Will Rupert Murdoch's media empire suddenly collapse or slowly slither away?

From CNN:

The phone-hacking scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch's media empire intensified in the United States Wednesday as a veteran senator urged the Justice Department to investigate whether one of Murdoch's U.S.-based companies violated federal anti-bribery laws.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking Holder to look into concerns that News Corp. -- the parent company of Fox News -- violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, known as the FCPA. The law, enacted in 1977, makes it illegal for a U.S. person or company to pay foreign officials to obtain or retain business. ...

This is very big news and comes after two other important stories appeared this morning: "Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. drops bid for BSkyB," and "It pays to be Murdoch: Just ask the U.S. government."

As you probably know, News Corps' troubles in Britain began with public and government outrage following the disclosure that a thirteen year-old murdered girl's voicemail had been hacked by News Corps' employees.

For more information about the bribery allegations in Britain and U.S. law, see "News Corp may face US probe over bribery."

A NY Times story of this morning, "In Retreat, Murdoch Drops TV Takeover," is also informative.

Apparently, markets, too, have had it: "Hands Off News Corp. Stock as Scandal Widens."

Murdoch's News Corporation also owns Fox News, which is the subject of Senator Lautenberg's request to Attorney General Holder.

Fox News employs Sarah Palin.


Update: Talk of barring News Corp. from owning any media in Britain. From Bloomberg:

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (NWSA) needs to do more to atone for misdeeds at his newspapers, lawmakers said after the company dropped its bid for full control of British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. (BSY)

Labour Party lawmaker Chris Bryant said the New York-based company should be barred from owning any media in Britain unless its non-executive directors can prove they took steps to combat practices that triggered what Prime Minister David Cameron called a “firestorm.” ...

Update: The Bancroft family regrets its sale of The Wall Street Journal to Murdoch: "Former Wall St Journal owners: 'We wouldn't have sold if we had known'."

Update: The author of "It pays to be Murdoch: Just ask the U.S. government," above, is now peeling his skin back with "How I misread News Corp's taxes: David Cay Johnston."

'Sarah Palin for President' DOA in Iowa, but valiant spin doctors persevere

Sarah Palin's Presidential campaign is in an ER, somewhere in Iowa, but Palin is headed to a book-signing in Minnesota. The speculation about whether Palin will run is on the decline, but is still good for a few dollars more.

"It is the first Iowa trip of the campaign season for Ms. Palin, which is sure to awaken speculation about her own political intentions." -- New York Times

"Ahead of today's premiere of "The Undefeated," reports swirled that the former Alaska governor and her aides were inviting prominent Republicans in the key Hawkeye state to meet with Palin after the screening at the Pella Opera House. Those reports, originally circulated by the blog Politico, were shot down late Monday by Republican operatives and Palin's political action committee." -- ABC News/Politics

"Although the Iowa trip is sure to ramp up speculation yet again that she will enter the 2012 race, all signs point to a flying visit to the Hawkeye State completely focused on the film’s premiere." -- The Daily Beast

It's said that "The Undefeated" is premiering today; however, it was shown recently to a larger audience in Minnesota, and its creator, Stephen Bannon, discussed the film with Tina Dupuy. Dupuy wrote in The Atlantic, in part:

... The final 10 minutes of the film are spent comparing Sarah Palin to Ronald Reagan. People said that Reagan was too extreme, too conservative,and that he'd never be president -- and they were all wrong, according to The Undefeated. "Why do you think I did that?" Bannon asks.

For the power of the association, I tell him. So people will think the two politicians have similar qualities. He says the tea party movement is like the Reagan Revolution. I tell him I disagree. Palin is much more like Barry Goldwater, if anything. Goldwater supporters stormed the San Francisco Republican convention in '64, lots of them "never having been involved in politics before." Just like we hear about the tea party. There was also the belief among Goldwater supporters that if there was ever a true conservative, the large bloc of dormant true conservatives would turn out to vote for him. Goldwater's opponent, Lyndon Johnson, won in a historic landslide in the '64 election. ...

When Bannon says he made the movie for me, he means women. He calls them "new agenda women." Women whom Bannon describes as being still mad about how Hillary Clinton was treated during the primaries. Yes, Steve Bannon is trying to capture the PUMA and feminist vote by rebranding Sarah Palin.

If Palin were more competent she'd be far less controversial to women. Women don't like how Palin is treated, but for some, it's not because she's criticized by the media or scrutinized -- it's because she's held to a lower standard than other politicians. If a man had given any of her answers to Katie Couric or in any of her interviews since, no one would think to make a movie highlighting all his accomplishments while being governor of one of the least populated states in the nation for a fraction of a term. It feels condescending to women who are actually smart and accomplished that Palin gets called smart and accomplished. ...

Dupuy's article is "Sarah Palin Movie Maker Wants You to Love Her Like He Does."

Sarah Palin will be in Iowa, today. Tomorrow, Sarah, Bristol Palin to sign books at Minn. mall.

Note: The "reports swirled" link in the ABC News/Politics quote, above, goes to a story about Nick Broomfield's film about Palin instead of a story about Politico's report of a Palin campaign organization in Iowa. Gryphen has a post about Broomfield's film, here.

Sarah Palin left behind - Michele Bachmann in 2nd place

The New York Times has an interesting article about the "conservative" candidates for the Republican nomination:

... Just weeks ago, Ms. Bachmann was dismissed by many political analysts in both parties as a shrill conservative outlier with telegenic looks but goofy right-wing politics. She was caricatured on cable news talk shows as a warmed-over version of Sarah Palin. Now Ms. Bachmann ranks second (19 percent) to the front-runner, Mitt Romney (33 percent), in a post-debate [New Hampshire] Rasmussen national poll. And as the only woman in the race, she draws ardent support from many in the female-laden ranks of the Tea Party. ...

