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You are here: Home / The Graeme Frost Decade

The Graeme Frost Decade

by John Cole|  August 10, 201011:40 am| 163 Comments

This post is in: Assholes, Flash Mob of Hate, Wingnut Event Horizon

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Apparently everyone’s favorite snowbilly had an encounter with a former constituent and acted snotty and, well, like Sarah Palin, and there is video of it:

You know what this means, don’t you? Time for a full-on countertop inspection of this woman who dared to confront the Wasilla wingnut- they’ve decided she was no teacher and is instead a singer in a drag band:

UPDATE II: So far no confirmation of Gustafson’s claim to be a school teacher. However she is President, Board of Directors, Kachemak Bay. Family Planning Clinic (KBFPC) in Homer, AK. Figures. …

UPDATE II: According to the Alaska Teacher Certification website there is a Kathleen Gustafson registered, but unknown if this is her.

UPDATE III: It’s not unless she lives in Juno…

UPDATE VI: According to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District website there is no Kathleen Gustafson registered as a teacher in the district which includes Homer.

UPDATE VII: Actually there is. A Kathleen Gustafson does appear on this PDF from the district. According to the document she’s not a teacher but a “Theater Tech” at Homer High School. I wonder how the school district would feel about her misstating or more appropriately impersonating a teacher.

UPDATE VII: … a “Theater Tech” can very well be a teacher …

Except, as it turns out, she is a teacher- she teaches theater. As for the drag band stuff? The picture of her proving she is a singer in a drag band is actually her in a production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

So much fail. At this point, the only thing left is for Andy Alexander at the Washington Post to apologize for not being out in front of this story earlier.

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Reader Interactions

163Comments

  1. 1.

    celticdragonchick

    August 10, 2010 at 11:44 am

    The ability of the Atwater-Rove disciples to go into immediate unhinged attack mode on private citizens is nothing short of amazing.

  2. 2.

    Cat Lady

    August 10, 2010 at 11:46 am

    I have read the flying monkeys’ comments at Gateway Pundit stared into the abyss. There are two Americas, indeed.

  3. 3.

    BTD

    August 10, 2010 at 11:47 am

    This is the funniest post I’ve seen.

    It does need an UPDATE VIII: We’re the stupidest people on the planet.

  4. 4.

    General Stuck

    August 10, 2010 at 11:47 am

    The perfect cherry on top to one hell of a mornin”

  5. 5.

    El Cid

    August 10, 2010 at 11:47 am

    UPDATE X: Our sources indicate she subscribes to Penthouse Forum and Atheist Weekly. UPDATE XI: The last report cannot be confirmed, but other sources agree that these are likely given their analysis of this so-called “teacher’s” personality. UPDATE XII: New evidence emerges that Mrs. Hoity-Toity fails to recycle 100% of likely waste, given a review of waste products in her outdoor containers. UPDATE XIII: It is possible that more recyclables are retained temporarily within the house, given that kitchen waste bins are kept in a closed closet. UPDATE XIV: It also seems to be the case that her intake of high glycemic index foods contributes to her propensity for irrational outbursts. More to come.

  6. 6.

    Punchy

    August 10, 2010 at 11:47 am

    Looks like you treated us today with not one, but two links to…..uh, Andy Sullivan. Surprise.

    Nobody that teaches “theater” is a real teacher. Unless it’s a play about guns and shooting queers and Mexys.

  7. 7.

    taterstick

    August 10, 2010 at 11:48 am

    Yes, and this idiot is who we will have to suffer with if everybody “on the left” continues to act like spoiled children and hold their breath because:

    A) Gibbs hurt their fee fee’s
    B) Rahm hurt their fee fee’s
    C) Obama hurt their fee fee’s
    D) All the above

  8. 8.

    Chyron HR

    August 10, 2010 at 11:49 am

    Are we sure this supposed “town” even exists? I mean, really, “Homer”, Alaska? Where’s Marge and Maggie?

  9. 9.

    J.W. Hamner

    August 10, 2010 at 11:50 am

    Citizen Journalism: Mobilizing to slander innocent people who don’t share your political views.

  10. 10.

    curious

    August 10, 2010 at 11:51 am

    sarah palin has teachers in her family and only rolls her eyes using her eyebrows so shut up, that’s why.

  11. 11.

    Emerszi

    August 10, 2010 at 11:52 am

    I smell cuts arts education funding in Homer, AK.

  12. 12.

    Face

    August 10, 2010 at 11:52 am

    Anyone do a sandbox diorama to determine if this woman could have actually driven from Homer in time to interrupt Palin’s speech? How many dogs did she run over while in route?

  13. 13.

    beltane

    August 10, 2010 at 11:54 am

    Sully’s post was delightfully bitchy. I feel like we’re back in tenth grade and he’s the gay kid leading a band of nerds, geeks, goths, and artsy types on a mission to avenge the barbaric cruelty of the class slut/mean girl. This has all the makings of a 1980’s teen flick.

  14. 14.

    dmsilev

    August 10, 2010 at 11:54 am

    Seven updates? Have we at last located the conservative Glenn Greenwald?

    dms

  15. 15.

    beltane

    August 10, 2010 at 11:55 am

    @Face: She flew in on her broomstick. Sarah is the Christianist-in-chief, so anyone who does not love her is automatically a witch.

  16. 16.

    rob!

    August 10, 2010 at 11:55 am

    I don’t think Palin did roll her eyes. If she did, that would mean Sarah Palin has the ability to take in information, consider it, and then have her brain send electrical impulses to her body to reflect what the brain is thinking.

    To this point, Sarah Palin has not shown the ability to do any of those things.

  17. 17.

    matoko_chan

    August 10, 2010 at 11:56 am

    “conservatives” hate teachers because teachers are college-educated humans that mostly vote democratic.
    Conservatives believe their “genius” children are being sandbagged by crap teachers that are also indoctrinating liberal memes…..because most of the high IQ conservative children turn liberal. This is also why conservatives want 10 year olds to get the vote, and why Douthat wants IQ bussing so intelligence challenged heartland redstate kids can get into Harvard. Can’t fight the Bell Curve in a meritocracy, lawl.
    The conservative message is exemplified by Palin’s attitude.
    Teachers are The Enemy.
    Since NCLB has epically FAILED to make all american children above average, merit pay and vouchers are attempts at making all teachers above average. More fail.
    America does have education problems, world standing in science and math is falling…high school drop out rate is soaring…duh, could it be correlated with GINI (the inequality index, which SOARED under bush)?
    The inner city graduation rate has dropped below 50% in many big cities. This is because economically poor parents don’t have the time or energy to be involved in their childrens education.
    Another conservative meme is bootstrapping….with a puritan work ethic and a love of baby jeebus anyone should be able to pull themselves out of the gutter.
    Kain and McMegan know all this. they have to spin it to look rational so conservativism doesn’t go down in instant flames, and “doom us to a uniparty system.—Sully” How could a uniparty system possibly be any worse than what we have now, which is the Tyranny of the Stupid and their dishonest enablers like Kain?
    i say let them burn. America survived the Whigs going extinct, something else will arise.
    /spit

  18. 18.

