Kudos to Oliver Willis and Stefan Sirucek for getting on top of Handsgate. The whole thing makes me think of this:
I guess I don’t see this as all that bad, not compared to “I read all of them” or O’Biden or thinking Africa was a country, let alone resigning mid-term, misusing the office of the governor to pursue a vendetta against Todd Palin’s sister’s estranged husband, etc.
But it is amusing, though not as amusing as Andrew Sullivan’s obsession with Palin (yesterday was a banner day for that).
The Tim Channel
I think it’s pretty bad. On the one hand she’s knocking Obama for using a teleprompter and on the other she’s writing a short list of the things she ought to know by heart. She’s been singing the same lame song for months and she can’t even remember her own lyrics.
Enjoy.
nitpicker
Yes, it’s not really that important, but it’s the kind of thing that should embarrass even her supporters and tarnish her glow a bit. Even the chickenshit press may have to admit that she’s a joke now.
JenJen
It’s amusing, but also not as amusing as Mooseburger insisting it’s OK when Rush Limbaugh says “retards” over and over again, because, you know, that’s funny. Or something.
But Rahm has to resign. I can only guess this makes perfect sense to Republicans somehow?
tatertot
Please help me BJers – my 79-yr-old McCain-loving mum has sent me this ha ha funny email from America that was forwarded to her, and I need a counter-send, cause it’s driving me crazy, but I don’t know enough about what the appropriate equivalences would be. (I mean, I know about some of them, but need some guidance for the rest). I REALLY hate this, but have to counter with something vaguely amusing cause it is from my mum, who I love through gritted teeth…
“World’s Shortest Books:
THINGS I DID TO DESERVE
THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
by Barack Obama
____________________________________________
OTHER BLACK PEOPLE I’VE MET WHILE YACHTING
by Tiger Woods
______________________________________________
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY COUNTRY
by Jane Fonda & Cindy Sheehan.
Illustrated by Michael Moore
________________________________________
MY CHRISTIAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS &
HOW I HELPED AFTER KATRINA
by Rev Jesse Jackson & Rev Al Sharpton
_______________________________________
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT BILL
by Hillary Clinton
________________________________
Sequel:
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HILLARY
By Bill Clinton
___________________________________
THINGS I CANNOT AFFORD
by Bill Gates
____________________________________
THINGS I WOULD NOT DO FOR MONEY
by Dennis Rodman
_________________________________
THINGS WE KNOW TO BE TRUE
by Al Gore & John Kerry
_____________________________________
AMELIA EARHART’S GUIDE TO THE PACIFIC
___________________________________
A COLLECTION of MOTIVATIONAL SPEECHES
by Dr. J. Kevorkian
__________________________________
TO ALL THE MEN WE’VE LOVED BEFORE ……
by Ellen de Generes & Rosie O’Donnel
_________________________________
THE AMISH PHONE DIRECTORY
_______________________________________
MY PLAN TO FIND THE REAL KILLER(S)
by O. J. Simpson
_________________________________________
HOW TO DRINK & DRIVE SAFELY
by Ted Kennedy
______________________
MY BOOK OF MORALS
by Bill Clinton with introduction
by the Rev. Jesse Jackson
kay
Did she say “budget cuts” or just “cuts”?
I guess you can’t say “budget cuts” to teabaggers. They don’t want to cut anything from a real live budget.
I think it’s hysterical she crossed it out.
“Don’t say that, Sarah!”
Zuzu's Petals
I cannot wait to see the primary ads … if she really does run.
Bill E Pilgrim
I already commented at TBogg about this, I’m not sure what the attribution protocol would be if it’s your own comment…
hal
I think it’s very important. There are voters out there who think Obama is a fraud for using a teleprompter for some speeches. How then do you defend Palin having to write reminders on her hands? It just makes here look even more intellectually light weight than she already is.
licensed to kill time
I just think it’s funny that she didn’t put her faith in Jesus to feed her the lines. O ye of little faith…
DougJ
@hal:
I don’t think anyone cares about the teleprompter stuff. The wingers just repeat it to themselves.
Ash
It’s pretty damn bad in the sense that professionals (in politics and business) often use teleprompters. But I’m pretty sure the ones that get to the top don’t write fucking reminders on their hands like they’re still in 6th grade. “Don’t 4get 2 mention profits”
kay
@nitpicker:
I think her supporters will love it. It’s authentic!
The prompts are just so bland. She really needs a cheat sheet to repeat this politician boilerplate? Is there anyone commenting here that doesn’t know these phrases?
I never assumed she was stupid, but the evidence is starting to pile up, I must say.
freelancer
@tatertot:
Sorry tater.
No help here. I’m against violence in general, specifically against women and the elderly, but you must now go bitchslap your mum.
Actually, nothing you do or say is going to stop her from FW: every stupid wingnut email to those she thinks it will rankle/amuse. So tell your mum, in no uncertain terms that you can’t stand spam and these type of emails make you uncomfortable and agitated, and if she continues emailing this shit, you’ll add her email to the spam filter and won’t get any more of them, even the important ones.