... But the woman from Minnesota faces overwhelming obstacles. Certainly, a Rick Perry candidacy would have the potential to overshadow her. Mr. Perry, a 10-year governor of Texas with a strong economic record, shares her outsider status, and like her, speaks Tea Party lingo and appeals to fiscal and social conservatives.

She will also have an uphill battle to attract independents, moderate Republicans and the party leadership, who are all much more likely to favor a richly funded establishment candidate like Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, or Mr. Perry, who has won three terms as governor of America’s second largest state. One indication of her problems within her party came earlier this year when she tried to get a House leadership position but failed to gain enough support. ...

Luisita Lopez Torregrosa, the writer of "Bachmann Will Have a Fight to Stay at the Top Tier," tells of an expected "catfight" between Palin and Bachmann, but it looks as though Palin has been left behind, given Bachmann's second-place showing in a national poll. The article also describes the difficulties that Bachmann, like Palin, would have in expanding her support beyond the same Christian fundamentalist base that was attracted to Palin.

Would Perry run better against President Obama than either Palin or Bachmann? The attractive thing about either Palin or Bachmann is that their views offer Obama an opportunity to draw sharp contrasts with his views, which offers the opportunity of a landslide rather than a close election.

Palin's Bad Relationship with the Press

Bill Keller, editor of The New York Times, has written a thoughtful article about Sarah Palin's relationship with the press. It's worth reading in its entirety, so I'll only excerpt one paragraph:

... Palin’s disdain [for the press] goes beyond the bitterness of a public figure who has been burned by the press. Plenty of others have endured the pain of mainstream-media excoriation but have remained civil and responsive. What these politicians have in common, though, is enough confidence in the strength of their ideas to imagine that they can make a case through the press, if not actually to the press. Perhaps one key to Palin’s dislike of the news media is a streak of intellectual insecurity, or a trace of impostor syndrome. Her best defense against being found shallow is a strong offense. ...

So, does anyone think she'll run? With this sort of relationship with the press? Read what Keller had to say about Ronald Reagan.

Palin Family Circus News - Sunday, May 29, 2011

Here, we see Sarah Palin riding on what's known, among bikers, as the bitch seat. That view is confirmed by another photo accompanying "For Palin, a Short Ride With Lots of Rumbling."


A senile, old-man quip may occur to you after learning that John McCain said that Palin can beat Obama in 2012.


A good introduction to film editing can be found on the Blu-Ray of Bullitt. After seeing that, you may understand how all films -- successful ones, anyway -- are manipulative. So is Andrew Sullivan testing Godwin's Law? He's implicitly compared Palin's The Undefeated with Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of The Will. Sullivan claims to be "terrified" for America, and, again, makes a Triumph of The Will comparison at the end of this video:



That feature-length video on the Bullitt Blu-ray has some footage of Riefenstahl's film, along with some of the same film's footage after being edited by an englishman to make a point quite different than Riefenstahl's.


Are you miffed at the notion of "Sarah Palin Is A Social Conservative?" But before anyone tries to make hay out of this, it might be wise to recall that some thought that when Bristol Palin's pregnancy was announced that it would be a disaster for McCain/Palin. It wasn't; convention goers understood and sympathized with Palin's "plight." Levi Johnston's life with the Palin family was told in a Vanity Fair story, "Me and Mrs. Palin." If you read carefully, you may realize that Levi's story was fact-checked.

Update: The L.A. Times has an interesting story about Palin's ride, with video. "I love the smell of emissions" -- in the morning? -- is reminiscent of "I love the smell of napalm in the morning" (from Apocalypse Now). Does that scare you? If so, why? Frankly, I think that raw fear of Palin isn't a rational response to her.

Update: George Will responds to Palin with what may be, instead of raw, emotional fear, a rationalization of Palin's unfitness for the presidency. He doesn't need to say he's "terrified."

Sarah Palin's 'Movie'

There are several stories about Sarah Palin's new movie. The first from Real Clear Politics,"Palin's Secret Weapon: New Film to Premiere in June," revealed that the film-maker is paying, and that Palin doesn't have any editorial control, and, interestingly, that the film-maker obtained the audio rights to Going Rogue (Palin reading the book). So far, the only winner is Palin, who must have received something for the audio rights, right? But will the film turn Palin's poor reputation around?

I don't think any of this means that she is going to run, and, today, The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart doesn't think so either. In "Palin movie: ‘The Undefeated’ or ‘Hangover 3’?" Capehart writes:

Y’all are well acquainted with my view that Sarah Palin will not run for president, despite doing little things here and there to make the political press corps think otherwise. The latest example is the news broken by Real Clear Politics that a feature-length flick on Palin’s life and career will premiere next month in Iowa. “The Undefeated” is the stirring title. “Hangover 3”might be more apt. ...

As usual, Capehart has stuffed his column with a lot of links in support of his view, and concludes with a chart showing that Palin's unfavorable/favorable is in a long-term trend that doesn't bode well for Palin. People have made up their minds about her, politically. When would she quit as President?

The movie is titled, "The Undefeated." Undefeated champion of whining?

Update: The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza writes, in "Sarah Palin, celebritician:"

... The reality is that Palin is as much celebrity as she is politician — call her a “celebritician” — and only by evaluating everything she does in that light is there a possibility of properly understanding the motivations and goals of her actions.

Viewed that way, the Palin movie is not a radical departure but rather entirely consistent with her transformation from small-state politician to worldwide celebrity.

Dating all the way back to her decision to resign from the governorship in 2009 with 18 months left on her first term, Palin’s life choices seem to be dictated far more by a desire to build a personal brand in the culture at large than to carve out space for herself in the political world. ...