    Rick Massimo

    August 10, 2010 at 11:56 am

    She’s going to be so awesome on the campaign trail, going out and confronting every person who has a mean sign about her.

    Gawd, at no point is she thinking “Let’s win this person over.” It’s “fuck you fuck you fuck you” all the way.

    Citizen Journalism: Mobilizing to slander innocent people who don’t share your political views.

    As John has pointed out before, when it’s something like Rudy Giuliani (still my sleeper pick for the 2012 nomination) spending tax money to put his emergency center in the WTC so he could sneak out for a quick bang, they’re all “Gosh, how could we ever go through this thicket of numbers and understand what happened?”

  19. 19.

    JGabriel

    August 10, 2010 at 11:58 am

    According to the document she’s not a teacher but a “Theater Tech” at Homer High School. I wonder how the school district would feel about her misstating or more appropriately impersonating a teacher.

    Oh NOEZ! Impersonating a teacher! We cannot let this stand! Society will crumble and decay like infrastructure if we don’t demand an end to it!

    UPDATE VII: … a “Theater Tech” can very well be a teacher …

    Oh. Oops. Never mind.

    .

  20. 20.

    Martin

    August 10, 2010 at 11:58 am

    @BTD: Ah, but she’s an unamerican commie liberal! Everyone knows she’s guilty of something, they just haven’t uncovered it yet.

    If anyone wondered where the Stazi went after the Cold War, they’re all conservative bloggers and consultants now.

  21. 21.

    Seanly

    August 10, 2010 at 12:00 pm

    Al Franken – worst monster in history for shifting in his seat & rolling his eyes at nonsense moaning and masturbating while king douchebag McConnell, Greatest American Senator (R of course) evah is droning on & on about kicking poor people & puppies reciting his awesome plan to cut taxes. Well, worst monster since Jimmy Carter and Osama Bin Laden brewed Obama in their Kenyan love nest/sciencey place.

    Sarah Palin – tries to beat some sense into an evil soshialist skool person. The lady should bow before the Queen of the North and thank her lucky stars Palin didn’t shoot her from a helicopter.

    I love the vaguely native american security dude trying to block the camera. I’m assuming that wasn’t TLC raw feed (the channel of shows on over-breeders & little people). That’d be a great show – as Sarah is explaining some fact about Alaska or interviewing some fellow snowbilly, the security guy keeps getting in front of the camera.

  22. 22.

    Martin

    August 10, 2010 at 12:01 pm

    @rob!: Well, she wasn’t rolling her eyes in response to the conversation – it was her automatic ‘looking for invading Russians’ reflex kicking in.

  23. 23.

    Cat Lady

    August 10, 2010 at 12:01 pm

    @beltane:

    Basically it’s Mean Girls with Bristol playing Amy Poehler’s “cool mom” role and The Quitta as Regina George. And as only the FSM would have it, Tina Fey is – wait for it – The Teacher.

    BWAHHAAHHAAHHHAAAAA!

  24. 24.

    sukabi

    August 10, 2010 at 12:01 pm

    I particularly liked this bit:

    BTW, no update or correction at GatewayPundit. Palin herself insists that her eye-roll was not about Ms Gustafson being a teacher, since she has so many teachers in her family. She declines to explain then why else she was rolling her eyes at the mention of Ms Gustafson’s profession. Then this classic from the Wasilla wack-job herself:

    Yes, it’s come to this: the media is now trying to turn my eyebrow movements into story lines. (Maybe that’s why Botox is all the rage – if you can’t move your eyebrows, your “eye rolling” can’t be misinterpreted!)

    I don’t think even Pelosi/Manilow-level Botox prevents people from rolling their eyes. But nice try, Sarah.

    She’d have been better off claiming she was having a stroke that caused the awkward pause and eye roll. But nothing but being a self-important twit causes the absolutely horrible attitude she and her family brought to that piece of tape.

  25. 25.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    August 10, 2010 at 12:02 pm

    @taterstick:

    Yes, and this idiot is who we will have to suffer with if everybody “on the left” continues to act like spoiled children and hold their breath because:

    Wow. It’s really near-pathological. No one can even bash Sarah Palin without it boomeranging around to being more proof that progressives are worthless.

    It’s like a Godwin backflip.

    A) “Hitler was a psychopathic megalomaniac”

    B) “You know who else are psychopathic megalomaniacs? Progressives, that’s who!”

    Yes, all of the progressives who have any complaints about this administration are going to vote for Sarah Palin. Why, it’s in the progressive party platform. So even in threads John posts that haven’t the slightest thing to do with progressives, just keep getting your Gibbs on.

  26. 26.

    beltane

    August 10, 2010 at 12:02 pm

    Bristol, or is it Willow, also came across very poorly in that video. Imagine if one of the Obama girls was caught using that type of language while slouched over and chewing gum like a cow. I take it the Palin children were raised in a pig pen.

  27. 27.

    El Cid

    August 10, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    Have they accused her yet of openly owning books?

  28. 28.

    Brick Oven Bill

    August 10, 2010 at 12:04 pm

    Is this Joe the Teacher?

  29. 29.

    curious

    August 10, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    @Seanly: one of those dudes (without the ear piece) is todd palin. the cameraman was a local guy on whose property they were, i believe.

  30. 30.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    August 10, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    Palin’s total lack of impulse control has me convinced that she’s a meth head. She just CAN’T SHUT UP.

  31. 31.

    Chris G.

    August 10, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    @beltane: I half-expected the Palin offspring to start shouting “O’Doyle rules!”

  32. 32.

    Comrade Dread

    August 10, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    Well, you do realize that criticizing Palin is akin to burning a flag, pissing on apple pie, and kicking Mom, right?

    Because she’s a real American for… quitting her job and, uh… not aborting her kid, and writing crib notes on her hand instead of using modern teleprompter technology, and…

    Wow, have our standards for ‘real Americans’ have declined. Used to be a real American had to like fight off a battalion of enemy troops single handed or cure Polio and shit, now we reward people for not doing their job and being passive Luddites.

  33. 33.

    bemused

    August 10, 2010 at 12:06 pm

    It kills me when Palin goes into her spiel that she’s out there fightin’ for merikans to be able to have a constitution protected so we can have free speech..blah, blah, blah. You’d think by now she’d have a coherent set of sentences memorized. Her daughters chimed in too. You’d think after all their time in the public eye they’d have learned to say as little as possible. Even the GOP probably shudders at the thought of that family in the oval office.