JCT
Actually saw someone refer to uh, Sarah’s crutch as a “teabagger teleprompter”. She is a national embarrassment, pure and simple.
Michael Bersin
@tatertot:
READING COMPREHENSION AND THE PRESIDENTIAL DAILY BRIEF
George W. Bush
PLANNING A WAR FOR OIL
George W, Bush
HOW TO CUT THE DEFICIT AND REDUCE THE NATIONAL DEBT
George W. Bush
MANAGEMENT AND PLANNING FOR NATURAL DISASTERS
George W. Bush
Bill E Pilgrim
True, except you have to imagine that “Newspapers: All of them” was likely written on her hand back then, we now realize.
In other words those interviews could have been worse.
cat48
Not bad, just amusing. Loved Rumproast blog–they called her writing on her hand, “Wingnut Teleprompter.”
General Winfield Stuck
More like Night of the Huckster on her special mission from Gawd to fleece the flock of their devil coin.
valdivia
NRO gets on with whitewashing the idiocy of Palin
“Unlike the guy who needs a three thousand dollar teleprompter to get out of bed in the morning, Palin speaks from concise notes like everybody else. And, like other busy moms, she sometimes writes notes on her hand.”
Bender
Irony-meter explodes.
Incertus
@The Tim Channel: You’ll never convince the faithful that its bad. Sarah Palin cannot fail–she can only be failed by a nation that doesn’t deserve her.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@tatertot: @freelancer: Actually, this seems like a good chance to make up some fun titles:
WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH – Sarah Palin
WIVES: THROUGH ________ AND HEALTH – Newt Gingrich
SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM: MY GREATEST ROLE – Ronald Reagan
A SUCKER DIALS IN EVERY MINUTE – Rush Limgaugh
Peter J
What saddens me is that if Palin hadn’t written budget on her palm by mistake, she would have had space to write Osama, and she would have told the world about McCain’s secret plan to capture him. But now we’ll never know. Cause just as McCain, she’ll never have the time or place to tell about the Plan(tm).
(Or she would have misread it and told people about McCain’s secret plan to capture Obama.)
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I love the fact that she had to correct the notes on her hand.
jeffreyw
longest book:
THINGS WE NEEDED TO BRIEF PALIN ON BEFORE THE DEBATES
By her staffers
shortest book:
THINGS SHE LEARNED FROM THE BRIEFINGS
By her ex-staffers
demo woman
@valdivia: HaHaHaHaHa!
They really are trying to justify it. She had note cards also so it’s not like she game an impromptu speech.
Zuzu's Petals
@valdivia:
Vet
Safeway
Cut
budgettaxesBelafon (formerly anonevent)
@cat48: GOS calls it the Alaskan Palm Pilot.
chrismealy
“Night of the Hunter”! Six thumbs up!
Cassidy
“World’s Shortest Books:
THINGS I DID TO DESERVE
THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZEPrisonby Barack Obama
Change to W.________________________________________
OTHER BLACK PEOPLE I’VE MET WHILE YACHTING
by Tiger Woods
Micheal Steele and Alan Keyes__________________________________________
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT MY COUNTRY
by Jane Fonda & Cindy Sheehan.
Illustrated by Michael Moore
Sen. Shelby “The Alabamma Scamma”
____________________________________
MY CHRISTIAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS &
HOW I HELPED AFTER KATRINA
by Rev Jesse Jackson & Rev Al Sharpton
Pat Robertson, etc.
___________________________________
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT BILL
DonaldHillary Clintonby
Colin Powell____________________________
Sequel:
THINGS I LOVE ABOUT HILLARY
ColinBill ClintonBy
Rummy
_______________________________
THINGS I CANNOT AFFORD
by Bill Gates
Goldman Sachs, etc.
________________________________
THINGS I WOULD NOT DO FOR MONEY
by Dennis Rodman
Sarah Palin
_____________________________
THINGS WE KNOW TO BE TRUE
by Al Gore & John Kerry
Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Rush
_________________________________
A COLLECTION of MOTIVATIONAL
RACIST SPEECHESDr. J. Kevorkianby
Tom Tancredo
______________________________
TO ALL THE MEN WE’VE
LOVED BEFORE ……Ellen de Generes & Rosie O’Donnelby
Ted Haggard and Larry Craig
MY PLAN TO FIND THE REAL KILLER
WMD’sO. J. Simpsonby
W
_____________________________________
HOW TO DRINK & DRIVE SAFELY
by Ted Kennedy
W
Yeah, I’m bored.
Common Sense
THE CONSTITUTION: A LIVING DOCUMENT
John Roberts
HOW TO MAKE BILLIONS OVERNIGHT WITH NO EFFORT
Richard Shelby
SPANISH
Mark Sanford
HOW TO GOVERN A STATE
Sarah Palin
(entire text of book: Energy,
BudgetTax Cuts, Lift American Spirits).WHAT DESERVES AN UP OR DOWN VOTE
Mitch McConnell (with Bill Frist)
ISSUES WITH WHICH I HAVE STAYED TRUE TO MY PRINCIPLES
John McCain
valdivia
@demo woman:
I know. They are, but you know she gave her convention speech like that, impromptu because her teleprompter failed. Didn’t ya know?
