The Garlic: Troopergate

Showing posts with label Troopergate. Show all posts

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me ...

Now, we can't be overly cynical here.

I'm sure it was just a coincidence, a bump in the schedule of such a high-flying campaign, that Mommy Moose gave here first "Policy" speech on the same day that she, and First Busy Body, husband Todd, gave (Wink, Wink) their testimony to the "real" Troopergate inquiry.

And, believe it our not, she still managed to screw things up, and generate head-shaking and headlines.

Richard Wolfe, of Newsweek, on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night called it "The most mindless, ignorant, uninformed comment we've seen from Governor Palin ..."

On top of the gaffe, her speech also, as Glenn Greenwald points out, goes against Stumblin' Bumblin' Fly Boy's much-heralded "Spending Freeze".

The "policy speech" chosen for the Wasilla Whiz Kid was on Special Needs, something, naturally, she could speak of personally, a sort of home-field gimme.

Here's the video of it;

Palin hits fruit fly research but it has helped autism

Got that?

This is a matter of how we prioritize the money that we spend. We've got a three trillion dollar budget, and Congress spends some 18 billion dollars a year on earmarks for political pet projects. That's more than the shortfall to fully fund the IDEA. And where does a lot of that earmark money end up? It goes to projects having little or nothing to do with the public good -- things like fruit fly research in Paris, France, or a public policy center named for the guy who got the earmark. In our administration, we're going to reform and refocus. We're going to get our federal priorities straight, and fulfill our country's commitment to give every child opportunity and hope in life.

She's dissing the research community and their use of Fruit Flies to combat Autism.

As Think Progress notes;

Palin did not specify what fruit fly research earmark she was referring to (presumably a grant for olive fruit fly research), but she is apparently unaware that scientific research with fruit flies has led to valuable discoveries that have boosted autism research, as a study at the University of North Carolina demonstrated last year:

[S]cientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have shown that a protein called neurexin is required for..nerve cell connections to form and function correctly.

The discovery, made in Drosophila fruit flies may lead to advances in understanding autism spectrum disorders, as recently, human neurexins have been identified as a genetic risk factor for autism.

The study of fruit flies has also been used for other autism research and “revolutionize[d]” the study of birth defects.

Or, what PZ Myers says, in his "Sarah Palin: Ignorant and anti-science";

This idiot woman, this blind, shortsighted ignoramus, this pretentious clod, mocks basic research and the international research community. You damn well better believe that there is research going on in animal models — what does she expect, that scientists should mutagenize human mothers and chop up baby brains for this work? — and countries like France and Germany and England and Canada and China and India and others are all respected participants in these efforts.

Yes, scientists work on fruit flies. Some of the most powerful tools in genetics and molecular biology are available in fruit flies, and these are animals that are particularly amenable to experimentation. Molecular genetics has revealed that humans share key molecules, the basic developmental toolkit, with all other animals, thanks to our shared evolutionary heritage (something else the wackaloon from Wasilla denies), and that we can use these other organisms to probe the fundamental mechanisms that underlie core processes in the formation of the nervous system — precisely the phenomena Palin claims are so important.

This is where the Republican party has ended up: supporting an ignorant buffoon who believes in the End Times and speaking in tongues while deriding some of the best and most successful strategies for scientific research. In this next election, we've got to choose between the 21st century rationalism and Dark Age inanity. It ought to be an easy choice.

So, what is this?

Palin just being her usual, vapid self?

The staff, the speechwriter, forgetting to vet the speech, to employ that obscure tool called "The Google"?

Or, is it the beginning of politicizing the Fruit Fly, running the Fruit Fly through the Right Wing Freak Show grinder, noting Ms. Ya'Bet'cha's designation of the "Paris, France" Fruit Fly.

Will we soon see charges of researches being targeted for "pallin' around with Paris, France Fruit Fly researchers", or pitting those with the "Paris, France" autism, versus the Real American, "Freedom Autism"?

Rumor has it she's going to give another "policy" speech on Energy next week.

Boy, I can hardly wait for what comes out of that one.