Update: The New York Times' "Signs Grow That Palin May Run" mentions the movie and offers some starting points for speculation about what may be motivating Palin.

Conspiracy Theories

Kate Zernike of The New York Times writes, in "The Persistence of Conspiracy Theories:"

No sooner had President Obama released his long-form birth certificate than Orly Taitz, the doyenne of the “birther” movement, found reason to doubt it.

“A step in the right direction,” she said, even though it was precisely the document that many birthers had been demanding of the president. And then she argued that it was still subject to authentication.

Donald Trump, similarly bouffant, blond and politically inclined, likewise breezed past the new evidence of Mr. Obama’s citizenship, pausing only to take credit for forcing the release of the document before suggesting that the president was hiding something else — bad grades.

So much for Mr. Obama’s hopes of stopping the “silliness.”

To many, those who doubt Mr. Obama’s citizenship are driven simply by racial prejudice; they are unwilling to allow that America’s first black president could hold the office legitimately.

Many scholars of conspiracy theory agree. But they also note that such theories are hardly unique to Mr. Obama; they have a long history in the United States and elsewhere, coming from left and right, covering all sorts of subjects, political and otherworldly (the twin towers were not hit by airplanes; Paul is dead). And those who doubt Mr. Obama’s citizenship fit the mold of other conspiracy theorists: they don’t loose their grip on their beliefs easily, if at all. ...

Ms. Zernike describes some other conspiracy theories, then writes,

In a way, it is human nature to want to construct a narrative to resolve anxieties, to be drawn to mystery or the perception of it.

But the strong embrace of conspiracy theories is also embedded in the American experience. A fear of enemies — real and imagined, internal and external — defined those who forged this country. A place created as God’s country was bound to see the subversions of Satan behind every uncertain turn. ...

... What Richard Hofstadter called “the paranoid style in American politics” is encouraged by popular culture, in movies like “Birth of a Nation” and “The Da Vinci Code,” and by those whom Professor Goldberg [a history professor at the University of Utah and the author of “Enemies Within: The Culture of Conspiracy in Modern America.”] terms the “conspiracy entrepreneurs” — whether Glenn Beck or Jerome Corsi, who went from self-styled expert on John Kerry’s military record to self-styled expert on Barack Obama’s heritage. The Internet, where you never have to confront an idea you don’t like, allows these theories to grow deeper and wider. ...

Ms. Zernike's article is worth reading in its entirety, here, and Richard Hofstadter's essay, "The paranoid style in American politics," can be read, here, at Harpers Magazine, where it appeared in 1964.

Ms. Zernike makes the point that the "paranoid style" is not just an affliction of what Hofstadter called the "Radical Right" and isn't only seen in a political context.

Update: Hofstadter's essay is also featured in a collection of links at "The Paranoid Mentality."

Sarah Palin's End: Losing Altitude

Frank Rich has mentioned Sarah Palin in his op-ed at The New York Times, "The G.O.P.’s Post-Tucson Traumatic Stress Disorder:"

SIX weeks after that horrific day in Tucson, America has half-forgotten its violent debate over the power of violent speech to incite violence. It’s Gabrielle Giffords’s own power of speech that rightly concerns us now. But all those arguments over political language did leave a discernible legacy. In the aftermath of President Obama’s Tucson sermon, civility has had a mini-restoration in Washington. And some of the most combative national figures in our politics have been losing altitude ever since, much as they did after Bill Clinton’s oratorical response to the inferno of Oklahoma City

Glenn Beck’s ratings at Fox News continued their steady decline, falling to an all-time low last month. He has lost 39 percent of his viewers in a year and 48 percent of the prime 25-to-54 age demographic. His strenuous recent efforts to portray the Egyptian revolution as an apocalyptic leftist-jihadist conspiracy have inspired more laughs than adherents.

Sarah Palin’s tailspin is also pronounced. It can be seen in polls, certainly: the ABC News-Washington Post survey found that 30 percent of Americans approved of her response to the Tucson massacre and 46 percent did not. (Obama’s numbers in the same poll were 78 percent favorable, 12 percent negative.) But equally telling was the fate of a Palin speech scheduled for May at a so-called Patriots & Warriors Gala in Glendale, Colo.

Tickets to see Palin, announced at $185 on Jan. 16, eight days after Tucson, were slashed to half-price in early February. Then the speech was canceled altogether, with the organizers blaming “safety concerns resulting from an onslaught of negative feedback.” But when The Denver Post sought out the Glendale police chief, he reported there had been no threats or other causes for alarm. The real “negative feedback” may have been anemic ticket sales, particularly if they were to cover Palin’s standard $100,000 fee.

What may at long last be dawning on some Republican grandees is that a provocateur who puts her political adversaries in the cross hairs and then instructs her acolytes to “RELOAD” frightens most voters. ...

Sarah Palin Parades Her Ignorance on Long Island

Sarah Palin was paid to appear at the Long Island Association, yesterday. Jeff Zeleny of the NY Times attended, and he wrote about her appearance in the Times' The Caucus blog. Zeleny noticed these statements made by Palin:

Ms. Palin said she believed that increasing the Treasury Department’s legal borrowing limit would simply “create the allowance for big spenders to get in there,” rather than save the country from defaulting on its financial burdens. She said that “the government receives so much revenue” every day that she doubted the money would run out to pay for critical operations.

And

“People are ready for our governmental establishment to be shaken up,” Ms. Palin said, adding that if she decided to become a candidate, she would campaign aggressively face-to-face with voters, not simply from a distance. “In a heated primary, it allows for some great debate – very heated discourse – all those things we need in order for those voters to decide.”

And

When asked why she opposed all types of gun control – with the moderator openly disagreeing with her – she said that the “bad guys” aren’t going to follow the laws, anyway.