@Zuzu’s Petals:
the best part is she had that note scribbled in her hand the whole time before the Q&A, as shown by her open arms pose pic by the AP. So she clearly had the questions ahead of time and still had to write down the answers. How stupid is that?
Cassidy
Okay…xhtml fail.
licensed to kill time
@tatertot:
PICKING SURE WINNERS – John McCain
EFFECTIVE PUBLIC SPEAKING – George W. Bush
SECRETS OF A HAPPY MARRIAGE – Mark Sanford
TOSSING WORD SALAD FOR FUN AND PROFIT – Sarah Palin
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@valdivia: It’s also more history rewrite: There were not terrorist attacks under Bush, and Obama never stood in front of Republicans and answered questions without a teleprompter.
Martin
Well, I’m expected, on no notice to speak to any number of groups for a half hour to an hour on one of 20 different topics as an expert in that area. I’m expected to do that with no notes, to field any question on the topic at hand, and to do it all for less than $100K per year, let alone $100K per visit.
For that kind of money, cards and crib sheets are embarrassing, just as it would have been embarrassing if Obama showed up at the GOP retreat and read off of cards, or if a presidential nominee called a meeting with the President on a critical national issue and read off of cards.
That’s a different act than giving a prepared speech – where it’s not just informative but inspirational. That’s hard to do off the cuff and I wouldn’t look down on Palin for doing that – but when it comes to Q&A time, the inspirational part falls away and anyone who actually knows their stuff should be able to riff off their memory. Anyone who can’t, can’t make decisions in that area because they don’t have the information organized in such a way that we make decisions. You need something concrete to weigh options against, something more than your gut.
That’s what’s so frightening about Palin and McCain and even a number of Dems. If you can’t do this extemporaneously, you’re way out of your depth.
Just Some Fuckhead
What’s the difference between Sarah Palin’s mouth and vagina? Only one retarded thing has come out of her vagina!
I know, I know.
Zuzu's Petals
@valdivia:
Not just that, she sat all through dinner like that.
General Winfield Stuck
And Wapo bellies up for it’s share of Starbursts.
Sarah Palin watch: She looks trim, fit — and brimming with energy and plans
So does a Shithouse Rat when the sun goes down.
kay
@Martin:
Bravo, Martin. The McCain Meeting should become famous. Spread that around a little.
See, I didn’t know McCain was dumb as a rock either. I knew he was petulant and nasty, but I didn’t know “dumb” until I read Paulson’s piece.
valdivia
@Zuzu’s Petals:
head:desk.
Comrade Jake
The cross out of Budget might really be the best part of the whole thing. I’d just love to have been inside her brain when she was writing on her hand.
“Let’s see, gotta remember to talk about Energy – people care about that and I actually sound like I know what I’m talking about, also, and Budget Cuts – wait a minute, I don’t know jack shit about the Budget… tax cuts! That’s what I want to talk about, yeah, everybody likes them some tax cuts! I think someone told me the tee in tea party has to do with taxes. I don’t know how to spell retard so I’m not even going to write that down…”
pablo
I kinda like Sully’s Palin obsession. I think she is something to fear. Not because she is smart, but because there are so many, so stupid. I see her as America’s Evita.
I may fear her, but that doesn’t keep me from making fun of her!
AB
new tag please, Alaskan Palm Pilot, via kos
Jon
It’s reassurance time for me, folks.
Sullivan is nuts, right? There’s no way this dope can ACTUALLY be elected POTUS, right?
JoyceH
What I think makes the hand-notes thing different from other Palin controversies is that it is so… childish. “Busy moms” write on their hands? Please. Cheating middle-schoolers write on their hands.
And it’s interesting that it took place with the Q&A. I think we’re already seeing a change in how politicians are perceived since the Obama-GOP steel cage match. It’s now sort of expected that politicians ought to be able to answer unscripted questions on the fly, so whoever is handling Palin determined that they had to pretend she was going to take questions that she wasn’t briefed on beforehand. And she is so unsure of her own mental firepower that even in that non-threatening environment where the questions were sure to be cream puffs, she had to give herself a crutch to remember the most basic of her talking points.
Zuzu's Petals
@valdivia:
Yep.
Ash
@General Winfield Stuck: The worst part is that a woman actually wrote that shit, and not some creepy, misogynistic Rich Lowry type.
SpotWeld
I think we can finally put to rest that the McCain campaign was “holding her back” during the presidential campaign.
What we just saw was unfiltered Palin.
kay
Can I just say one more time that I so hope Sarah Palin will grace us with her presence as the 2012 GOP nominee?
I would find that motivating as all get out.