  34. 34.

    JGabriel

    August 10, 2010 at 12:09 pm

    beltane:

    I feel like we’re back in tenth grade and he’s the gay kid leading a band of nerds, geeks, goths, and artsy types on a mission to avenge the barbaric cruelty of the class slut/mean girl. This has all the makings of a 1980’s teen flick.

    Hairspray with Andrew Sullivan in the Ricki Lake role? I can kind of see John Waters directing that, actually.

    .

  35. 35.

    Davis X. Machina

    August 10, 2010 at 12:10 pm

    Step back a hundred yards, squint a bit, and the dream Palin represents for a lot of the right — politics, just without those goddamn politicians — looks more or less like what the people Gibbs blew up at yesterday dream of. Not the policies — the politics.

    Better command of English, and better production values, but not that different a vision.

  36. 36.

    Bubblegum Tate

    August 10, 2010 at 12:11 pm

    Is it just me, or has her voice gotten even more screechy and annoying?

  37. 37.

    Bobby Thomson

    August 10, 2010 at 12:11 pm

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    Wow. It’s really near-pathological. No one can even bash Sarah Palin without it boomeranging around to being more proof that progressives are worthless.

    At some point, you have to wonder if some of the centrist enforcers are professional shit stirrers. Someone who cared about party unity would be encouraging a pile on against Republicans instead of stepping on his own dick getting in the way by starting off another round of poo flinging.

  38. 38.

    matoko_chan

    August 10, 2010 at 12:11 pm

    @beltane: i love Bitchy Sully too.
    i hate Tedious Sukk Up to Douthat Sully. Is Douthat hawt to gay men or something? He certainly isnt hawt to het grrls.

    I find the video shocking because of Bristol’s behavior. “You’re just jealous!”, “She represents the United States!” These kids were raised by wolves.

    nah…raised by hyenas.

  39. 39.

    beltane

    August 10, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    Oooh, Sully has now posted a closeup of Snotty Sarah’s mud boots: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/08/the-odd-lies-of-sarah-palin-xciv-they-claim-i-wait-for-it-appear-to-roll-my-eyes.html They do not look very Christian to me. They look like something a twelve year old meth dealer would wear.

    Sullivan is on a roll today. He is almost making up for all those respectful links to McMegan.

  40. 40.

    JGabriel

    August 10, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    MoeLarryAndJesus:

    Palin’s total lack of impulse control has me convinced that she’s a meth head.

    Oh, come on. I’m pretty sure she can afford coke now.

    .

  41. 41.

    stuckinred

    August 10, 2010 at 12:12 pm

    @bemused: Good luck with that.

  42. 42.

    curious

    August 10, 2010 at 12:13 pm

    @Chris G.: was that expansive wave of the hands and omgduh! inflection of “united states!” not just perfect? the apple…. is still attached to the tree.

  43. 43.

    Bella Q

    August 10, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    Clearly the former demi-governor needs her speech spitting chip repaired. Her word salad responses lacked their usual spicy variety. There was no mention of rill Americans?

  44. 44.

    matoko_chan

    August 10, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    @Bubblegum Tate:

    Is it just me, or has her voice gotten even more screechy and annoying?

    she needs estrogen replace ment therapy….just look at her neck.
    is there such a thing as neck botox?

  45. 45.

    celticdragonchick

    August 10, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    @bemused:

    Even the GOP probably shudders at the thought of that family in the oval office.

    The leadership of the GOP who can scratch two neurons together are terrified of the possibility she could be in the White House. They have lot control of the tiger they are riding, however, and cannot admit that in public.

  46. 46.

    MTiffany

    August 10, 2010 at 12:15 pm

    @matoko_chan:

    i hate Tedious Sukk Up to Douthat Sully. Is Douthat hawt to gays or something?

    Just to the self-loathing ones.

  47. 47.

    Bella Q

    August 10, 2010 at 12:16 pm

    These kids were raised by wolves.

    Not a chance. Wolves would have done a much better job. They have a pretty good social structure. This is an insult to wolves everywhere. Sadly, they mostly lack internet access, so I must protest this smear on their behalf.

  48. 48.

    bemused

    August 10, 2010 at 12:17 pm

    @stuckinred:
    There’s no chance of that family expanding it’s learning curve.

  49. 49.

    Cris

    August 10, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    What’s the minimum sentence for impersonating a teacher?

  50. 50.

    MattF

    August 10, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    I’m sorry, but this is ridikilus. [Rolls eyes, wiggles eyebrows]. The Beck Filter seems to be up and running, and I haven’t heard much about Limbaugh lately, which is all good. So, can whoever is in charge of these things please get going with the Palin Firewall? And Gingrich too, while you’re at it.

  51. 51.

    beltane

    August 10, 2010 at 12:18 pm

    @celticdragonchick: I wouldn’t call her a tiger. She is more of a skunk. Skunks are harder to get rid of than you would think.

  52. 52.

    sven

    August 10, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    It’s so cute, the right is suddenly pretending to care about teachers!

    I’m pleased but surprised; I would have predicted comment after comment saying PALINS SO WRITE, TEACHERS R TEH SUCK!!!

  53. 53.

    El Cid

    August 10, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    @Bubblegum Tate: I think she has gotten much more screechy and painful to hear — even for mere seconds — but I just thought it was me now having lost all built-up deadening since the end of the campaign.

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    August 10, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    Never mind the eye rolling.

    It’s Palin’s squeaking out

    “Oh, you WANTED me to be your governor. I’m honored.”

    Which is a funny line, actually, save for its delivery.

    Sarah later, on how she’s fighting for “us”:

    “to protect our military interests so we can keep on fighting for our Constitution to protect our freedoms.”

    Cat out of the bag there.

  55. 55.

    flukebucket

    August 10, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Seven updates? Have we at last located the conservative Glenn Greenwald?

    FTMFGDW!!

  56. 56.

    pickledjazz

    August 10, 2010 at 12:21 pm

    The principle being, I couldn’t give a rats arse whether she is a teacher or not. It is about
    a) the attitude displayed, the attitude people, from this dumb blonde type
    b) the lack of respect shown
    b) the snarkiness and typical response from the sham artist
    c) the behaviour by Sarah’s kids,some cursed and name called,
    AND too, the fact that Sarah cannot take it when people don’t swoon all over her.
    Why is it people always get sidetracked with shit. So after this episode occurred, they are now trying to distract with if the woman is a teacher or not? Normal stories in the MSM… a bunch of novices!

  57. 57.

    TuiMel

    August 10, 2010 at 12:21 pm

    @sukabi:

    But nothing but being a self-important twit causes the absolutely horrible attitude she and her family brought to that piece of tape.