And

And as she talked about the escalating price of gas and groceries, she said, “It’s no wonder Michelle Obama is telling everybody you better breast-feed your baby – yeah, you better – because the price of milk is so high right now!”

At the same appearance by Palin, Politico's Ben Smith noticed that as she addressed the situation in Egypt, she expressed a lack of confidence in democracy and Egypt's voters:

"We also have to be very wary of who it is that is being invited ot the table to discuss how the reform in that country is taking place," Palin said. "I’m talking about the Muslim Brotherhood," she said, deploring what she saw as "almost an invitation to them to sit at the table and talk."

"If they are radical enough to have already spoken against liberties and freedoms, then you have to wonder, is this a good deal for Egypt and for America's interest -- certainly for our ally Israel [whose] security and their safety ... must be forefront on our list of concerns," she said.

"We have to make sure that a group like the Muslim Brotherhood isn’t invited in to take over because that certainly would defeat all the purposes of those protesters," she said.

On Tuesday, The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson wrote "The GOP loves freedom, but not for Egypt." Palin may not support democracy in Arab nations, because she -- or rather the source of her talking points -- may be concerned that people unfriendly to Israel could be elected. Does Palin know that Israel itself is on the verge of becoming a majority Arab country? Will Israel continue to be a democracy? An attempt to strangle a potential democracy in a country neighboring Israel is an attempt to kick the can down the road; it isn't a long-term solution to any problem Israel may face. A description of Israel's demographics can be read in Wikipedia's "Arab Citizens of Israel."

All of Palin's views, expressed on Long Island, can be easily rebutted or can be used to show that she hasn't the knowledge and experience necessary to be President. The views that she expressed can even be used to show that she has no interest in government or governance. Papers are due in fifty minutes -- just kidding! But, seriously, Palin is too ignorant to know how ignorant she is.

Words Shot Out of Sarah Palin's Face

Balloon Juice's Angry Black Lady has provided some editorial comments to part of Sarah Palin's interview, which followed her recent screech speech at former President Reagan's former ranch on February 5th:

“It’s a difficult situation,” Ms. Palin told the Christian Broadcasting Network. “This is that 3 a.m. White House phone call, and it seems for many of us trying to get that information from our leader in the White House, it seems that that call went right to the answering machine.”

“And nobody yet has, nobody yet has explained to the American public what they know [what who knows?], and surely they [they who?] know more than the rest of us know [us who?] who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak [what the—how are they to know who is taking the place of Mubarak when Mubarak himself can’t seem to make up his damn mind] and no, not, not real enthused [yes, but are you jazzed?] about what it is that that’s being done on a national level and from D.C. [Do you have any idea what you just said?] in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt. [The Situation is in Egypt?! Pics or GTFO.] And, in these areas [what areas? Alaska? Russia?] in that are so volatile right now, because obviously it’s not just Egypt but the other countries too [Which other countries, too? Can you name one? Didn’t think so.] where we are seeing uprisings, we know that now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House [::blank stare::]. We need to know what it is that America stands for [truth, justice, and the American way! Duh.] so we know who it is that America will stand with. [Anyone standing with you is standing with Stupid. That, we know.] And, we do not have all that information yet.” [All what information? What America stands for? Whether America has legs? I just—I can’t even.]”

Read the whole post at "Some Words About Egypt and Obama Shot Out of Sarah Palin’s Face."

More can be read about Palin's speech and/or interview at Outside the Beltway (with video of Palin's interview with CBN's David Brody), at Washington Monthly ("Word salads are a dish best served cold.") and at the NY Times, which dared, had the audacity -- this is a real failure by Palin's internet cop, Rebecca Mansour -- to print:

... The dinner, which was at a far smaller venue than the big rallies Ms. Palin often attends, had tight security and rigid rules. She entered the room just before she spoke — forgoing the ritual of sitting through dinner and mingling with guests — and exited before the applause ended.

People were admonished to stay in their seats and not approach Ms. Palin as she walked through the room.

“We’d all like to jump up and give her a high-five, but please stay at your tables,” Kate Obenshain, vice president of the foundation, announced from the dais. “There will be no book signings or autographs.”

At the end of the evening, people were asked to put their own cameras away and retire to the second floor of the Reagan Ranch Center to have a professional photograph taken with Ms. Palin, which will be sent to them in the mail. ...

Sarah Palin got a lot of attention from that speech and interview, but I suspect that the interest is more of a watch-the-trainwreck sort than a run-sarah-run sort.

What? No one wants to go Palin-free?

Responses to Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank's idea for a Palin-free month of February continue to be written. The Post's Jonathan Capehart writes in "Sorry, Dana Milbank -- I won't quit Sarah Palin:"

Hi, I'm Jonathan, and I'm, um, a Pali-holic. But not in the way that Dana Milbank or Ross Douthat thinks. Sure, I've written at least 34 posts with "Sarah" or "Sarah Palin" in the headline. Yes, I'm fully aware of the crack-like impact her name has on the blogosphere. But I have tried to write about Palin not as a politician but as a small-screen star playing a politician, a figure with outsized influence on a very vocal wing of the Republican Party on TV (and Facebook and Twitter and Fox).

I thought Douthat nailed it with his column this month on the media's obsession with Palin. And this is where Douthat and I are in total agreement.

Cover Sarah Palin if you want, but stop acting as if she's the most important conservative politician in America. Stop pretending that she has a plausible path to the presidency in 2012. (She doesn't.) Stop suggesting that she's the front-runner for the Republican nomination. (She isn't.) And every time you're tempted to parse her tweets for some secret code or crucial dog whistle, stop and think, this woman has fewer Twitter followers than Ben Stiller, and then go write about something else instead. ...

