Was Matt Drudge race-baiting yesterday?

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Something on The Drudge Report yesterday struck me as playing the race card. Matt Drudge posted a link to a Reuters article on Yahoo News titled "Obama goes door-to-door to drum up votes in Ohio." The Reuters article used this photograph from the Associated Press:




The Drudge Report, however, used the same title for their teaser, but included an entirely different photograph:



Isn't this playing the race card? I guess, they could have put a subtitle "Obama molests Blonde Norwegian-American soccer mom." but I may just be a little suspicious after the all the race baiting we saw over the weekend in the Palin-McCain campaign.
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Palin-McCain campaign wheeled into the I.C.U.

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

What a week for the John McCain-Sarah Palin Presidential juggernaut! Video clips of their rallies show crowds screaming “treason!” or “terrorist!” at the mention of Mr Obama's name, and at times even darker imprecations like “kill him!” and “off with his head!"

As we wrote earlier, McCain has been forced to appeal for calm, responding to boos from a crowd on Friday: “I have to tell you he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president.” He later snatched the microphone later from a woman who suggested Senator Obama was an Arab.

This past weekend, civil rights leader and congressman John Lewis said the atmosphere at Republican rallies was similar to those of George Wallace, the segregationist presidential candidate. “Senator McCain and Governor Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division.”

At a weekend campaign event in Iowa, McCain was forced to repudiate a pastor who introduced McCain saying that millions of foreigners were praying to “Hindu, Buddha, Allah — that his opponent wins”.

Most Republican insiders and even the rank and file openly admit the McCain-Palin campaign has been desperately adrift, flailing against the economic storms, farcically suspending the campaign to fix the economic problems facing the nation, and having to carry the increasingly heavy baggage of Governor Palin. An Alaskan legislative commission on Friday concluded she had "abused her powers as Alaska Governor by trying to orchestrate the sacking of a state trooper who was her former brother-in-law." Sarah Palin's rallies have generated ugly racial sound clips and both she and McCain appear unable to control their supporters.

In short, it's about time to break out the oxygen and put this campaign in the I.C.U.

Time to pull the draw sheet over the patient?—click to enlarge

Over the weekend, in between trying to seem like a decent person (and possibly rescue some good will for when he trudges back to the Senate in defeat) at his increasingly hate- and invective-filled rallies, John McCain huddled with advisors, struggling to formulate an economic plan that won't be laughed off the stage at this week's debates. We'll see the fruits of those discussions in just a couple of days.

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Video: John McCain booed for calling Barack Obama decent and attempting to reign in his rabid followers

John McCain was booed yesterday for calling Barack Obama a decent man (in fairness, the booing was mostly against Obama), asking for respect for him at one of his town hall meetings. One man said he was "scared of Obama" and McCain replied the was a decent man who "you should not be scared of."

A woman said she can't trust Obama and McCain shook his head yes. She went on to say "he's an Arab." McCain vigorously shook his head no and took the microphone away from her and began explaining no, "No, Ma'am, he's decent family man and citizen I just happen to have disagreements with..."

John McCain lit this fire and is now distressed to see the fire spread out of control. He needs to slap a muzzle on his lipsticked pit bull Sarah Palin. It was refreshing to see a distressed John McCain show a little bit of what he had when some of thought he might change America.

Reign in the hate, Senator McCain. You have 24 days to walk away from this election with your head held high. We all know something is wrong when even Karl Rove says you have crossed the line. . .


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The (not) Sarah Palin love doll

On sale now. . .at Topco Sales.

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Crowd at Palin Rally Hurled Racial Epithets

Thanks to Jeff Clinton for pointing out this article...it is a good follow-up to our recent article on Sarah Palin's race baiting: McPalin finally play the race card/Governor Palin takes to lying like a pig to slop



Crowd at Palin Rally Hurled Racial Epithets at African-American on News Crew
Jon Ponder Oct. 7, 2008


Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi’s depiction of Sarah Palin at the GOP Convention as “Gidget addressing the Reichstag” is becoming more apt by the minute. Earlier, Trish wrote about Palin’s incitement of verbal violence at a rally in Clearwater, Fla., when a Republican voter in the crowd shouted, “Kill him,” apparently in reference to Barack Obama.