    That pretty much captures it. I loved Bristol’s gum chewing and Todd’s cracker munching. So down to earth.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    August 10, 2010 at 12:21 pm

    @beltane:

    Skunks have better qualities.

    I am going with “weasel” and a quitty weasel at that.

  59. 59.

    Brachiator

    August 10, 2010 at 12:22 pm

    Wasn’t this an episode of Glee?

  60. 60.

    Chris G.

    August 10, 2010 at 12:23 pm

    @curious: It was like a flashback to junior-high recess. But whichever Palin kid that was has to be way past junior high, right?

  61. 61.

    Bubblegum Tate

    August 10, 2010 at 12:23 pm

    @curious:

    was that expansive wave of the hands and omgduh! inflection of “united states!” not just perfect?

    Hey, that’s the kind of genius insight that keeps the checks (from SarahPAC) rolling in for noted political consultant Bristol Palin.

  62. 62.

    Elizabelle

    August 10, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    @matoko_chan:

    Again, hyenas are great parents in the animal world.

    Oh?

    You meant the voice?

    My bad.

  63. 63.

    TuiMel

    August 10, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    @beltane:
    Oh, come on, her mom’s out representing the Unites States now. She’s getting the Kool Aid from an IV drip. Or maybe its infused in the gum she was chomping.

  64. 64.

    Mike in NC

    August 10, 2010 at 12:26 pm

    She just CAN’T SHUT UP.

    The very sound of that cretin’s voice must have driven more than a few people to think about slashing their wrists.

  65. 65.

    DPirate

    August 10, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    What really matters is that Sarah Palin is more attractive. Hands up for Hollywood, HURRAY!

  66. 66.

    Jay in Oregon

    August 10, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    @El Cid:

    Have they accused her yet of openly owning books?

    Obligatory Bill Hicks reference (around 50 seconds in):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvs2g5Nj0NI

  67. 67.

    Keith G

    August 10, 2010 at 12:29 pm

    WTF? Slow news day?

  68. 68.

    Southern Beale

    August 10, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    Off topic, but thought folks would be interested in this from Ta-Nehisi Coates, in which he tells E.D. Kain that he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about.

  69. 69.

    Chris G.

    August 10, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    @DPirate: More attractive than what?

  70. 70.

    Face

    August 10, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    TPM reporting that the intertoobz guy was killed in the plane crash.

  71. 71.

    Randy Paul

    August 10, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    It’s not unless she lives in Juno

    Wasn’t the baby born yet or is Ellen Page still pregnant?

  72. 72.

    Cris

    August 10, 2010 at 12:34 pm

    @Southern Beale: Off topic, but thought folks would be interested in this from Ta-Nehisi Coates, in which he tells E.D. Kain that he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about.

    While you’re there, note the respectful tone Ta-Nahisi uses. Explicitly:

    It is not a very good analogy. And I think E.D., whose work I greatly respect, knows it. [emphasis mine]

    Let’s all remember that. I love John’s decision to bring Kain on board.

  73. 73.

    Bnut

    August 10, 2010 at 12:35 pm

    I saw this yesterday and KNEW it was going to blow up, though I was praying it would not. Fuck the internet sometimes. What a trivial piece of crap to draw page hits to people who don’t really need the money anyway.

  74. 74.

    ornery curmudgeon

    August 10, 2010 at 12:39 pm

    @Bobby Thomson: “At some point, you have to wonder if some of the centrist enforcers are professional shit stirrers.”

    Great observation, and I’ve wondered the same thing.

    It seems to be the routine that once some folks get wealthy they start gravitating to the positions of the Right … and so the Right always has money to pay the shit-stirrers.

  75. 75.

    Jules

    August 10, 2010 at 12:39 pm

    Man, the moment Sarah and Bristol look at each other and give the “we should have known” mean girls “we are better then you” eyeroll is classic.
    Who knew Palin would raise such an arrogant snot of a daughter….

    (and every woman out there knows exactly what that look means)

  76. 76.

    ksmiami

    August 10, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    Does Sarah Palin even know what is in the Constitution? The good news is that the more she gets out, the more she motivates slackers like me to vote D.

    What a hateful smarmy *ITCH.

  77. 77.

    EconWatcher

    August 10, 2010 at 12:41 pm

    Sully obviously goes off the deep end when it comes to SP. But I can kind of understand what drives him on his wilder tangents: He thinks she’s so off-the-wall based on what we already now that there must be something, not yet come to light, so bizarre or sordid that it would destroy her if it came out, even among her most rabid followers.

    I think this about Rush: If someone could successfully and covertly tail him, for example on one of his trips to the Dominican Republic, something would probably come up that would destroy him. Ditto if someone had access to his computer. Not that I’m suggesting any of this. But you just know something’s there, with both of them.

  78. 78.

    Judas Escargot

    August 10, 2010 at 12:41 pm

    I wouldn’t call her a tiger. She is more of a skunk. Skunks are harder to get rid of than you would think.

    Would that she were… Suburban skunks are usually migratory: They set up camp under your porch for awhile, and when the last of the grubs from your yard has been found and eaten, they move on to the next yard.

  79. 79.

    Jay in Oregon

    August 10, 2010 at 12:41 pm

    @Face:

    Wow. I actually met Ted Stevens once on a trip to Washington DC when I was in high school.

    This is actually a big deal for Alaska; the CW when I was growing up was that Alaskans kept sending Stevens back to the Senate because his seniority gave him powerful committee assignments.

  80. 80.

    Brachiator

    August 10, 2010 at 12:42 pm

    @TuiMel:

    Oh, come on, her mom’s out representing the Unites States now. She’s getting the Kool Aid from an IV drip. Or maybe its infused in the gum she was chomping.

    This is kinda interesting, even coming from the spawn of Palin, the wacky notion that Sarah Palin is the unelected shadow president of the United States.

    Is this really what she tells her kids? Do her demented supporters buy into this?

  81. 81.

    Paris

    August 10, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    The video is broken for me. All I hear is a highly irritating, high pitched, whiny sound.

  82. 82.

    JenJen

    August 10, 2010 at 12:50 pm

    @beltane:

    Bristol, or is it Willow, also came across very poorly in that video. Imagine if one of the Obama girls was caught using that type of language while slouched over and chewing gum like a cow. I take it the Palin children were raised in a pig pen.

    No kidding. In fact, Bristol (it was her) reminded me of that ill-behaved daughter of Jacqueline on “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” standing at her mom’s side, ready to pounce and pull out a handful of hair at any moment.

    “She represents the United STATES!” cries Bristol. She, ummm….. does? Really? In what capacity, exactly? These people actually believe their own bullshit, don’t they?

    One angle of the story that should be getting more attention than the eye roll is the fact that Little Miss Free Speech/Fightin’ for the Constitution had her goons remove that “Worst Governor Ever” sign after the Palins left the scene. It would be important to point out here that the sign was posted on a piece of private property.