Bonus Shoo Fly Links

Wonk Room: Analyzing Palin’s Special Needs Policy Address

Tristero: Republicans vs. Science

Christian News Wire: Pro-Life Reaction to Gov. Palin's Policy Speech Addressing Special Needs Children

Boston Globe: Palin spotlights special needs in first major policy speech

New York Times: Palin Promises Choice for Disabled Students

John Cole: The Cure to Autism Involves Mocking a Route to the Cure

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Alaskan Lie

With all that's going on the past few days, the whirlwind of the campaigns, McKKKain's in particular, the Wall Street Meltdown and Hank's Heist (following the Bush Doctrine, Hank Paulson went shopping during a crisis - He went out and bought banks today!), we can't help bringing our thoughts back around to Rich Lowry.

Poor Little Richie.

All those mean bullies picking on his Sarah Palin... His Ms. Winking Excitement ...His personal dream cloud of starbursts.

We (along with a bevy of others, including a devastating take by Keith Olbermann) wrote about how Little Richie got all straight and excited when Mommy Moose winked - at him - during the VP debate.

Little Richie was beside himself, barely able to keep his pounding heart inside his chest.

But it's been a rough sled since then.

The Wasilla Whiz Kid got whacked in that Troopergate Report a few days later (though, she stuck her Cheneyesque chin out and deemed herself cleared, earning her a tag of being "Orwellian" from the locals up there).

C'mon Rich, even you have to look beyond the starburst dust to see that is really quite a stretch.

Then, there was Christopher Hitchens, clubbing her like a baby seal;

And the only public events that have so far featured his absurd choice of running mate have shown her to be a deceiving and unscrupulous woman utterly unversed in any of the needful political discourses but easily trained to utter preposterous lies and to appeal to the basest element of her audience.

The most insulting thing that a politician can do is to compel you to ask yourself: "What does he take me for?" Precisely this question is provoked by the selection of Gov. Sarah Palin. I wrote not long ago that it was not right to condescend to her just because of her provincial roots or her piety, let alone her slight flirtatiousness, but really her conduct since then has been a national disgrace. It turns out that none of her early claims to political courage was founded in fact, and it further turns out that some of the untested rumors about her—her vindictiveness in local quarrels, her bizarre religious and political affiliations—were very well-founded, indeed. Moreover, given the nasty and lowly task of stirring up the whack-job fringe of the party's right wing and of recycling patent falsehoods about Obama's position on Afghanistan, she has drawn upon the only talent that she apparently possesses.

With McCain, the "experience" is subject to sharply diminishing returns, as is the rest of him, and with Palin the very word itself is a sick joke.

Ouch!

Those starburst are really starting to fade, aren't they Richie?

And, I'm sure you weren't too pleased (and having to deal with Christopher Buckley, on top of it), seeing John Cleese mock and disparage your Ya'Betch'ya Gal.

Then, the anvil dropped on your head today - Matthew Dowd.

From Steve Benen;

"Matthew Dowd was the chief strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign, so it came as something of a surprise to see him eviscerate John McCain today a panel at the TimeWarner summit."

"They didn't let John McCain pick the person he wanted to pick as VP," Dowd declared during the Time Warner Summit panel. "When Sarah Palin got picked instead of Joe Lieberman, which I fundamentally believed would have given John McCain the best opportunity in this race... as soon as he picked Palin, that whole ready versus not ready argument was not credible."

Saying that Palin was a "net negative" on the ticket, he went on: "[McCain] knows, in his gut, that he put somebody unqualified on the ballot. He knows that in his gut, and when this race is over that is something he will have to live with... He put somebody unqualified on that ballot and he put the country at risk, he knows that."

Oh man, go ahead cry, if you want ... We know, it's gotta hurt.

We know, with McKKKain sinking in the polls like the Titanic, you're probably too distraught to write another gushing post, to gather your thoughts, to express yourself properly, to come to grips with the wink-less life you have to face.

So, we're giving you some help.

You can sing this, over-and-over, to help cleanse your heart, and sweep all those starbursts out the door.

In fact, everybody .. C'mon, everybody pitch in and help Little Richie sing this tune ... It's classic and you all know, so let it rip ...

Alaskan Lie

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that wink used to make me smile.
And I knew if she had her chance
That she could make the GOP base dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.

