Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Sarah Palin doesn't play in Bethlehem

Sarah Palin failed to visit Bethlehem during her visit to Israel. She drove to a checkpoint, then turned around.

William Butler Yeats wrote of visitors to Bethlehem, years ago:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Politico has a story about Palin's spin on her failure to enter Bethlehem, but the Guardian article, linked above, states: "Tourists need to carry passports to cross checkpoints into the occupied Palestinian territory ... ." Bethlehem is not part of Israel.

It is not Sarah Palin's hour.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Politico get its story about Palin/Griffin 'feud' wrong!

On March 6th, Politico's Andy Barr wrote:
Sarah Palin is taking a swing at Kathy Griffin, calling the comic a "bully" for frequently targeting the former Alaska governor's family for ridicule.

"Kathy Griffin can do anything to me or say anything about me," Palin said in an interview Saturday on Fox News. "She's a 50-year-old adult bully, a has-been comedian." ...
Today, March 8th, Politico's Juana Summers wrote:
Kathy Griffin called Sarah Palin's family comedic fair game after Palin complained that the comic too often puts the former Alaska governor's family at the butt of her jokes. ...
But PopEater's Rob Shuter reported on January 5th, long before Palin complained:
You would think that after the backlash Kathy Griffin received for making fun of Bristol Palin's weight, the red-headed comedienne would have learned her lesson. Well, think again. Kathy has her eye set on a new Palin to make fun off. "I think it's Willow's year to go down," Griffin snarked to The Hollywood Reporter. "In 2011, I want to offend a new Palin."
Kathy Griffin made fun of Bristol's weight gain in early December of 2010. It was the subject of one post, then a follow-up post.

Why would anyone of presidential stature engage with what she, herself, calls "a 50-year-old adult bully, a has-been comedian?" And why three months late?

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Sarah Palin: The Elephant in the Room Full of Elephants

The Washington Post's George Will writes about "weirdness" in the field of potential Republican candidates for 2012, without once mentioning Sarah Palin:
If pessimism is not creeping on little cat's feet into Republicans' thinking about their 2012 presidential prospects, that is another reason for pessimism. This is because it indicates they do not understand that sensible Americans, who pay scant attention to presidential politics at this point in the electoral cycle, must nevertheless be detecting vibrations of weirdness emanating from people associated with the party.
He goes on to describe the strange obsession with Kenya of two of the potential nominees: Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee. Gingrich seems to be "theatrically tiptoeing" toward candidacy while speculating that President Obama has a '"Kenyan, anti-colonial" mentality.' Huckabee claimed on a radio show that Obama grew up in Kenya, insulted the British by returning a bust of Winston Churchill, and that "he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists." Will writes of what Gingrich claims to be his "stunning insight," '"the most profound insight I have read in the last six years about Barack Obama." Gingrich begins with a faux question: "What if he is so outside our comprehension" that he can be understood "only if you understand Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior?" Then Gingrich says this is not just a question, it is "the most accurate, predictive model for his behavior."'

Will doesn't come right out and call Gingrich and Huckabee liars, but writes sarcastically, "The architects and administrators of the British Empire were imperialists? Perish the thought." He does, however, call Huckabee's spokesman, who said that Huckabee had "misspoken," a liar.

Will concludes:
Let us not mince words. There are at most five plausible Republican presidents on the horizon - Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Utah governor and departing ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, former Massachusetts governor Romney and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.

So the Republican winnowing process is far advanced. But the nominee may emerge much diminished by involvement in a process cluttered with careless, delusional, egomaniacal, spotlight-chasing candidates to whom the sensible American majority would never entrust a lemonade stand, much less nuclear weapons.

Sarah Palin wasn't mentioned; not once, even though she's certainly "careless, delusional," and "spotlight-chasing." George Will probably considers Palin done -- cooked elephant? -- and out of the picture; he has always considered her to be a lightweight. He may be stalking bigger game; once he takes down Gingrich and Huckabee, the list of potential nominees may be just those he has mentioned.

Recently, Palin said that Republicans' obsession with Obama's birthplace and demands to see his birth certificate were counter-productive. That isn't something she's said all along. In fact, her "enlightenment" came shortly after Karl Rove was critical of the "birthers."

These attempts to use insinuation and innuendo to smear a candidate have a long history. What is interesting about the attempts to smear President Obama is that they are coming from the candidates themselves. Karl Rove knows too well that such things are to be done on the sly, by low level party operatives. The Bush campaign's attempt to smear McCain, in South Carolina, in 2000, by claiming that his adopted daughter was his own child and African-American is a case in point.