Capehart's columns about Palin are always like a breath of fresh air, because his is one of the few reality-based views on Palin. He knows electability matters, and he has known for some time that Palin is unelectable.

The Week has some additional responses to Milbank's plan in its article, "Forgetting Sarah Palin: Should the press stop covering her?"

The conservative Frum Forum has a response, too. Their "Time for Palin Apologists to Let Go" considers what The NY Times' Ross Douthat and The WSJ's James Taranto have written about the media's coverage of Palin.

Douthat may have started the media's discussion of Palin coverage with his "Scenes From a Marriage," which castigates "palinistas" and "palinoiacs" alike. In "Scenes From a Marriage," Douthat expresses his belief that conservatives have actually damaged Palin by praising her (excessively). I think that's true, particularly when they compare Palin with former presidents. Palin isn't like any President. She suffers from the comparison, because she isn't presidential, at all.

(Capehart is quoting, above, from Douthat's "Scenes From a Marriage.")

President Obama needs Sarah Palin !?

Oddly, there is suddenly chatter of an iceberg that is about to wreck Sarah Palin's ship, as though an iceberg were necessary. If there ever was an iceberg, it must have melted by now. Don't worry though: Sarah Palin has effectively done herself in. She's drowning.

But in "Obama Benefits in Having Palin as His Foil," Matt Bai comes along and writes that Sarah Palin may be President Obama's best asset:

... “In our system of government, the party that does not have the presidency does not have a recognized leader,” said Mike DuHaime, a top Republican strategist. “She’s one of the very few who tries to fill the void.”

For the White House, it would seem, this is a hopeful development. That’s because every modern president, and especially one who finds himself confronting divided government, needs the kind of critic who can remind the public of why he once seemed so eminently presidential.

Think of it this way: American voters have for decades now sent their presidents to Washington in hopes of delivering some mortal blow to the status quo. Once in office, it’s hard for any president to fully embody the reform that a restive electorate may have hoped for. But it’s considerably easier if you can contrast yourself with an adversary who embodies the kind of outdated politics, ideological rigidity or divisiveness that repelled those voters in the first place. ...

... Next year, when Republicans settle on a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama will have an adversary chosen for him. But for now, he could clearly do worse than to have Ms. Palin overshadow the party’s more predictable leaders in Congress [John Boehner and Mitch McConnell]. With every controversial tweet or video, Ms. Palin makes Mr. Obama, who has often struggled to project the regality of the office, seem more like the post-partisan grownup he always intended to be.

Shortly after Mr. Obama’s speech last week, his opponent from the 2008 campaign, Senator John McCain of Arizona, issued a gracious statement thanking the president for his call for civility. Perhaps Mr. Obama wanted to thank Mr. McCain, as well — for having created the Sarah Palin phenomenon, thus giving the president’s words more resonance than they otherwise might have had.

What to do? Throw her an anchor? A rope? Both ends of the rope?

After Tucson, Is the Anger Gone?

In the wake of the shootings in Tucson on Saturday, January 8th, many have expressed the hope that our political discourse might improve. But is America at a turning point? At a crossroads? Perhaps not. Matt Bai writes, in "After Tucson, Is the Anger Gone?" that not all hisorians would agree that turning points or transformational moments even occur.

... In what may have been his most emotional speech since the 2008 campaign, President Obama registered his own disappointment, pleading with all sides for temperance. “What we can’t do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another,” the president said in his Tucson eulogy. “If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let’s make sure it’s worthy of those we have lost.”

If the shooting didn’t feel like the turning point in the civic life of the nation that some of us had imagined it might become, then it may be because such turning points aren’t always immediately evident. Or maybe it’s because the murder suspect appeared to have no obvious ideology, his crime an imperfect parable for the consequences of political rhetoric.

Perhaps, though, we have to consider another explanation — that the speed and fractiousness of our modern society make it all but impossible now for any one moment to transform the national debate.

Not all historians accept the idea of transformational moments, which, they point out, may seem neater and more definitive in retrospect than they were at the time. But others are inclined to see the American story as a series of crescendos and climaxes, periods of mounting internal strife that are resolved, or at least recast, by crystallizing moments. ...

Bai's article was informed by talks with Beverly Gage, "who teaches 20th-century history at Yale" and John Lewis Gaddis, "the pre-eminent cold war scholar and Yale professor," both of whom describe historical events in the nation's history that may have been turning points.

In the end, we may simply have the insane act of one man. Both the Los Angeles Times and New York Times have lengthy articles about the man suspected in the Tucson shooting, Jared Lee Loughner. The LA Times' article is "Suspected Tucson shooter 'slowly spiraled into madness'." The NY Times' article is "Looking Behind the Mug-Shot Grin of an Accused Killer."

Whether the shooter was driven to act by the talk of "second amendment remedies" or imagery of rifle sights over Representative Gifford's district, some, perhaps not all, may tone down their "rhetoric." Republican disdain for Sarah Palin, which was becoming apparent before the shooting, had marginalized her. The shooting ended her political career. The country's political unconscious will forever link Sarah Palin to the shooting.

Obviously, there may not be much more to blog about Sarah Palin (Or could it be that crowing over her next lie or inconsistency might diminish her culpability in the shooting? In the sense that it could distract people from the greatest reason she is unqualifed for any office?) So, we've started a new blog, a Sarah Palin free zone, named "Blogging towards Bethlehem." It's still under construction, but has several posts, and some links, which may give you a sense of its flavor. There will be posts about politics, but they won't be news-chasing posts. This post may appear there.

The Unreality of 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' -- UPDATED!