Now the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank says the anger among the GOP rank and file in Clearwater was also directed toward reporters covering the event generally, and an African American sound man in particular

Palin’s routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.” Given the racist bent of their base, and leaving aside their constant lying about Barack Obama, his associations and his record, John McCain and Sarah Palin are playing with rhetorical fire.
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The Sarah Palin movie

As advertised on Craig's list:

NEED SARAH PALIN LOOKALIKE ASAP FOR ADULT FILM (LA)

Reply to: gigs-836109998@craigslist.org

Looking for a Sarah Palin lookalike for an adult film to be shot in next 10 days. Major adult studio. Please send pix, stats etc. ASAP Pay:

$2000-3000

No anal required

Location: LA

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: $2000-3000
PostingID: 836109998

Copyright © 2008 craigslist, inc. terms of use privacy policy feedback forum

Nice Sarah Palin<---->Dick Cheney Morph

This morph is from TinyPic.com. It is utterly unattributed.
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Flip-flopping between the poles of fear

Isn't there a point where everything about Sarah Palin as Vice-President turns and pivots? Isn't there a moment, goshdarnit, when it all topples over and "funny but a little scary" becomes "sort of funny and really scary" ? Did it already happen and we didn't even notice, or are we just flip-flopping between the poles of fear?
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Doggoneit! Aden Nak's debate flow chart + bonus photo of Sarah Winker Palin

Doggoneit! It looks like Aden Nak (addennak.com) has captured Sarah Palin's debate flow perfectly. He posted this a couple of hours after the debate last night.

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Vice Presidential debate: A net win for Biden, and a resurrection for Sarah Palin

By Pablo Fanque,

All This Is That National Affairs Editor

The Senator and Governor clashed in last night's debate on energy, drilling in Alaska, global warming, the wars in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, income taxes, The Failed Presidency (although they both took shots at 43 and Dick Cheney), corporate tax breaks and a number of other issues. They agreed on Israel (they're our peace-loving buddies) and same sex marriage (neither of them support it...the idiots).

Sarah Palin made a few minor mistakes, mispronounced the Afghanistan commander's name, and ignored many questions, but she absolutely outperformed expectations. It was like this was hardly the same woman we saw fumbling questions as harmless as what magazines she read in her Katy Couric interview.

Biden was clearly in better command of the facts and figures. He was less irritating, more charming, and yes, Presidential.

Palin brought up Alaska, her mayorship over and over, drilling and energy probably too often. She used the word "Maverick" about McCain and herself at least ten times during the debate. Finally, Biden explained at the end, how they weren't really mavericks at all on the issues that mattered, but were really just parading around in Maverick costumes.

Biden did not go over his time limits, did not bully or intimidate her, and made no verbal gaffes or infelicities. He was prime-time Smilin Joe, courtly, respectful and engaging. Unlike John McCain in the last debate, he often looked at the Governor and smiled (Palin to be fair also looked at him; she also mugged for the camera and winked). Biden was acidic in his excoriation of McCain's position on the Iraq war, and called him the "odd man out" for his refusal to accept a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Joe was good.

Sarah Palin, apparently at the urging of McCain officials, pronounced Nuclear Nukuler numerous times. She dropped the G from almost every gerund, and often used folksy vernacular like "betcha" instead of bet you, and even dog-gone-it.

They were mostly very civil, and spent their time attacking the other guy's Presidential candidate. Palin said Obama had voted to raise taxes 94 times. Biden's rebuttal disagreed with that number and trumped it: "by the same reckoning," he said, McCain voted "477 times to raise taxes."

I don't think The Governor changed anyone's mind. Biden may have changed a few. For either side, there was no net harm. With McCain-Palin slipping steadily in the polls, this can only mean real fireworks for next week's town hall Presidential debate at Belmont College in Nashville, and the October 15th domestic debate.