  83. 83.

    Jim C

    August 10, 2010 at 12:52 pm

    UPDATE II: According to the Alaska Teacher Certification website there is a Kathleen Gustafson registered, but unknown if this is her. UPDATE III: It’s not unless she lives in Juno…

    Juno?

    Serious question to any possible Alaskans reading this blog: Is it common for Alaskans to refer to Juneau as “Juno” or is it just an illiterate typo from a non-Alaskan?

  84. 84.

    Albatrossity

    August 10, 2010 at 12:57 pm

    More snark – a grand unified theory of Palinistic sentences

  85. 85.

    gnomedad

    August 10, 2010 at 1:00 pm

    Compare and contrast: Al Franken addresses opponents.

  86. 86.

    p.a.

    August 10, 2010 at 1:00 pm

    I believe even during its life-and-death war with Sparta, Athens picked its government officials if not even its generals by lottery. I bet the Republican party would do better (by the country at least) if they tried this. I mean W then Palin!!?? Makes you shudder at who might be ‘strike three’.

  87. 87.

    wes g

    August 10, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    she may not be rolling her eyes.. just shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head in disbelief and condescension, while looking at her daughter for agreement. how’s that?

  88. 88.

    Cris

    August 10, 2010 at 1:02 pm

    @JenJen: It would be important to point out here that the sign was posted on a piece of private property.

    Look, you have the right to post a sign calling the President a socialist Kenyan usurper on your private property. But your right to free expression ends where Sarah Palin’s nose begins.

  89. 89.

    Jay in Oregon

    August 10, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    @Jim C:

    It’s a typo.

    Or, more likely, the person who wrote it probably doesn’t know how to spell the name of Alaska’s capital.

  90. 90.

    QuaintIrene

    August 10, 2010 at 1:08 pm

    Yes, and this idiot is who we will have to suffer with if everybody “on the left” continues to act like spoiled children and hold their breath because:

    So Joe the ‘Plumber’ confronts Obama and he becomes a Tea party hero. But someone dares to challenge Palin and she must therefore be pilloried.

    Love how Palin insisted the reason she quit was to work to get candidates elected who would uphold the Constitution. Yeah, that’s working out real well.

  91. 91.

    Roivas

    August 10, 2010 at 1:10 pm

    Could some kind person post the general events of the video? I tried to watch, and realized after Palin’s second sentence that I cannot stand listening to her voice any more.

  92. 92.

    freelancer

    August 10, 2010 at 1:12 pm

    One thing I just gotta ask, How’s that Blue-y Boots-y thing workin’ out fer ya?

  93. 93.

    horatius

    August 10, 2010 at 1:13 pm

    What color are the bitch’s counter-tops?? Skreeeeeeeeeeeeee

  94. 94.

    Jim C

    August 10, 2010 at 1:14 pm

    @Jay in Oregon:
    Well, that was my first thought – but sometimes the odd thing is the local thing.

    [Somewhat like pronunciations of certain midwest towns:
    Cairo, IL = Kay-ro
    Athens, IL = Ay-thns
    San Jose, IL = San Joes
    Madrid, IA = MAD-rid
    Nevada, IA = Nuh-VAY-duh
    Tripoli, IA = Trip-OH-luh
    etc. Non-locals may find it odd, but it’s the local way.]

  95. 95.

    TuiMel

    August 10, 2010 at 1:15 pm

    @wes g:
    I think it is dead-on and quite recognizable. “Oh, right. A teacher. Not much better than a community organizer.”

  96. 96.

    jacy

    August 10, 2010 at 1:15 pm

    @EconWatcher:

    I think that for the die-hard Palin supporters, they wouldn’t even blink if you had a videotape of Palin throwing live babies into a volcano.

    They would rest sure in the fact that:

    A) It was a plot by Acorn. Or barring that,

    B) They were babies of illegal immigrants, Muslims, and/or teachers and therefore not real babies. Or,

    C) Demo-liberal-soshulists do worse than that every minute of every day. Or,

    D) You’re just mean! And jealous!

  97. 97.

    LarsThorwald

    August 10, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? Also.

  98. 98.

    sven

    August 10, 2010 at 1:16 pm

    @Jay in Oregon: I’ve seen it occasionally used as snark; there’s the whole capital move thing, dear lord that’s a whole other thread right there…

  99. 99.

    Legalize

    August 10, 2010 at 1:18 pm

    When Zerox or Cheese Whiz, or whatever the fuck the daughter’s name is, began her little spoiled-twit rant at that woman, the only thing I could think of was how fast my mom’s hand would be jerking my ear if I spoke to someone like that. The whole family is trash and this video just confirms it. Again.

  100. 100.

    sven

    August 10, 2010 at 1:18 pm

    @Jay in Oregon: Close-Up?

  101. 101.

    Steeplejack

    August 10, 2010 at 1:18 pm

    @Jim C:

    I don’t get your point. “Juneau” is pronounced just like “Juno.” It’s a spelling thing. Are you saying that spelling it “Juno” is some sort of quaint but common local usage? That is not what I hear from my Alaskan correspondent–who, admittedly, lives in Fairbanks.

    ETA: Versailles, MO = Ver-SALES

    EFTA: And someone tell me, is it Sa-LEENA, KS, or Sa-LINE-a? This has been bugging me for a while. Kthnxbai.

  102. 102.

    Paul in KY

    August 10, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    @Bella Q: Thank you for taking up for noble wolves everywhere.

  103. 103.

    PaulW

    August 10, 2010 at 1:20 pm

    and while this is going on, the country is still dealing with 9.5 percent unemployment with no job growth or wage improvements in sight.

    nice to see our medias can prioritize which story to be outraged about.

  104. 104.

    chopper

    August 10, 2010 at 1:23 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    ever been to des plaines?

  105. 105.

    evinfuilt

    August 10, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    @JenJen:

    One angle of the story that should be getting more attention than the eye roll is the fact that Little Miss Free Speech/Fightin’ for the Constitution had her goons remove that “Worst Governor Ever” sign after the Palins left the scene. It would be important to point out here that the sign was posted on a piece of private property.

    Well, this is Palin, who believes “Freedom of the Press” actually means “Freedom from the Press.” By calling her the worst governor ever (which I don’t agree with, but I’m in Texas right now) that citizen has defied her rights to not be offended as the President of Real Amerika.

  106. 106.

    Zuzu's Petals

    August 10, 2010 at 1:26 pm

    Oh no. Ted Stevens has been killed in a plane crash in Alaska.

  107. 107.

    jacy

    August 10, 2010 at 1:26 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    Those I know from Kansas pronounce it Sa-LINE-a.