Nick Jans, an Alaskan writer and outdoorsman, has written an intereresting article, "What Palin's show says about us," which states, in part:

... Those of us who've actually lived off the land are less than impressed by Palin's televised exploits and, more important, by what they tell us about her. Tentative, physically inept, and betraying an even more awkward unfamiliarity with the land and lifestyle that's supposedly her birthright, Palin deconstructs her own myth before our eyes. ...

... From the opening credits, Palin's not actually leading, as the show's stirring theme song (Follow Me There) suggests. Instead, she's tucked far under the wings of professional guides, friends, or family members — in a curious subtext, almost all males.

They instruct and coddle her along, at one point literally hauling Palin uphill on the end of a rope. ...

And The Anchorage Daily News' "Always on the hunt, Palin shown what to do," by Paul Jenkins, elaborates on the idea of Sarah Palin as frontierswoman front woman:

... But the story is in the story. All but Dowd seemed to miss the boatload of delicious allegory about Palin's life and politics wrapped up in the [hunting] episode. It was Palin on the hunt; on the hunt always. First, it was small-town politicos in Wasilla who befriended her, then GOP Chief Randy Ruedrich, then Frank Murkowski, who appointed her to a cushy job, and finally, a shot at Barack Obama. Older white men carrying her guns, loading them and handing them to her, advising her, telling her when to shoot, showing her how to do the job. Letting them do the work. Out of her element. Indoor girl in an outdoor world. Missed shot after missed shot after missed shot. Blaming someone or something else when it all goes south. Killing a scrawny little caribou to sell the image. Jumping the ship of state after only two disinterested, unengaged years, going for something bigger. Out of her element. Peddling the lie. The mama grizzly. Sarah the Sniper.

Jenkins' article uses the words disinterested and unengaged to describe Palin while she was governor. Was she governor in name only? Who made the decisions while she was governor?

Jenkins' article appeared about the time that Alaska Dispatch's "Palin's record vs. Palin's Facebook" appeared, which is concerned with the discrepancies between Palin's record and what she has since claimed she did as governor. An explanation of those discrepancies could simply be that she doesn't know what she did, because someone else acted as behind-the-scenes governor.


Maureen Dowd's column, mentioned by Jenkins, is here.


Update: Andrew Sullivan wrote (more than) a few words about the USA Today article and noticed that where it appeared (USA Today) is important. Sullivan's title is "Levi's Vindication: The Self-Exposure Of Sarah Palin."

My co-blogger, snowbilly, wrote "It Was Fact-checked," which surmised that because one critical part of Levi Johnston's Vanity Fair story, "Me and Mrs. Palin," was clearly fact-checked all of it must have been fact-checked.

Sullivan's point is different than mine -- that Sarah Palin may have been Governor of Alaska in name only -- but is a valid point, nonetheless. Jans' article (and Jenkins' (and Dowd's)) are a rich source of insights into who Sarah Palin was (or wasn't).

By the way, Jans' point, although he deconstructed Sarah Palin's myth, is that many politicians strive to create a narrative, or myth. Remember George Bush? Clearing brush in Crawford, TX? Well, as soon as he left the White House, George got out of Dodge Crawford and moved to Dallas. He was really a city-slicker at heart. And didn't the Reagans (Remember the wood chopper? At the ranch?) really live in Pacific Palisades, CA? Sarah Palin's myth is, in some respects, easy pickins, but someone like Jans, who has articulated something we "know," so that we really do know it, is worthy of our praise. When a politician's myth gets busted, he or she will soon exit the stage.

The delicious irony of it all is, as Jans wrote, "Palin deconstructs her own myth before our eyes." She's done herself in.

Divided Government and Common Sense

From The New York Times' "Taking Control, G.O.P. Overhauls Rules in House," you can get an idea of Republicans' insanity on spending/taxes:

... To reverse what they say is a Congressional process tilted toward spending increases, the new Republican majority in the House — over strong Democratic objections — approved rules that would require spending increases to be directly offset with cuts elsewhere. But the rules would allow future tax cuts to be enacted without offsetting spending reductions, and would permit repeal of the health care legislation, which was estimated to save the government more than $140 billion over 10 years, without any requirement that those revenue losses be made up elsewhere. ...

... Democrats criticized the changes, saying Republicans were returning to the policies that had put the government on a path to deep deficits in the first place and would open the door to “Enron-style accounting” that covered up the costs of tax cuts and their other legislative efforts.

“House Republicans are like the fellow who bellies up to the bar, asking for just one more round of tax breaks for his buddies, while declaring, ‘Put it on my tab,’ “ said Representative Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas. “But it’s really our tab. By focusing on only half the budget equation, and avoiding revenue stewardship, they reject sound fiscal leadership.”

The rules would allow tax cuts to be enacted without spending reductions! That is like having your pay cut and continuing to spend as you did when your income was higher. It leads to more debt. Did the Republicans forget to bring their "common sense" to Washington? No. They never had any.

For some insight into how difficult it is going to be for Republicans to enact their agenda, the Times' Carl Hulse wrote, "As Boehner Ascends, His Power Comes With Caveats," yesterday:

... While he will preside over a substantial and energized Republican majority, Mr. Boehner must contend with a Democratic president with whom he has little personal history and a Democratic Senate leader who is disinclined to make Mr. Boehner’s life easier and who failed to consider hundreds of bills passed by the House even when his own party ran it.

“The problem is going to be the grass-roots movement out in the countryside,” said Vin Weber, a former Republican House member and Washington lobbyist who served with Mr. Boehner in the 1990s. “They have no sense of the limits on a party that controls only one of the three seats of power. Managing that relationship is going to be difficult.”...

... Mr. Boehner’s expanded rank-and-file is populated by more than 80 newcomers — some with no elective experience — who do not seem of a mind to make the compromises that can be required when power is shared in Washington. And he sits atop a leadership team full of young and ambitious lawmakers eager to step up should Mr. Boehner falter, as did the last Republican speaker who engineered a House takeover, Newt Gingrich. ...