Please, oh, please. Run Sarah, run.
inkadu
Where did this thing of writing on your knuckles start from, especially things like “Love” and “Hate”? [Edit: Night of the Hunter, duh.] The first time I saw it was in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, then I think I saw it again on a remake of something something Island with Robert DeNiro as the bad guy who gets out of prison to harass a nice suburban family.
But my favorite has to be Sideshow Bob’s parody. Since Simpsonians only have three fingers, it was modified to “Luv” and “Hat” (with an accent mark over the A which is beyond my skill to display).
Warren Terra
I’m vexed she wore a US + Israel flag pin. Not only do my fellow Red Sea Pedestrians abhor her, I’m sure she knows even less about Israel than the US, just wants Armageddon. Though Kristol was happy.
Martin
@kay: I wouldn’t say dumb, but the economy has never been his area. The guy wanted to be President of foreign policy and earmarks and coast along on the rest. Lazy, and a little cowardly for not speaking out anyway is probably more accurate.
Though dumb and lazy are pretty much the same thing in my book.
Grumpy Code Monkey
You have to be shitting me. You have to be shitting me. This has to be an elaborate joke. It has to be. Please God, please let this be the mother of all practical jokes. Because if this is for real, if these people are for real, then…well, shit…
It’s a damn good thing Puppy Bowl VI is on right now.
Ash
@Warren Terra: Well she can’t wear a flying Jesus pin (would ruin the suit) so she had to go for the next best thing.
Martin
@pablo: I’m going to assert again that it’s not Palin he fears but the 86% of Republicans that think she is or may be more qualified than Obama.
DougJ
@inkadu:
My fav is the cover of the Pogues album Peace and Love.
aimai
Tatertot,
There’s no silver bullet response to any of this winger stuff. One of my friends was just complaining to me that she’d like to ask just a “few questions” of the evangelicals–real “stumpers” like “who did cain and abel marry and where did they come from?” I explained to her that there’s no such thing as a truly revolutionary, zen koan kind of moment when by asking a simple question that appears to have no answer within the believer’s framework you can jolt people out of their beliefs.
Specifically, though, I wouldn’t choose to respond in kind, humorously, at all. That’s because she sent it to you as a kind of provocation: it smears everything all at once, comprehensively. If you take a kind of “tu quoque” style response, such as parodying all the same books but changing the authors, she’ll just feel you misunderstood her, or didn’t get the joke. The problem will be yours, in her eyes, not hers.
I’d suggest going in the opposite direction. Ignore the letter or write back and say
If your mother loves McCain I’d send her a clip from the Paulson book about McCain’s suspension of his campaign and his utter failure of leadership and say, very sympathetically, “you must really feel awful. I know you believed in this guy and voted for him. And now to find out that all the major political players on his own side knew all along, what you did not, that he was just grandstanding and posing!”
The letter that she’s sending round is kind of a fixed quantity, a set of almost talismanic beliefs. They can’t be dismantled, they can only be rendered irrelevant by time and distance.
aimai
General Winfield Stuck
@inkadu:
Was remake of Cape Fear, and the original had Mitchum as the bad guy./
Martin
@inkadu: Quite a ways back, but Night of the Hunter might have been the first. I think all of the cases since then (Blues Brothers, Raising Arizona, loads of others) are homages back to that movie.
joel hanes
more very short books
RACIST JOKES I’D BE ASHAMED TO FORWARD TO MY LIBERAL CHILDREN by tatertot’s Mom
RIGHT-WING LIES THAT DON’T FOOL ME EVEN ONCE
by tatertot’s Mom
WHAT I’VE LEARNED FROM MY POLITICALLY LIBERAL CHILDREN
by tatertot’s Mom
RESPECT : WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND
by tatertot’s Mom
kay
@Martin:
Absolutely. He was telling us he was going to rescue the economy relying on Allen Greenspan’s book. Which he hadn’t read. Yet.
Remember that? I was just amazed. The bobbleheads were nodding along. I think it was after Greenspan was completely discredited.
Phil Gramm was McCain’s economic guru. Do we need more than that? Can you imagine what Phil Gramm’s cure might have looked like? He’s the disease.
Maude
@inkadu: That would be a copy of RobertMitchum as the preacher, with the writing on his hands. If you can see the movie, it is worth watching.
I imagine what Sarah Palin had written on her palm was her name.
Napoleon
@Warren Terra:
Seriously? She wore an Israel flag?
Hob
@inkadu: Well, also the whole left hand/right hand speech in Do the Right Thing was quoted from Night of the Hunter, also. Too.
Mum
@Ash:
Who in this universe believes that people deliver speeches without the aid of note cards, manuscripts, or teleprompters? Good speeches, those that are meant to inform and influence, which is the goal of most speeches, are carefully written and often extensively revised. They’re nearly always timed, taking into consideration the speech patterns of the speaker and any anticipated applause or laughter. And the people who are expected to deliver the speeches are generally busy and important people who don’t have the time to memorize them. I’ve had the good luck to be present at the delivery of some really great speeches: Mortimer Adler, Elie Wiesel, JFK, RFK, Bill Moyers, Edward Said, Gary Hart, Ursula LeGuin, Frank Kermode, to name a few. They all used note cards, and, had the occasion demanded or the technology been available, they would have used a teleprompter. The genius was in the writing of the words and the grace of the delivery, not in the method used to effect the transfer from one to the other.
kay
@Napoleon:
I think it’s completely bizarre. Is it a new trend on the Right?