But October made her shiver
With every paper that was delivered
Bad news on the doorstep;
She couldn’t make one more wink hep.

I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about her Ethics slide
But something touched me deep inside
The day the Winkin' died.

So bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie.
Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra
But the wolves, they did hide
And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died.
"this’ll be the day the winkin' died."

Did you write the book of Ethics,
And do you have faith in God above,
If the Bible tells you so?
Do you believe in Shock and Awe,
Can Rev. Murthee save your mortal soul,
And can you teach me how to wink real slow?

Well, I know that you wanted to fire him
`cause I saw you winkin' in the gym.
You both kicked off your shoes.
Man, I dig that Rovian ruse.

I was a lonely Corner broncin’ buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck,
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the Winkin' died.

I started singin’,
bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie.
Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra
But the wolves, they did hide
And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died.
"this’ll be the day the winkin' died."

Now for ten weeks we’ve been on our own
And ice grows fat on a frozen stone,
But that’s not how it used to be.
When the McCain sang for the rabid mob,
And you jumped in cause it was your job
And a voice that came from you and me,

Oh, and while the Maverick was looking down,
You stole his ugly racist crown.
The Legislature was adjourned;
The Ethics verdict was returned.
And while Obama rang up good marks,
The Right Wing Freak Show practiced in the park,
And they sang dirges in the dark
The day the Winkin' died.

We were singing,
bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie.
Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra
But the wolves, they did hide
And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died.
"this’ll be the day the winkin' died."

Helter skelter in an economic swelter.
Investors flew off to an island tax shelter,
Eight hundred Points down and falling fast.
Mac's crowd was foul, even crass
As he tried to make forward pass,
Before racist crowds that had amassed

Now the half-time air smelled of flop and doom
While the cable anchors sang Mac's marshall tune.
We all got up to wink,
Oh, but we never got the chance!
`cause the issues tried to take the field;
The talking heads refused to yield.
And only nonsense was revealed
The day the winkin' died.

We started singing,
bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie.
Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra
But the wolves, they did hide
And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died.
"this’ll be the day the winkin' died."

Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A electorate lost in space
With no time left to start again.
So come on: Sarah be nimble, Sarah be quick!
Sarah spin that Ethics trick
Cause lying is the devil’s only friend.

Oh, and as I watched her on the stage
Her fans were seized in fits of rage.
No spin doctor born in hell
could quell her awful smell
And as the rhetoric climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite,
I saw Rove laughing with delight
The day the winkin' died

He was singing,
bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie.
Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra
But the wolves, they did hide
And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died.
"this’ll be the day the winkin' died."

I met a girl from a state that is now blue
And I asked her for some happy news,
But she just smiled and said it had just turned that way.
I went down to the McCain store
Where I’d heard the smears years before,
But is was still the only music they would play.

And in the streets the Mob did scream,
The critics cried, and the pollster creamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The church bells all were broken.
And the three pols I admire most:
Dubster, Dickie and Reagan's ghost
They caught the last hearse for the coast
The day the winkin' died.

And they were singing,
bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie.
Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra
But the wolves, they did hide
And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died.
"this’ll be the day the winkin' died."

They were singing,
bye-bye, Miss Alaskan Lie.
Buzzed my 'copter 'bove the tundra
But the wolves, they did hide
And that good ol' maverick was drinkin’ Kool Aid and rye
Singin’, "this’ll be the day the winkin' died.
"this’ll be the day the winkin' died."

Buck up Rich, Buck Up!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Top Ten Cloves: Things About If John McCain and Sarah Palin Discovered America

News Item: Columbus Day Holiday

10. Selection of unknown, and inexperienced, First Mate Sarah Palin would have rippled through Spain

9. Name of Ships - Straight Ship Express, Country First and Maverick (And, he had, at least four other ships)

8. McCain would have been criticized by other navigators and explorers as too old to be making expedition

7. First bit of a little rough seas, McCain would "suspend" the voyage (but not really)

6. McCain's special advisor for voyage, Phil Gramm, causes a stir, calling ship's crew a bunch of whiners

5. Weeks lost at sea due to following coordinates for legendary "The Bridge To Nowhere"

4. Cindy McCain (her family money funded McCain's voyages) irritating ship's cook, stealing his recipes and claiming them as her own

3. Hanoi Hilton didn't exist yet, so, no POW-POW-POW stories for McCain

2. Palin, and husband Todd, cause controversy the entire voyage, incessantly trying to get ship's Master-at-Arms fired

1. Native Americans would be known as today, Native MyFriends

Friday, October 10, 2008

This Has To Frost The Dead Campaign Express! ... Plus Breaking Updates!

