go Away - Blames Media, Bloggers

Sarah Palin is like that irritating rash that just won't go way. You think it's gone but it starts popping up again and again. I had hoped I had written my last post about Sarah Palin in 2008, but it looks like I am going to have to refute her nonsense again in 2009. I was one of the first to immediately reject McCain's insulting pick for a VP (see post here). And as long as she keeps popping up her head I will be forced to continue to smack her back down like one of those "Whack-A-Mole" games.

Her recent comments:

1. In speaking about being able to see Russia from Alaska she said the following: "You can! You can see Russia from Alaska. Something like that -- a factual statement that was taken out of context and mocked -- what you have to do is let that go."
   What she fails to speak about is that she tried to imply that being able to see Russia from Alaska was a foreign policy qualification. Nice try Sarah, but trying to rewrite history in the same manner as George W. Bush just isn't going to cut it. We are onto that game we aren't playing that here.
   
   
2. "Bored, anonymous, pathetic bloggers who lie annoy me."
   Well I can only speak for this blogger who is NOT bored, NOT pathetic, NOT anonymous and who challenges the Queen of Ignorance to point out any lie on this blog.
   


3. On Katie Couric she states the following: "I never saw the interview after Katie edited it, they spliced it together, did whatever they did and then aired it -- never saw how it came across. But my understanding is that . . . so many other topics that were brought up certainly weren't, uh, portrayed as accurately perhaps as they could have, should have been after that interview."
   I'm still trying to understand the incomprehensible Palin babble-speak, but I think she is trying to imply that editing made her look bad during the Couric interview. I have news for you Sarah, it wasn't the editing that made you look bad. Your stunning ignorance on a broad range of topics and inability to communicate effectively made you look bad. In other words YOU made yourself look bad. Quit trying to blame Katie Couric for your disastrous performance.
   
   My problem all along with Sarah Palin has not been the drama within her family or rifts within the McCain Palin campaign. It has always been the clear fact that she is incredibly unqualified to be anywhere near the White House.

Science Is About To Return To The U.S.

Science has been on an 8 year holiday, but it is currently "dusting itself off" as Obama prepares to replace the 'science-denying" Bush Administration. Here are a few choice quotes from Bill Nye:
"President-elect Obama, in contrast with his predecessor, is fundamentally in favor of science."
"Science, more succinctly the process of science, is the best idea humans have ever had."
"Our ability to observe and understand causes and effects in nature has led to our ability to feed billions, map the world, shape cities..."
"Science is empowering like nothing else."
"For years, scientists, enlightened engineers, entrepreneurs, and anyone concerned with the future have worried as the United States' science has waned. Science had been marginalized, regarded as another special interest. But actually, science is of the broadest interest, the most inclusive discipline there is."
"At last, we will have a president, who understands the value of investing in science and especially science and math education." LINK

Hero or Villain?

Read more about the man who exposed the Bush Administration's illegal warrantless wiretapping program. Remind me again why Bush wasn't impeached and imprisoned for this clear violation of law and the U.S. Constitution?

Eighteen months after Thomas Tamm first disclosed what he knew, the Times reported that President George W. Bush had secretly authorized the NSA to intercept phone calls and e-mails of individuals inside the United States without judicial warrants. The drama followed a quiet, separate rebellion within the highest ranks of the Justice Department concerning the same program. (James Comey, then the deputy attorney general, together with FBI head Robert Mueller and several other senior Justice officials, threatened to resign.) President Bush condemned the leak to the Times as a "shameful act." Federal agents launched a criminal investigation to determine the identity of the culprit. LINK

The Truth = 1, Conspiracy Theorists = 0

STUNNING NEWS: OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE APPEAL FAILS!

In what must be unbelievable news to the right-wing conspiracy theorists who have been pushing this Obama birth certificate nonsense, the Supreme Court delivers a punch to the gut by rejecting Leo Donofrio's appeal today:

"Without any comment whatsoever, the Supreme Court today declined to take up an appeal by a New Jersey man who questioned President-elect Barack Obama’s eligibility for the presidency.."

Not that this will convince any of these conspiracy nuts who need NO credible evidence to buy in to a conspiracy theory because they read it on a right-wing blog or heard it on pushed on the air by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Jerome Corsi, etc.

More On The "Obama Birth Certificate" Conspiracy Nuts

Some choice quotes from a story at Salon.com on these idiots who will NEVER be convinced that Barack Obama is eligible to be President of the United States no matter how much evidence is put in front of their faces (NOTE: Click on image for a full-size view of Obama's birth certificate).

1. The fact that the case has gone to conference doesn't mean anything about its merits -- the court will also be deciding whether to take up a number of other cases, and the chances that the suit will actually be heard is exceedingly small. Eugene Volokh, a law professor at UCLA, has calculated that over the past eight years the court has considered in conference 842 cases that sought a stay. Only 60 of them were actually heard.

2. Any inconvenient facts are irrelevant. People who believe in a conspiracy theory "develop a selective perception, their mind refuses to accept contrary evidence," Chip Berlet, a senior analyst with Political Research Associates who studies such theories, says. "As soon as you criticize a conspiracy theory, you become part of the conspiracy."

3. Evan Harrington, a social psychologist who is an associate professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, agrees. "One of the tendencies of the conspiracy notion, the whole appeal, is that a lot of the information the believer has is secret or special," Harrington says. "The real evidence is out there, and you can give them all this evidence, but they'll have convenient ways to discredit it."

4. Rush Limbaugh already suggested that Obama's trip to Hawaii to see his ailing grandmother, who died not long after, was somehow connected to the controversy. Others, like Michael Savage, followed Limbaugh's lead, saying Obama was going to Hawaii to alter the record.

5. Not surprisingly, almost all of the people who've been most prominent in pushing this story have a history of conspiracist thought. There's Jerome Corsi, who's best known as the co-author of the book that launched the Swift boat vets; he's a chief proponent of the claim that the government is secretly planning to form a "North American Union" with Canada and Mexico. Philip Berg, who filed the lawsuit that had until now drawn the most public attention, is a 9/11 Truther. Andy Martin, who's credited with starting the myth that Obama is a Muslim and has been intimately involved in the birth certificate mess as well, was denied admission to the Illinois bar because of a psychiatric evaluation that showed he had "moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character." He also has a long history of anti-Semitism. Robert Schulz, who's responsible for the ads in the Chicago Tribune, is a fairly notorious tax protester.

LINK

Obama To Appoint Chemical and Biological Weapons Czar After Bush "Punts"

"President-elect Barack Obama plans to appoint a new White House official to coordinate efforts to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear or biological weapons, advisers say, giving the highest priority to thwarting a catastrophic attack that a bipartisan panel warns could come in the next five years."

"A law requiring the position, passed by Congress more than a year ago and signed into law by President Bush, has been ignored for more than 15 months, in part because Bush opposes giving the Senate the power to confirm the official." LINK

Obama Versus Bush On The Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB)

Barack Obama has been receiving the PDB (Presidential Daily Briefing) 7 days a week versus 6 days a week for President Bush. I guess Bush wasn't really looking at this President thing as a full-time gig. He probably needs one day to ponder the "end times" and he figured that taking a day off might make that happen a little sooner. Can we have this inauguration now instead of waiting until January?