Just Israel? No other foreign flags? They’re crazy as hell.
Ash
@Napoleon: http://www.daylife.com/photo/0dco34I0Wc9Z1?q=palin
Rich Lowry
I can’t be the only one (can I?) who realized that this was Sarah’s way of telling her fans what they’ve always imagined, but never been sure of: she masturbates with her right hand. Like a real American.
Martin
@Mum: Would any of them rely on note cards in a Q&A, however?
There’s a difference between a speech and an informational interaction. The latter shouldn’t require preparation – the whole point of being ‘qualified’ for something is that you don’t need to prepare for a basic interaction on a topic.
RSA
Ah, little teabaggers, you’re staring at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? The story of good and evil? T-A-X-S! It was with this left hand that old brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low. U-S-A-*! You see these fingers, dear hearts? These fingers has veins that run straight to the soul of a woman. The right hand, friends, the hand of USA. Now watch, and I’ll show you the story of life. Those fingers, dear hearts, is always a-warring and a-tugging, one agin t’other. Now watch ’em! Old sister left hand, left hand she’s a fighting, and it looks like USA’s a goner. But wait a minute! Hot dog, USA’s a winning! Yessirree! It’s USA that’s won, and old left hand taxes is down for the count!
It would be better with the visuals, though.
Warren Terra
@kay
@NapoleonHaven’t seen a picture but the press (WaPo?) report stressed her weight, clothes, and a pin with crossed US & Israeli flags.
inkadu
Re: Night of the Hunter — I got Night of the Hunter confused with “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,” which I’d already seen, so when people kept talking about Night of the Hunter, I’d filed it in my recycling bin.
But it seems long-time favorite guitarist Leo Kottke had a song called, “Song for Night of the Hunter,” which I had confused with other movie songs “Song for Terri’s Movie,” and the “Train and the Gate.” So there are multiple confusing streams trying to keep me from watching this movie. Therefore I must watch it.
Cape Fear, also. Thanks for the recommendations. And they’re old enough that the MPAA won’t care where I get them.
de stijl
@tatertot:
Tatertot,
Your mom is a passive-aggressive asshole.
The only way to beat a passive-aggressive asshole, is to be a bigger-passive aggressive asshole. Send her every anti-Palin, anti-FNC, anti-Republican article you can find.
Give her a gift subscription to Mother Jones.
Tell her you got pregnant / got someone pregnant just so you could have an abortion. And you liked it.
She’ll learn her lesson toot sweet and pretty soon you can go back to having a adult and mutually respectful relationship.
Okay, here’s the actual advice: My mom used to do similar stuff to me (e-mails). Just shit can ’em – it’s not worth the agita to get in a pissing match with your mother in an e-mail tit for tat. With e-mail, etc. is too easy to misread tone and someone is going to end up getting pissed off.
If she also brings it up in phone calls or F2F just call her on it. Ask her if similar behavior by you would be appreciated or welcome. If she says she just want to debate the issues tell her politely that is something we disagree about and probably always will, and suggest that maybe you should move on.
The first sentence of my fake advice is still true – your mom is passive aggressive. But the cool thing is that now you know it and can figure out how you want to cope with that.
FlipYrWhig
@tatertot:
MY LIFE SINCE THEN: AFTER I WAS A P.O.W. – by John McCain
ACTUAL STRAIGHT TALK: TIMES I HAVE ACKNOWLEDGED MY CONSTANTLY CHANGING POLICY POSITIONS – by John McCain
BLACK MEN I ADMIRE – by Rush Limbaugh
LEGITIMATE FUNDRAISING STRATEGIES – by Pat Robertson
TRUE STORIES – by Fox News creator Roger Ailes
BEING ASHAMED ABOUT HUMILIATING YOUR WIFE – by Mark Sanford, John Ensign, and David Vitter, with a foreword by John McCain and an afterword by Newt Gingrich
AFFECTIONATE FEELINGS – by Dick and Liz Cheney
U.S.-RUSSIAN RELATIONS – by Sarah Palin
SENSIBLE BABY NAMES – by Sarah Palin
Chris N.
It doesn’t make her any less blindingly stupid, but the story that she thought Africa was a country was a hoax.
Grumpy Code Monkey
Speaking of hands…
If you ever rent a power posthole digger, be aware that the bastard has enough horsepower to damn near rip your hand off at the wrist. I let one get away from me this morning, and it came damn close to breaking a couple of fingers. As it is, it wrenched the hell out of my right hand (enough to where typing is…uncomfortable).