(I had written this post late this afternoon, with the intention of posting it early evening. However, all hell broke loose, twice, so, rather then write three new posts, or spend an inordinate time rewriting this one to cover all, I am posting it, as written, and will have updates below it)

The Jed Report comes up with a The Clutch Post of The Day today, and, I have to believe, this will send Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain into an absolute wife-name-calling, steam-out-of-the-ears, rant.

It's been enough this week, that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden have called him a pussy, for not being man enough to level his lies and smears to Obama directly, to his face, as he had the opportunity to do at the last debate, instead the debunked Maverick has, mostly, hid behind Mommy Moose's skirt to throw his mud.

So, what's a good follow-up to this?

Obama Knew It Was Coming All Along

Remember in late July when Barack Obama predicted John McCain's attack strategy? Remember McCain's howls of protest in response? Well, it turns out that Obama was right about McCain's attacks. As it turns out, he knew McCain better than McCain knew McCain. I guess that means we can call him "Nostrobamus."

Here's the video of it, and you can see how much fun he was having, and how confident Obama was in making his prediction.

Obama Knew It Was Coming All Along

And, back then, what did the Stumblin' Bumblin' Campaign do?

Complain and whine that Obama was playing "the race card"

"Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck," Rick Davis, Mr. McCain's campaign manager, said in a statement. "It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong."

Oh ...

"It's divisive, negative, shameful and wrong"

Kind of, like, what the Dead Campaign Express has been doing for the past few weeks - that kind of divisive, negative, shameful and wrong?"

Dwarfs, Finks, Phonies and Frauds, the bunch of'em!

Update #1 - McCain Rents Some Religion

This was the first "Hell Breaking Loose" ... Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain thought better of appearing again today in the proverbial KKK costume and actually bitched back to the foaming masses, who have been attending his rallies like Romans rooting for the lions

Ana Marie Cox has a good account of it, in her "McCain Denounces Pitchfork-Wavers"

But then something weird happens: He acknowledges the "energy" people have been showing at rallies, and how glad he is that people are excited. But, he says, "I respect Sen. Obama and his accomplishments." People booed at the mention of his name. McCain, visibly angry, stopped them: "I want EVERYONE to be respectful, and lets make sure we are."

Videos HERE, HERE and HERE

All kinds of hand-wringing on the cables over this.

For me, let's wait and see if, as they have done so often, the Dead Campaign Express is playing for the news cycle (and, perhaps an attempt to mute Update #2, below), or his "My Fellow Prisoners" line the other day is a signal that he's cracking, that the Rove Rats have him in a certain "campaign prison" and he's trying to bust out.

No doubt, even for this fleeting moment, the Hannity's and Limbaugh's will be painting him wearing a dress today, and the Right Wing Freak Show will be calling for the ticket to dump him, and let Mommy Moose take it home ...

Errr ... Well ... There may be a slight problem with that plan, if that's where they go with it ...

Update #2 - The Day The Winking Stopped

Seems like Steven Branchflower and the Alaskan Legislature bagged a six-pointer today;

Troopergate report: Palin abused power

A legislative investigation has concluded that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power in pushing for the firing of an Alaska state trooper who was once married to her sister, or by failing to prevent her husband Todd from doing so.

Branchflower's report contains four findings. The first concludes that Palin violated the state's executive branch ethics act, which says that "each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust."

Now, keep in mind, Mommy Moose already, yesterday, I think, got the note from Mrs. McCain (no, the mother), that cleared her of all wrong doing for her entire life, so you can expect the Dead Campaign Express to keep her well-fed on with Rev. Wright and William Ayers crackers (Husband Todd will have the duty of tying up McCain and locking him in the closet before each stump speech).

Oh Boy, it's going to be a busy weekend ...

Help Me Mister Wizard!