    Here in New Orleans they pronounce Burgundy Bur-GUN-dy and Calliope Cal-EE-ope. It goes downhill from there.

  108. 108.

    Mike in NC

    August 10, 2010 at 1:29 pm

    @LarsThorwald:

    “The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.”

    November 2010 approaches… you betcha!

  109. 109.

    LarsThorwald

    August 10, 2010 at 1:34 pm

    @Mike in NC: I have been recalling that particular portion of Yeats’s poem allllllllll summer long.

  110. 110.

    Steeplejack

    August 10, 2010 at 1:37 pm

    @chopper:

    Heh. I’ve been sitting here getting sidetracked by thinking of geographical earworms, e.g., Pierre, SD = PEER. And I keep coming back to Gautier, MS = GO-shay, which, surprisingly, is dead on correct. That insidious colonial French influence.

    What is killing me is that I am thinking there is a really good one from my time in L.A. (lower Alabama) that I am forgetting. It’s not even close to the tip of my tongue.

  111. 111.

    wasabi gasp

    August 10, 2010 at 1:38 pm

    I got a Clockwork Banana vibe from that viddy and half expected Palin’s dickfaced little droogie to bludgeon that filthy old soomka with a porcelain Down syndrome baby.

  112. 112.

    Jim C

    August 10, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    It’s a spelling thing. Are you saying that spelling it “Juno” is some sort of quaint but common local usage? That is not what I hear from my Alaskan correspondent—who, admittedly, lives in Fairbanks.

    I’m saying my first thought was “illiterate” but, recalling the oddities of my youth, potential “quaint local usage.” I wasn’t saying it had to be, but wanted to know if that was even in the realm of the possible, giving the odd pronunciations as why I might think that.

    Therefore, I wanted to ask some Alaskans, or common visitors, or friends of Alaskans (I am none of the three).

    I’ve always heard “Sah-LINE-ah” too (and I think there’s a Ver-SALES, Illinois too). And how could I forget Des Plaines (easily! ::rimshot::), since I’m always driving through?

  113. 113.

    JenJen

    August 10, 2010 at 1:42 pm

    From Sully’s link to that list of updates, it appears we’re now on Update #9. Although, to be fair, there was an UPDATE VII followed by… an UPDATE VII (seriously, I promise you, go look). Followed by just an UPDATE.

    But I still count 9.

    Anyhow, the latest update essentially says “OK, whatever, maybe she’s a teacher but probably not and besides that’s not important because she’s on the board of a Family Planning clinic! Also, Shannyn Moore orchestrated the whole thing!

    These people are just batshit crazy, and I’m getting the biggest f’n kick out of it today. Needed some comic relief. :-)

    @evinfuilt: Made me LOL re: Texas and worst governor ever!

  114. 114.

    Steeplejack

    August 10, 2010 at 1:42 pm

    @jacy:

    Thanks. Now I can rest easy.

    NOLA has a lot of great place-names. I like Tchoupitoulas Street and D’Abadie Street. And Elysian Fields.

    Must go read a little Walker Percy now. The Moviegoer and The Last Gentleman are both great on New Orleans.

  115. 115.

    Dead Ernest

    August 10, 2010 at 1:43 pm

    @Legalize:

    When Zerox or Cheese Whiz, or whatever the fuck the daughter’s name is

    Still laughing. Thank you.

  116. 116.

    General Stuck

    August 10, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    @Zuzu’s Petals: That’s tough news for his family. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, even Mr. Stevens.

  117. 117.

    Paul in KY

    August 10, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    Steeplejack, are you thinking of ‘Eufaula’ AL? Pronounced ‘You Falla’. That was one I thought of just now.

  118. 118.

    harlana

    August 10, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    @Zuzu’s Petals: As much as I disliked the man, this is very sad news. I was hoping he and everyone in the plane survived.

  119. 119.

    Stav

    August 10, 2010 at 1:49 pm

    This is so freakin funny. Thanks!

  120. 120.

    Violet

    August 10, 2010 at 1:49 pm

    @JenJen:

    No kidding. In fact, Bristol (it was her)

    This hasn’t been confirmed. Some news outlets have said it is Bristol, but it hasn’t been confirmed and wasn’t confirmed on the video. It’s hard to tell for certain which daughter is on the video, as they look a lot alike.

    It’s more likely it’s Willow, as she has been tagging along during the filming of the TLC reality show. This little incident happened during yet more filming.

    Bristol only recently “moved home” after the collapse of her engagement to Levi. She hasn’t been seen since.

  121. 121.

    matoko_chan

    August 10, 2010 at 1:54 pm

    @beltane: but why….why do people like Sully and TNC and Cole endorse McMegan, Douthat, and Kain as “sane” conservatives? They are marching in public lockstep with the base…they ENABLE the base and give them cover.
    Sully has to know that inspite of Douthat’s clearcheeked smile and sweet, sweet jesuit reason that Ross has total ideological sympathy with people that would crucify Sully and his beautiful husband to a buck fence in a sage bush wilderness if they could.
    Ditto TNC…..Ross’s homies would gleefully condemn a scared 15 year-old black girl to a choice between a dirty coathanger back alley abortion, and a lifetime of chattel slavery in the service industry.

    What is wrong with these people? Are they just the absolute pinnacle of human depravity, and since no one can fight “human nature” so do all they can to perpetuate and enable the worst of it?
    jeebus.

    im going to fight….im calling all those cynical poseurs out where i see them.
    and Kain you’re one of them.

  122. 122.

    Davis X. Machina

    August 10, 2010 at 1:56 pm

    @Jim C: Add Callous (Calais), Maine.

  123. 123.

    Bill Murray

    August 10, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    @Cris: TNC greatly respects everybody. Goldberg, McArdle (and everyone at the Atlantic) basically anyone he has ever mentioned.

  124. 124.

    Bill Murray

    August 10, 2010 at 2:02 pm

    @Davis X. Machina: and Pierre (Peer), SD — named for a French/Canadian guy Pierre la Verendrye

  125. 125.

    The Populist

    August 10, 2010 at 2:04 pm

    So righties talk about freedom of speech and liberty yet whenever somebody DARES question them the scumbags dig into their lives with the zeal of a Nazi.

    Yep, Nazis would check out your background. In Iran, questioning the state means your family gets arrested. In the Soviet Union if you dared speak out, you’d find yourself the center of attention from the secret Police.

    Yep, welcome to the land of the free. The very bullshit that the right claims to hold so dear is nothing but a farce. Say I was a wingnut. Say I said Al Gore is fat and bald. I would get put down on blogs that would call me dumb and that is fine. I don’t see lib blogs looking into every nook and cranny of people with stupid opinions. It’s when they pretend to be an expert that they move into the world of PUBLIC FIGURE and their dirty laundry eventually spills out.