Also, be sure that you are properly rested, fed, and hydrated before starting, because when the wrenching of the hand combined with lack of sleep, lack of food, and general malaise causes you to black out in front of your wife, forcing her to try to catch you and the auger without injury to any of the three parties, expect to get bitched at about it for the next several
daysweeks.FlipYrWhig
@Warren Terra:
There was a previous episode during the campaign where she was bragging that she had the flag of Israel flying in her governor’s office. I’m trying but failing to remember the specifics…
kay
@Warren Terra:
Well, it’s a little different than the gross and tacky jewel-encrusted US flag she wore during the campaign.
Is there some secret handshake right wing-fundamentalist religious meaning to this?
Like when they reference Dred Scott, but only religious get the Secret Message?
Tonal Crow
Just another brick in the wall, which I am squirreling away for her inevitable Presidential campaign. I truly hope that she’s the GOP nominee. While there’s a nonzero chance she’d win, I think the risk is outweighed by the wonderful thumping she and her fellow travellers would be far more likely to take. That could set back the wingers for a decade or more.
WereBear
@RSA: The Night of the Hunter was Charles Laughton’s only directorial effort. He was very proud of it, it sank at the box office like a doughtnut shaped rock, and is now an utterly classic film.
Ladies and Gentlemen, America. We don’t know good for several decades, even after we’ve done something good.
KCinDC
@FlipYrWhig, it was a small paper Israeli flag in the window of her office.
hal
tatertot’s mom reminds me of my mother’s friend. Only forwards emails that have anything negative to say about Obama, Jesse Jackson, Jane Fonda (seriously conservatives, let that one go), or any other “liberal.” But, when you call her out on it, she says she really doesn’t actually care about politics, and doesn’t vote, and they’re “all crooks”, etc etc…
I remember Wonkette describing the Obama is a Secret Muslim email as the only email your Grandmother successfully forwarded. Kinda the same thing here I guess…
Zam
@kay: The conservatives I’ve encountered in my life are all about the codes. They constantly see hidden meanings behind everything, I personally believe that it’s because they try and put hidden meanings in all the crazy shit they say in order to seem intelligent and deep. Seriously one guy was explaining the me all the codes he thought Nancy Pelosi was using to send secret messages to liberals.
inkadu
@de stijl:
GMail
Create Rule
Message Contains
From: Mom
AND
Subject: FW:
Action: Delete
Apply
It’s worked for me; though I actually forward it to a semi-spam gmail account just in case. Sometimes my mom forwards me e-mail I haven’t replied to yet and writes a new preamble that also needs a response.
Martin
@WereBear:
The Ballad of George W Bush.
Rich Lowry
Oh, so now liberal WordPress (or as I like to call it, WordMSM) is putting my comment in “moderation,” as if there is something “immoderate” about what real Americans do and how other real Americans imagine and dream about it… as if the American Dream is immoderate. That’s why you’ll never see our national anthem on a liberal blog; they think rockets and starbursts are something to be embarrassed about.
Mum
@tatertot:
Since your mother is 79, I don’t think there is much that you can come back with that will cause her to experience an epiphany and come over from the dark side. Trying to one-up her may give you some transient satisfaction, but probably won’t do anything for your relationship with her. I’ve had to contend with one or two considerably-right-of-center relatives and I tend to just delete a lot of the emails that they send which are clearly intended to do little more than dig, and I limit my emails or any conversations to recipes, weather, and what our children are doing (although as my kids are both progressives, that topic of conversation is rather limited in scope). Good luck. And, really, don’t let it get under your skin.
MaryRC
@Mum:
This is going to be the conservative spin on Handgate, apparently — that Sarah was using the cheat sheet on her hand for her speech, not the Q&A where she was actually seen sneaking a peek at it. And everybody uses notes for a speech, right?
What NRO and other conservatives are busily trying to obfuscate is that the answer on her hand was for a softball question during the Q&A on her top 3 priorities.
It’s like writing down the answer in advance to “What is your favorite color?”
Citizen_X
@RSA: OhMahGawd RSA, that’s brilliant.
And for everyone else, here’s the original (second half), together with Spike Lee’s lovely homage (first half).
mcc
@MaryRC: Did she have, like, a teleprompter or something during the speech?
Maybe she wrote the notes on her hand so she wouldn’t forget what the teleprompter said
WereBear
@tatertot: Ya just gotta roll with it. At 79, she has mastered email, and that’s something!
I used to work with a very nice lady who doted on her little dogs, drove two hours to pick up a couple of abandoned puppies and enlisted my help to get them homes (we did) and was happy to give you a ride or lend you money for lunch.
It wasn’t until she moved away that we started communicating via email and I discovered, based on the emails she sent me, that she was also a smug unthinking racist.
I guess she wouldn’t have been so nice to me if I had been black.
kay
@Zam:
I actually know a little about the Israel-fundamentalist Christian intersect. We have local religious television programming here, a lot of it, and it’s a constant preacher theme.
I don’t recall when I started hearing that variant, but it’s all over the place now.