"G.O.P.: Birthers are Evil, but a Necessary Evil," has some more information about the "birthers" and Palin's long-time association with them.

George Will's article is titled, "Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich and the spotlight-chasing candidates of 2012."

factcheck.org has "Born in the U.S.A.: The truth about Obama's birth certificate."

Friday, March 4, 2011

Sarah Palin Under Pressure to Make Up Her Mind

Now, no wise cracking that Sarah doesn't have a mind to make up.

From msnbc.com's "Iowa GOP chief: 'Risky' for Palin to ignore Iowa:"
The Iowa Republican Party chairman said Thursday that if Sarah Palin seeks the presidency, she shouldn't think she can win the GOP nomination without seriously participating in the first-in-the-nation caucuses

Matthew Strawn said Iowa caucus-goers do not want to be taken for granted and that they demand to meet — and be wooed by — presidential hopefuls. He said Iowans cherish their role in asking the tough questions at town halls, coffee shops and farm co-ops — and will punish candidates who ignore them.

"I don't know why you'd want to take yourself out of the national conversation by not participating in Iowa," Strawn said, suggesting voters would sour on any nominee who ignored the state in the nominating process. "I don't think you can write off Iowa's electoral votes if you're the nominee." ...
Of course, Sarah finds it difficult to make decisions (or doesn't know what she's talking about). Salon's "Palin tries to walk back First Amendment tweet," has the most recent example:
Sarah Palin is now claiming that a tweet she sent out about First Amendment rights was misinterpreted to mean that she opposed the Supreme Court's 8-1 ruling in the Westboro Baptist Church case this week. Salon and many other outlets wrote about what appeared to be Palin's clear opposition to that ruling, which held that protesters from the fringe church could hold demonstrations outside soldiers' funerals. It seemed to be pretty clear-cut: ...
Perhaps Palin will make up her mind by May 5th. The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza writes:
... But when might we know the full scope of the field? Circle May 5 on your calendars.

That's the day of the first-in-the-south presidential debate being hosted by the South Carolina Republican Party and, more importantly for our purposes, Fox News Channel. ...

It's not yet certain that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee will run, but if he does there may be some tension between Palin and Huckabee. He has criticized Natalie Portman's pregnancy. What must he be thinking about Bristol Palin's?

Decisions ... decisions ...

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Fox to suspend Sarah Palin?

From The Atlantic's "Fox Suspends Gingrich, Santorum:"

Fox News has suspended contributor contracts for Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, "both of whom have signaled possible runs for the presidency," network anchor Bret Baier announced today.

The suspension, which Baier said has been "contemplated from the start," is effective immediately and will last for 60 days. "On May 1, their contracts will be terminated unless they notify Fox that they are not running for president," Baier said. ...

... Two other potential GOP presidential contenders, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, remain on Fox's roster of contributors. Baier said today's announcement "does not preclude other announcements that may be made in the future." Los Angeles Times reporter Matea Gold, who first reported the suspensions via her Twitter account, tweeted that a Fox executive told her that if Palin and Huckabee show "some serious intention to form an exploratory committee, we would take the same action." ...


Gingrich and Santorum have been suspended before they've declared their candidacies. A suspension of Sarah Palin might be a reliable indicator that she is going to run.


The Los Angeles Times has a story, too, which states:

... Fox News still has two other potential White House contenders on the payroll: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

"As soon as each of them shows some serious intention to form an exploratory committee, we would take the same action," Brandi [Dianne Brandi, the network's executive vice president of legal and business affairs] said. "Huckabee is on a book tour, so I think his present intention is to sell books."

As for Palin, "She hasn't yet shown a serious intention to form an exploratory committee." ...


Apparently, some are crying, "unfair." Politico has a story about that.

Charlie Sheen bests Sarah Palin on Twitter

We're told, in "Charlie Sheen Passes Sarah Palin On Twitter," at myfoxphilly.com:

Charlie Sheen is adding Twitter followers at a record pace, but he has a long way to go to catch Lady Gaga and other Twitter superstars. But he has already passed Sarah Palin.

Link: Twitaholic Top 100 List

Sheen added 600,000 new followers in the first 14 hours he was on Twitter, which has stunned observers of the microblogging Web site. It took Palin 19 months to get about 430,000 followers. ...

At our main blog, Blogging towards Bethlehem, I wrote about Sheen's rant on a radio call-in program. Since then, Sheen has been interviewed everywhere and appears to be unapolegetic. The most recent news is that his estranged wife has obtained a restraining order, so the authorities have taken their children away from Sheen.

To follow this story or to catch-up, just go to Google->News and type sheen into the search box.