Will the reading of the Constitution in the House be enough for Republicans to learn about the limits of their new power? It's doubtful: they're intent on increasing the debt like they did during the Bush years. They have demonstrated an inability to learn from their own experience. How would reading anything help them?

An AP article, "PROMISES, PROMISES: GOP drops some out of the gate," finds that Republicans have alreay broken their campaign promises on spending.

Farewell, 2010

Kids of all ages may enjoy Crayola's free New Year's Bag of Fun Coloring Page, where this post's drawing was obtained.

Candidates' announcements for the Republican nomination will come soon. Sarah Palin doesn't have much more time to milk the will-she-or-won't-she attention cow. Her name doesn't appear on general election voters' short list of potential presidents, and she has angered Republicans by blaming the economy's problems on Reagan and the Bushes, so her best bet may be to announce she's running as an independent, then continue to hiss and spit at everyone and everything, from Twitter and Facebook, until November 2012. Will she run for real in 2016?

Do I have any resolutions for 2011? No, but I hope to improve the blog (and my writing).

Will I be partying tonight? No, I'll have to be at work early tomorrow morning and must have my wits about me.

But Happy New Year! nonetheless.


Bonus: The NY Times' The Caucus blog looks at 2010's political revisionism. It features Sarah Palin's 'refudiate' and has the history of the word's origin. No, it wasn't a typo.

---

Voila!

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Sarah Palin Just One of The Boys: Simply Unqualified

Scott Conroy of Real Clear Politics has written "Female Vote Could Prove Decisive for Palin." The article is about how Sarah Palin might fare in Republican primaries, not the general election. Before writing the article, Conroy spoke with Andrew Halcro, who ran against Palin in 2006:

On a late night during the 2006 Alaska gubernatorial campaign, Democratic former Gov. Tony Knowles and Republican-turned-independent candidate Andrew Halcro found themselves sitting next to each other in an exit row on an Alaska Airlines flight back to Anchorage following a debate in Fairbanks.

Halcro and Knowles had a friendly relationship, which was cultivated in part by both men's shared sense of exasperation over their inability to put a chink in the invisible armor that seemed to shield their Republican opponent, the former mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin.

While the two men were making small talk on the flight, Halcro, who ended up finishing third in the race, asked Knowles what was the most surprising indicator he found in his campaign's internal polling.

According to Halcro, Knowles replied that he was most astonished by how well Palin performed among well-educated women, and, perhaps more importantly, with moderate to liberal women.

"But that time has passed," Halcro told RealClearPolitics. ...

... Halcro, who has remained one of the most vocal Palin critics in Alaska, said that he did not prepare any differently in debating Palin simply because she was a woman and insisted that her record as governor of raising taxes on the oil industry and implementing a gas pipeline deal that has uncertain prospects for success will overshadow any built-in advantage she might have among women.

"I think she's going to get treated like one of the boys," Halcro said. "The debates are one thing, but I think you have to portray her as just simply unqualified." ...

The 2006 gubernatorial debates were covered by The NY Times and Christian Science Monitor during the 2008 presidential campaign. The Times wrote:

... Her [Palin's] debating style was rarely confrontational, and she appeared confident. In contrast to today, when she seems unversed on several important issues, she demonstrated fluency on certain subjects, particularly oil and gas development.

But just as she does now, Ms. Palin often spoke in generalities and showed scant aptitude for developing arguments beyond a talking point or two. Her sentences were distinguished by their repetition of words, by the use of the phrase “here in Alaska” and for gaps. On paper, her sentences would have been difficult to diagram.

John Bitney, the policy director for her campaign for governor and the main person who helped prepare her for debates, said her repetition of words was “her way of running down the clock as her mind searches for where she wants to go.” ...

And the Christian Science Monitor's article, written by Halcro:

When he faces off against Sarah Palin Thursday night, Joe Biden will have his hands full.

I should know. I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do. ...

What to do? Don't panic. It's likely that there will be many debates during the Republican primaries. There will be several governors running for the nomination. Their records will be compared and discussed at the debates. What will Republican primary voters think when they find out that "Governor" Palin's record as governor isn't what she has since said and written she did as governor? Many Republican voters will ask, "Was Sarah Palin really Governor of Alaska?"

Our post, "The Story is in The Story" may be a starting point for examining Palin's record as governor and the discrepancies between her record and what she has written on Facebook about her record.

You can read about Biden's strategy for the 2008 VP debate in Game Change. The story begins on page 405, and you can use Amazon's Look Inside! feature to read it, if you have an Amazon account. Search for far-off Delaware.

The Story is in The Story

Paul Jenkins of The Anchorage Daily News has written "Always on the hunt, Palin shown what to do," which ends:

... But the story is in the story. All but [Maureen] Dowd seemed to miss the boatload of delicious allegory about Palin's life and politics wrapped up in the episode. It was Palin on the hunt; on the hunt always. First, it was small-town politicos in Wasilla who befriended her, then GOP Chief Randy Ruedrich, then Frank Murkowski, who appointed her to a cushy job, and finally, a shot at Barack Obama. Older white men carrying her guns, loading them and handing them to her, advising her, telling her when to shoot, showing her how to do the job. Letting them do the work. Out of her element. Indoor girl in an outdoor world. Missed shot after missed shot after missed shot. Blaming someone or something else when it all goes south. Killing a scrawny little caribou to sell the image. Jumping the ship of state after only two disinterested, unengaged years, going for something bigger. Out of her element. Peddling the lie. The mama grizzly. Sarah the Sniper. ...