I’m not religious, but I feel as if I have an interest in finding out what they’re selling. I check in once in a while.
Radio, too.
Mum
@Martin:
I wasn’t talking about a Q & A. (Is that what you mean by an “informational interaction”?) I was talking about speeches and the silliness that is the implication that teleprompters and note cards are somehow dishonest and an unfair advantage in delivering a speech.
A Q & A, on the other hand, cannot rely on note cards (or notes written on the hand), unless the A part of the Q & A has been apprised of the Qs ahead of time and doesn’t know, or have confidence that he/she knows, the answers.
KCinDC
@MaryRC, what exactly was she saying when she looked down at her hand? Seriously, why would those notes be helpful at all?
“We need tax increases to balance the budget! [looks down] Sorry, I mean tax *cuts*.”
Martin
@Mum: Except that dear Sarah did rely on notes in her hand for the Q&A. Mostly just a checklist of talking points from the looks of it, but after a year and a half in the national limelight she still hasn’t been able to commit ‘cut taxes’ to memory as a necessary GOP talking point?
Mum
@MaryRC:
I don’t know how they think they can get away with spinning that when it is clear that she used her hand during the Q&A, and we have more than ample evidence (Gibson and Couric interviews to begin with) that she is incapable of thinking on her feet. (Or in any other position for that matter!) But I can hardly wait until Tina Fey and SNL do their bit on this; we know it’s coming!
ruemara
@tatertot:
Dude, your mom is 79. This is childish, on her part. When my mom started sliding winger and sending my crap, I took it head on.
“Dear mom, do not send me this nonsense. Not only is most of it factually incorrect, it is also low quality spam. If you want to write me and tell me what’s happening in your life, I will be happy to read that. Republican talking points that have no factual basis don’t count as that. If you have any desire to really talk about these things and learn what the truth is, I’ll be happy to point you in the right direction, otherwise, take me off this mail forwarding list. And if you don’t, the next letter will go to everyone this list with even more direct language.
Love, your daughter, a very, very proud liberal.
P.S. Black people don’t vote republican and you know that.”
She was annoyed as hell, but I never got more of those and after some trips to snopes, she started critical thinking more and dropped all the christiofascist programming she had started sliding with. My mom is just about 60 now, so there’s much less set in her way than your mom. But straight up dealing with her as an adult can at least reduce, if not remove the winger email and set you guys back to correct emails between parents & children-life updates, pics and recipes. Good luck.
Mum
@Martin:
I never questioned the fact that Palin used her hand-notes for the Q&A, and you’re right that after more than a year in the spotlight she should be able to recall some of the talking points. But her problems are that she has lied so many times, been inconsistent on her positions, and knows so little about any major issue that the US is facing that she more than likely has to be spoon fed the questions ahead of time and needs to write down some clues to what she thinks she should say, i.e., whatever she or her handlers think coincides with the image she is trying to convey and the hoax they are all trying to perpetrate on the low-information voters in this country.
scav
World’s Shortest Books: REPUBLICAN 2010 BUDGET.
Jean
So given the level of her intelligence, “crib notes” are about right.
KCinDC
Actually the full version is
“We need tax increases to balance the budget! [looks down] I mean tax *cuts*. [facepalm] Uh-oh. Can someone bring me a mirror?”
cs
In regards to your conservative mum, just let it go.
One thing I’ll always regret is this one phone conversation I had in early 2008 with my mom’s husband. Politically he was a bitter racist Republican, and he opened the conversation about “What do you think about that nigger running for the White House? He’s just going to destroy the country.” And I just let him have it with a longish rant about the crimes of Bush+Cheney and how the country was already potentially ruined by the Republicans that mum’s husband was giving thousands of dollars to, and how he was helping this destruction come about. I think I overwhelmed the old guy, who just responded with a confused “huh” and handed the phone to my mom.
Turns out that he was already in early stages of alzheimers and within a year wouldn’t remember who my mom was half the time. Made me feel like a bully and the rant accomplished nothing other than hurting a mostly harmless old man.
My mum and I get along well on political things. She probably hasn’t voted for a Republican in her life and she really likes Obama. But even she will sometimes go off on a pro-life or non-political christianist tangent, and all I can do is just smile and nod and agree that my life would be better if I went to church regularly. It’s just not worth it fighting with the older family members.
Rick Taylor
__
It’s worse when you consider she must have been informed what the question would be beforehand, and even then she needed to have the answer, ““Energy. Tax. Lift American Spirits.” written down in advance. That’s pathetic.
Unabogie
@kay:
Look up CUFI and John Hagee. Their mythology is that it’s their responsibility to make sure Israel follows Revelations so Jesus can come back.
abo gato
What really worries me is that the powers in charge had the court put bush in as pres…..he was their man to get them all the money they could want. Why would she be any different? I am afraid that if they really, really want her so their agendas can get going, then she will be installed after the next election. She’s an even better figurehead for them than bush was.