Finally, for all the talk about Gwen Ifull being a partisan and in the OPbama camp, she performed masterfully, treated each candidate very well, and did not lob any bombs Palin's way she wasn't tossing at Biden too. Unfortunately she never lobbed the gotcha bomb at Palin. I wonder if she felt constrained after all the controversy over her book and politics.

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Larry Flynt makes porn movie with Sarah Palin playing the skin flute, and, at last, video of Palin's flute performance in beauty pageant surfaces

Complementing the You Tube video clip of Governor Sarah Palin in the 1984 Miss Alaska swimsuit competition, the same contributor (DJMojorisin. . . obviously a doors/Jim Morrison fan) has now released Sarah's talent performance on the flute. See the video below.

Speaking of flautists, The New York Daily News reported today that Larry Flynt, the founder of Hustler, has created an X-rated film that stars a Sarah Palin lookalike playing the skin flute, among other acts:

"Larry Flynt is using the power of porn to express his views on Sarah Palin. The Hustler founder and freedom of speech advocate has produced an X-rated movie using an adult-film actress who resembles the Republican vice presidential candidate."


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Governor Sarah Palin, naked and verbatim

click to enlarge

Perhaps the choicest quote, among many, from Governor Palin's interview with Katy Couric:

Q. “ You've cited Alaska's proximity to Russia as part of your foreign policy experience. What did you mean by that?”

A: “That Alaska has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Russia, and on our other side, the land--boundary that we have with-- Canada. …Well, it certainly does because our-- our next door neighbors are foreign countries. They're in the state that I am the executive of. And there in Russia-- … We have trade missions back and forth.

We-- we do-- it's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his ugly head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where-- where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is-- from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to-- to our state.”
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Photos from The Sarah Palin protest in Anchorage

Contrary to what you may have heard, Sarah Palin is not universally worshipped in Alaska, or Anchorage, or Wasilla. Here are some photographs from a massive--by Alaska standards--protest in Anchorage.

It isn't the largest protest ever (as the organizers claim)...that honor goes to the native Americans who held a protest a few years ago. . .but it does come in second, and as you can see from the photos, The Governor is hardly universally worshipped.


click to enlarge


click to enlarge


click to enlarge
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Carbou! Sarah Palin photographed with a caribou she dropped

click the huntress to enlarge

Vice President candidate Governor Sarah Palin is shown here photographed with a Caribou she bagged. I believe that is one of her children in the photo as well--it's either Twelvegauge or Ricochet.


I can't actually find any information on whether this photo is real or not. There are other photos of her with a dead moose, so I am presming this one is probably kosher. If not, hey, Sarah!, sue us!


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Candidate Sarah Palin in the 1984 Miss Alaska contest, swimsuit division

Sarah Heath, who would later become Governor Palin, appears in the swimsuit portion of the 1984 Miss Alaska competition. Apparently there is also footage of her playing flute in the talent competition. We'll let you know when we find it. . .

Asif Ali Zardari lands in hot water in Pakistan over calling Sarah Palin hot

Governor Palin opened with a "glad to meet you." After shaking Governor Palin's hand last week in a photo op, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari told her "You are more gorgeous than you are on [television]."

"Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you," Zardari told her, as he flashed his famously toothy and pearly-white smile.

The two were urged to shake hands again [sotto voce], for the benefit of the cameras. "I'm supposed to pose again," Palin whispered. Pointing toward the aide that prompted them, Zardari said, "If he's insisting, I might hug."

I can almost hear the off-camera aides saying "nooooooooooooooo." After their extremely brief photo-op, campaign functonaries shuffled Asif Ali Zardari out of the room.

Pakistani newspapers ran prominent accounts of the "embarassing" incident. News anchors smirked after airing the footage.
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Was it a tie? Obama and McCain survive to fight another day?

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

I hoped for more from the first Presidential Debate of the 2008 season. In the end, you'd have to call it a tie/dead heat/stalemate. The very fact it was a tie undoubtedly translates to a loss for McCain, who needed the win.