    This woman is not a public figure and if Sarah Palin is what she claims to be in the video she will call off her minions and tell them that digging into people’s lives is unacceptable. Sarah claims it’s not fair people do it to her (yet she chose to be a celebrity) so why is it okay for this woman to get the nazi background search.

    Fuck you Michelle Malkin.

  126. 126.

    Steeplejack

    August 10, 2010 at 2:09 pm

    @Paul in KY:

    No, Eufaula looks like it should be pronounced YOU-falla.

    I think I’m forgetting something in the zone of Talla-DEE-ga vs. Talla-DAY-ga but much, much weirder.

    Oh, and BTW, did you know Topeka, KS, is pronounced “Tapioca” by the locals?

  127. 127.

    licensed to kill time

    August 10, 2010 at 2:11 pm

    Sarah! makes it pretty clear in this video that she “represents the United States!” but only if you like her. Otherwise you are SOL, suckers.

    Also, her little fists pumping away in her “fightin’ fer ‘Murkans” mode was just precious.

  128. 128.

    scarshapedstar

    August 10, 2010 at 2:13 pm

    Wingnut /b/ rides again. Except that instead of pizza and strippers piling up on the doorstep, it’ll be bullets and bibles.

  129. 129.

    Kerry Reid

    August 10, 2010 at 2:14 pm

    @Jim C:
    You forgot Versailles, Indiana (pronounced “Ver-Sales,” of course.)

  130. 130.

    chopper

    August 10, 2010 at 2:22 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    also in illinois is bourbonnais, which the locals pronounce “bur-BON-nis”

  131. 131.

    Bella Q

    August 10, 2010 at 2:29 pm

    Please don’t leave out the lovely Versailles KY. With the, um, Americanized pronunciation.

  132. 132.

    DPirate

    August 10, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    @Paris: Yes, it’s coming through fine, then.

    Actually, now that I’ve watched it (took about 20 mins to DL), I have to say: “What is the big deal?” Unless it is that Palin supporters tend to declare war on anyone who doesn’t fall to their knees and fawn (faun?) all over her?

    @matoko_chan: I am curious what party line you subjugate yourself to, then. You seem to be saying that anyone who defends one conservative principle automatically endorses all wingnut philosophy. This is silly. Your paintbrush is far too broad, and essentially unfair.

  133. 133.

    DPirate

    August 10, 2010 at 2:42 pm

    Latest news is that Ted is not necessarily dead.@Chris G.: Umm, anything?

  134. 134.

    Jim C

    August 10, 2010 at 2:45 pm

    @Kerry Reid:
    I never knew there was also a Versailles, IN – but I’m not surprised.

    @Bella Q:
    There must be something about that name that just raised hackles in ‘Murcans back in the day.

    This might be why I would think Alaskans might refer to Juneau as “Juno” – it’s so much less … French … you know?

  135. 135.

    p.a.

    August 10, 2010 at 2:48 pm

    @Jim C:

    I think the various Berlin’s in the US are pronounced BERlin since WWI. That showed those Huns.

  136. 136.

    JenJen

    August 10, 2010 at 2:50 pm

    @Violet: Didn’t realize that the daughter’s identity was in question! She looked like Bristol to me, and I was reading the Gawker version of the story first, and they said it was Bristol, and I tend to trust Gawker in these kinds of matters. ;-)

    Guess it could be Willow, though. Also, it probably doesn’t matter. Too.

  137. 137.

    matoko_chan

    August 10, 2010 at 2:55 pm

    @DPirate: im a fucking quellist.
    Douthat, Kain, McMegan and Weigel are all bourgie conservatives.
    ALL they do is enable the base.
    What they have in common is they NEVER EVEN TRY TO EDUCATE THE BASE.
    They sit around stroking their e-peens and spinning instead of explaining ALL CONSERVATIVE MEMES ARE CURRENTLY FAIL.

    Face the facts. Then act on them. It’s the only mantra I know, the only doctrine I have to offer you, and it’s harder than you’d think, because I swear humans seem hardwired to do anything but. Face the facts. Don’t pray, don’t wish, don’t buy into centuries-old dogma and dead rhetoric. Don’t give in to your conditioning or your visions or your fucked-up sense of… whatever. FACE THE FACTS. THEN act.
    Speech before the Assault on Millsport.

    there is nothing left in conservativism, it is an EMPTY PURSE.
    Look at this bullshytt from Sully. Dead white guy philosophy.

    So neoconservatives, cynically and instrumentally, tend to defend and deploy “pre-modern” virtues and institutions — the military, war, and martial virtue; and reactionary religion (“Biblical religion”). These push against the trajectory of modern life, and thus (supposedly) stave off the decline they are convinced is always already underway. They do not try to sustain modernity from within, to reconcile, say, faith and modernity, but rather see modernity as something that needs counterweights, that needs to be pushed back against at every turn. So you purposefully cultivate certain elements that are in reaction to modernity — you push for war to fend off the decadent “softness” of modern liberals, and you make alliances with the religious right.
    You can see why Irving Kristol, as editor of the CIA-funded magazine, Encounter, rejected an essay from Michael Oakeshott. The essay? “On Being Conservative.” Neoconservatism, especially at its most Straussian, is in every important way un-Oakeshottian. Your writings of late bear this out, I think. In a way, you are re-enacting a quarrel between two of the great political philosophers of the 20th century.

    bullshytt bullsytt bullshytt
    BECAUSE there is a biological basis for all behavior.
    Dead white guy philosophy gave us the Econopalypse that Ate America and two bloody, tragic fail wars.
    The biological basis of behavior is what determined the outcome of the market crash and Our Epic Fail in MENA.
    Dead white guy philosophy is just a recipe for Epic Fail.
    We need third culture philosophy.

  138. 138.

    Fred Sanford

    August 10, 2010 at 3:01 pm

    We have just figured out how to paralyze the right. Have someone confront Sarah Palin on film and then put it on YouTube. They will then spend hours, if not days and weeks, defending their Favorite Village Idiot and we can continue to move on to other things, unbothered…

  139. 139.

    chris

    August 10, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    Hey, wait just a minute! This right here… is this peak wingnut? The wingularity? Has it finally happened?

  140. 140.

    Nicole

    August 10, 2010 at 3:30 pm

    Hedwig and the Angry Inch is teh awesome.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kySwhkpY4I

  141. 141.

    matoko_chan

    August 10, 2010 at 3:32 pm

    here is a perfect description of that steaming pile of Straussian Oakeshottian bullshytt that Sully just dumped off.

    Indeed, the traditional American intellectuals are, in a sense, increasingly reactionary, and quite often proudly (and perversely) ignorant of many of the truly significant intellectual accomplishments of our time. Their culture, which dismisses science, is often nonempirical. It uses its own jargon and washes its own laundry. It is chiefly characterized by comment on comments, the swelling spiral of commentary eventually reaching the point where the real world gets lost.

    merde.