I cannot forget the voting machine scams and the shameless positioning of bush into the White House. And the supremes are way more conservative and owned by those powers now than they were in 2000.
I just hope that Obama has the opportunity in the next three years to replace not just liberal judges, but some of the conservative ones too.
Martian Buddy
As I write this, the top story on the Google News page is “Run Sarah Run!” courtesy of the NY Times. Google also helpfully informs me that there are 1,836 stories devoted to last night’s non-event. This made me wonder; does anyone have any hard numbers on how many teabaggers there are? Somehow I doubt they’ve got more people than, say, the Libertarian Party–and I can’t remember the last time one of their conventions got this kind of coverage.
Michael
Has nobody stepped up to claim the obvious? Must I be the one to come up with the perfect moniker?
(ahem, drum roll, please……….)
The iPalm. Suits the ego and works about half the time.
Honus
FWIW, Night of the Hunter was filmed in on the Ohio River banks in Cresaps Landing, West Virginia- about 30 miles south of the John Cole ancestral homeplace in Beech Bottom. Great cast: Shelly Winters, Peter Graves, Mitchum, Lillian Gish.
FlipYrWhig
I would guess that OCR on the text string “Palin” would yield “Palm” over and over and over again…
Mal Carne
Here’s my take on this:
Palin *knows* these things. I mean, seriously. Tax cuts? A Republican has to write “tax cuts” on her hand? I’ve seen Bible Spice talk on Conan O’Brian’s show, and she’s not genius but she’s not a moron, either. Seriously?
I can only guess that she’s terrified. She’s so worried about getting it right that she’s writing down fundamentals like this as a security blanket, even though she could, in all honesty, nail these talking points in her sleep.
It lines up with her quitting and a lot of her other behaviors. And the idea of someone like that in any national office – especially President – scares me. She would be magnitudes of order worse than Nixon, and for pretty much the same reasons.
FlipYrWhig
Waitaminit — I think the 3 things written on her hand are the short version of her 3 important plans for a conservative Congress. This is from Steve Benen:
Ana Gama
@Mal Carne:
Except that she did not nail the talking points even though she was looking right at them. She wrote “tax cuts” on her hand, but she never mentioned them. Instead, she talked about getting the spending under control which far closer to budget cuts than anything else she scribbled on her palm.
Michael
Nixon was competent. Further, he did, in his own sick and twisted way, have enough of a remaining moral compass to do the right thing and resign for the good of the country.
Palin has none of those qualities, which is what makes her particularly dangerous. She’s all about herself and her halfwit husband, she quit for their gain, and while her outside string pullers might think they have her under control, they don’t.
I’m convinced she’s simply the consort regent for Todd, the Shadow King. Every time she opens her trap, the message is the same – discordance, rage, division, secession.
FlipYrWhig
@Ana Gama:
I noticed that too. She went with the version that she had already crossed out.
tatertot
To EVERYONE who’s replied to me and my dilemma re: old conservative mum, thank you! I’m bookmarking this reply list and will have a good explore before I reply to her. And yes, de stijl, there’s a LOT of passive aggressive issues going on with me and Mum. I know this blog is not supposed to be the psychiatrists’s couch, but I thank you all for your helpful, and helpfully vicious, advice.
FlipYrWhig
@Michael: Everything about her is small-time. I think if she ever became president she’d spend half her time trying to get the FBI involved in investigating the the Wasilla High Homecoming Court for being “stuck-up” in 1982.
Mentis Fugit
@MaryRC:
Sir Galahad probably should have written that down.
Margaret
GUN SAFETY by Dick Cheney
LOVING THE ALASKA INDEPENDENCE PARTY by Todd Palin
RECESSION AS A STATE OF MIND by Phil Gramm
NEVER QUIT! HOW I WOULD RUN THE COUNTRY by Sarah Palin
MANAGING THE IRAQ OCCUPATION PEACEFULLY AND SUCCESSFULLY by Paul Bremer
ALUMINUM TUBES AND THEIR USES by Colin Powell
Liberty60
@tatertot:
________________________________
ABSTINENCE-ONLY PARENTING WORKS!
by Sarah Palin
_____________________________
IDEAS FOR A BALANCED REPUBLICAN BUDGET
by GOP BRAIN TRUST
_____________________________
Shaun
Sarah, Sarah, Sarah. This is the kind of advice you get when you hire your teenage daughter’s political consulting firm.
Platonicspoof
Sorry for your situation, Tatertot (and many others).
I used to get those a few years ago, and between Snopes and Google would impersonally correct the ones supposedly about real events and ignore the superstitious ones.
Because even just correcting facts will be felt as a personal attack, and that’s a far higher barrier to changing elections.
The chain e-mails from that relative stopped.
Then last fall I got a couple more, with attachments, and I replied with a long e-mail about attachments, viruses, information harvesting using soc1al engineering tactics (emotional appeals), etc.
The chain e-mails have stopped again.
But if I were to go down their road, I might add:
Healthcare for Everyone – Your Local Emergency Room
by G. W. Bush