In this first, "foreign policy" debate it took over 30 minutes for the candidates--admittedly facing a national and world economic crisis--to actually get around to foreign policy issues. And when they did, Senator McCain failed to expose any real weakness in Senator Obama's grasp of foreign policy. McCain, now trailing in the tracking polls, needed a big win tonight. No cigar. McCain never seemed in control of his message; Obama never seemed to waver. McCain almost conceded the change issue to Obama. He never brought it up.

McCain accused Barack Obama of compiling "the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate" and accused him by my count seven times, in various forms, of being naive and clueless. For his part, Obama praised McCain too many times. And he let McCain's jabs stand when he should have counterpunched. He let McCain's comments on his 900 million in earmarks stand, when this was clearly one more case of inside baseball. McCain came off as an arrogant and cranky professor lecturing a clueless student. . .while Obama proved time and again his mastery of the facts of numerous and complex foreign policy issues. The new kid on the block relentlessly rattled off facts and figures on the devastating and costly war in Iraq. He didn't just say the war was wrong: he showed how the war was wrong, by proving we were fighting the wrong war.



Obama scored big points for accusing McCain of being wrong on Iraq, and for fighting the wrong war by ignoring the real issue of the growing presence of al Qaeda in Afghansitan and Pakistan. McCain did not rebut him.

Early in the debate, Obama refused to address an arcane point about the inner -workings of Senate committees because it was "inside baseball." However he left several of McCain's inside comments about earmarks stand, and didn't go after McCain on any of his own spending troubles when McCain tried to take the high road.

On the podium, they both looked fine (even McCain, who can look pretty spooky...he had an expert makeup job). It was mostly a tie, but McCain often came off as snarky, and was generally hunched over his podium in what came off--to me at least--as a hostile, closed off posture, while Obama was open and warm. He often turned and looked over at McCain, who refused to ever look directly at Obama.

Both candidates refused to take advantage of the nation's economic woes, and did not differ on much of substance, and, in fact, agreed that greed and deregulation that brought us to this lamentable state of affairs.

It was close to a stalemate...I'd give McCain a few more points for getting in unanswered jabs, and I'd give Obama points for showing grace an charm under fire. Obama absolutely looked Presidential, and I suspect that, even if you'd score this as a tie, Obama clearly showed he would be every bit--if not more--Presidential than John McCain. Following this debate, the populace now understands that Barack Obama could clearly hold his own with the likes of Putin, Chavez, or any foreign leader. This raises the stakes on the next debate. . .right through the roof!




Joe Biden made the rounds post-debate of numerous talk shows. Sarah Palin was, as is often the case, absent, under wraps, and silent. Their turn comes this upcoming week.
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Head of Skate: The Disney Sarah Palin movie

Thanks to Tony Ravo for this excellent link! Click here to watch Head of Skate.
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VP nominee Sarah Palin defends John McCain "the deregulator" (with bonus Palin painting)

In an interview today between Katy Couric of CBS News and Governor Sarah Palin, Couric probed Palin on Senator John McCain's credentials as an economic reformer:

Couric: You've said, quote, "John McCain will reform the way Wall Street does business." Other than supporting stricter regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, can you give us any more example of his leading the charge for more oversight?

Palin: I think that the example that you just cited, with his warnings two years ago about Fannie and Freddie - that, that's paramount. That's more than a heck of a lot of other senators and representatives did for us.

Couric: But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.

Palin: He's also known as the maverick though, taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about - the need to reform government.

Couric: But can you give me any other concrete examples? Because I know you've said Barack Obama is a lot of talk and no action. Can you give me any other examples in his 26 years of John McCain truly taking a stand on this?

Palin: I can give you examples of things that John McCain has done, that has shown his foresight, his pragmatism, and his leadership abilities. And that is what America needs today.

Couric: I'm just going to ask you one more time - not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation.

Palin: I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.

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Behind the scenes: a John McCain thought bubble.

Click to enlarge...and for intelligibilty

Behind the scenes: a John McCain thought bubble. I don't usually like the snarky caption-photograph school of humor, but when I saw this photo of John McCain and his running mate Governor Palin, I had no choice but to do one. /jack
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