"Disinterested, unengaged." Perhaps that explains why Craig Medred wrote recently in "Palin's Record vs. Palin's Facebook," which is concerned with the discrepancies between Sarah Palin's record as Governor of Alaska and what she says she did as governor, "Sometimes it's pretty easy to get the impression that what Palin says and what Palin does, or what she believes she's done, are two distinctly different things."

Isn't it possible that Sarah Palin doesn't know what was done by the state's executive branch while she was governor? Wouldn't that explain why "her record" is at variance with what she says she did?

Will the real Governor of Alaska, while Sarah Palin warmed the chair, please stand up.

Maureen Dowd's "Pass the Caribou stew," which was mentioned by Jenkins, is here.

Thanksgiving - November 25, 2010

Sarah Palin has done her part to add to the traditions of Thanksgiving.


Via Hullabaloo

Digby wrote: "If you have five minutes, take a few minutes to watch it all the way through if you haven't seen it in a while. The symbolism is amazing."


Oz Mudflats has "How A Real President Pardons A Turkey" (with video). During the ceremony, President Obama humorously mentions Dancing With the Stars.


Ken Tucker writes a column for Entertainment Weekly eponymously named "Ken Tucker's TV." Today he's got four things to be thankful about:

Taylor Swift: Speak Now, tonight

A new Fringe episode, next Thursday

Dancing With the Stars is over!

A new Walking Dead on Sunday.

There are entertainment alternatives to the Palins.


Shopping tomorrow? Check out Pulp History. One of the series' creators says:

“We definitely did not want to make history like spinach, good for you but boring. We wanted to do the stuff that wasn’t good for you, with good guys, bad guys, blood, guts and sex.”

and

"You can't make this stuff up."

The story's writer, Patricia Cohen, says, "They [the Talbots] are the mild-mannered creators of a new book series called “Pulp History,” rip-roaring nonfiction tales with enough purple prose, gory illustrations and va-va-va-voom women to lure in even reluctant teenage male readers.

Palin Family Circus News - Monday, November 22, 2010 -- Now with DWTS liveblog! -- Now with VIDEO!

Has Sarah Palin quit narrating the audio book of America by Heart? Chris Michael, comedian and artist, says so.


The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes writes The TV Column. This morning she wrote about the controversy over Bristol Palin's longevity on Dancing With the Stars, and she has a lot of comments from the show's executive producer, Conrad Green.


The NY Daily News has talked with a dietician about Bristol's weight gain on DWTS. Update: Gryphen has weighed in on this story with his experience as a personal trainer.


Life & Style Weekly quotes named sources on Willow Palin's 1:00 AM drug buy and underage drinking. Gryphen added his insight into the Palin family's problems here. Perez Hilton has posted a story, too.


I thought The Proposal, a 2009 movie with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, might afford people looking for Alaskan scenery an alternative to Sarah Palin's Alaska. Although most of the movie is set in and around Sitka, it was actually filmed in the Cape Ann area of Massachusetts, mostly in Rockport. There is some beautiful scenery in the movie, however. It is a romantic comedy and held my attention; it wasn't boring. The contrast between the New York office and the outdoors, wherever it was, was especially interesting.

This morning Mudflats posted "Voices from the Flats: This Movie Was Shot in Alaska." It is very informative and has an extensive list of films shot in Alaska. "The King (Salmon) is Dead. Long Live the Mine" mentions that the December issue of National Geographic is now online and links to a slideshow of Michael Melford's very beautiful photos of Alaska.


Update: I must have lucked-out or become wise before I'm old. I waited until 7:45 PST -- oops! 6:45 PST; I've retreated to an undisclosed location for the holidays and should reset my watch -- before tuning in to DWTS. Bristol started in a cage, and it was Mark Ballas who ended up in the cage! Freestyle. They received scores of 8, 9 and 8 for a total of 25; 52 out of 60 for the night. Apparently, they're going to dance again, tomorrow night? I don't regularly watch DWTS, so I am unfamiliar with the rules.

I must say that Bristol's size can depend on lighting and camera angle. Before she danced she expressed her feelings about the "haters"; obviously, Mama has schooled her on the sympathy vote. The camera panned to Sarah Palin -- in the audience, again. Jennifer and Derek are up next. Derek is very good; Jennifer not so good in comparison with Derek. The judges are more enthusiastic about their dance -- scores after the break -- it's 10, 10 and 10!

Yes, more dancing tomorrow. The leaderboard: Jennifer/Derek, 60/60; Kyle/Lacy (?), 56/60; Bristol/Mark, 52/60. Can "the people" save Bristol? Whatever the outcome, there is sure to be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Apparently they danced twice tonight, and in my "wisdom" I missed the first dance.

OMG! Skating With the Stars is on next! When will we see Sleeping With the Stars?


Update November 23: The Hollywood Gossip has a summary of what happened last night.


Here is last night's first dance:



Carrie Ann Inabe had a little criticism of the way Bristol pointed her toes, but then said she was more "vibrant." You have to watch the video and see her say that to understand what she means. The judges were all enthusiastic about the dance. Bristol and Mark got three nines.

I am not sure why the video embeds at 240p. After it starts, it can be changed to 480p for a clearer video (there is a widget to the left of the YouTube logo, on the control panel).

People magazine has a story with backstage comments from Carrie Ann Inabe and some of the other participants, here.

PopEater's Rob Shuter writes that Sarah Palin is lobbying the show's producers to have failed senate candidate Christine O'Donnell appear as a contestant on DWTS! "Christine is not a bad idea at all," one ABC executive tells me. "After Kate Gosselin and Cloris Leachman, O'Donnell would fit right in. She certainly would be so controversial that the amount of press attention and buzz the show would get would be huge. Plus, you know they would make her dance in a witch's hat with a broomstick." That's the way it is. Isn't life wonderful?