    The Econopalypse happened because unregulated free market capitalism is survival of the greediest.
    The law of the Selfish Genes….its either about survival or sex.
    We are in Iraq and Afghanistan because Bush was too stupid to get that muslims will vote for shariah when they can vote.
    Evo theory of culture 101.

    Can we go home NAOW?

  142. 142.

    Violet

    August 10, 2010 at 3:41 pm

    @JenJen:

    Didn’t realize that the daughter’s identity was in question! She looked like Bristol to me, and I was reading the Gawker version of the story first, and they said it was Bristol, and I tend to trust Gawker in these kinds of matters. ;-)

    —

    Guess it could be Willow, though. Also, it probably doesn’t matter. Too.

    May or may not matter, although there’s lots of discussion about Bristol’s whereabouts (she might be in Seattle) and if she’s pregnant or not. So this daughter, who doesn’t seem to be pregnant, has been the subject of some discussion.

    If “re-virginized” Bristol, who famously told Oprah she could guarantee she wouldn’t have s e x again until she was married, is indeed pregnant now, it could show Sarah’s mad parenting skillz to be less than optimal. (Personally, I think Sarah not telling this daughter to be respectful to this teacher in the video shows her parenting skills to be somewhat lacking.) And having an unmarried teenage daughter turn up pregnant twice would be…well…interesting as far as Sarah’s public political persona.

    Bristol and Willow look a lot alike. It’s easy to mix them up in photos and this is grainy cellphone video, so that makes it even tougher. There’s even some speculation that the Palins would try to convince people that this daughter is Bristol, to throw people off the “Bristol is pregnant and hiding at her aunt’s house in Seattle” scent. Although that certainly gets into conspiracy territory.

    So does it matter? Maybe. Maybe not. But there’s more to “which daughter is it?” than just a name.

  143. 143.

    YellowJournalism

    August 10, 2010 at 3:46 pm

    @Jules:

    Man, the moment Sarah and Bristol look at each other and give the “we should have known” mean girls “we are better then you” eyeroll is classic.
    Who knew Palin would raise such an arrogant snot of a daughter….(and every woman out there knows exactly what that look means)

    You nailed that one. That’s the smug, snotty look that says, “Oooohhhh…that explains it.” Of course, the wingnuts will spin it as saying, “Yeah, right. You mean drag queen theater tech.”

    What’s sad, though, is that watching her daughter, whichever one she is, reminded me of some of my female relatives and other women I grew up around, right down to the cammo hoodie, the cud-munching way of chewing gum, and the little “egh” noise she made when the woman was making her points.

  144. 144.

    JenJen

    August 10, 2010 at 3:56 pm

    @Violet:

    May or may not matter, although there’s lots of discussion about Bristol’s whereabouts (she might be in Seattle) and if she’s pregnant or not.

    Oh good grief. Seriously? Ms. Abstinence? It just can’t be.

  145. 145.

    Svensker

    August 10, 2010 at 3:57 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:

    And add VY-enna (Vienna), Indiana.

  146. 146.

    Mike in NC

    August 10, 2010 at 4:01 pm

    The very bullshit that the right claims to hold so dear is nothing but a farce.

    But just think of all those lazy unemployed people who could find gainful work once the GOP approves the plan to build the Berlin Wall on our northern and southern borders!

    Funded with tax cuts for the rich, of course.

  147. 147.

    LanceThruster

    August 10, 2010 at 4:17 pm

    [JARRING CHORD]

    [The door flies open and Cardinal Ximinez of Spain [Palin] enters, flanked by two junior cardinals. Cardinal Biggles [Jones] has goggles pushed over his forehead. Cardinal Fang [Gilliam] is just Cardinal Fang]

    Ximinez: NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise…surprise and fear…fear and surprise…. Our two weapons are fear and surprise…and ruthless efficiency…. Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency…and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst* our weapons…. Amongst our weaponry…are such elements as fear, surprise…. I’ll come in again.

    [The Inquisition exits]

    Chapman: I didn’t expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.

  148. 148.

    matoko_chan

    August 10, 2010 at 4:17 pm

    And now we have Sully daintily dithering about the difference between conservative and liberal “disposition”.
    IT IS TEH BIOLOGY.

    There is a strong relationship between a voter’s politics and his personality, according to new research from the University of Toronto.
    Researchers at UofT have shown that the psychological concern for compassion and equality is associated with a liberal mindset, while the concern for order and respect of social norms is associated with a conservative mindset.
    “Conservatives tend to be higher in a personality trait called orderliness and lower in openness. This means that they’re more concerned about a sense of order and tradition, expressing a deep psychological motive to preserve the current social structure,” says Jacob Hirsh, a post-doctoral psychology student at UofT and lead author of the study.
    The study, which appears in this month’s Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, may even lend some legitimacy to the term, ‘bleeding-heart-liberal.’
    “Our data shows that liberalism is more often associated with the underlying motives for compassion, empathy and equality,” says Hirsh.

    it is the hard-wiring.

  149. 149.

    LanceThruster

    August 10, 2010 at 4:32 pm

    @matoko_chan:

    From: http://frankmurdoch.net/lsd.aspx – “How a New Shock Drug Unlocks Troubled Minds”

    An inclination to “break wind” was inhibited by the fear that it might turn into a multi-dimensional faux pas, reverberating uncontrollably through this Riemannian cosmos!

    – Philosopher Alan Watts

    [snip]

    After decades of experimentation – clinical and otherwise – it’s clear that LSD’s effect on individuals varies hugely. A person’s response depends not only on his or her mental state or “set,” but also on a multitude of other factors, including the setting in which the drug is taken, the influence of others in the room and even the prevailing cultural climate.

  150. 150.

    TuiMel

    August 10, 2010 at 4:39 pm

    @Svensker:

    Same for Vienna (Vy-enna), Maine.

  151. 151.

    Carnacki

    August 10, 2010 at 4:44 pm

    @matoko_chan:

    That is an insult to hyenas

  152. 152.

    DPirate

    August 10, 2010 at 4:56 pm

    @matoko_chan: Well, Karl Marx is a dead white guy. So are Bill Haywood and Eugene Debs. They would seem diametrically opposed to conservatism. Obama is a half-white guy, Clinton and Reagan and Carter are full-on white guys. Roosevelt is a dead white guy, like Adams and Jefferson and Keynes and Adam Smith and Jung and etc. Point being, not all white guys are conservatives, or fanatics, or wingnuts.

    I do not think that all ideas are racially motivated. If you do, fine, but I’d guess people will better understand your point of view if you just say “Down with Whitey!”

    Assuming that is what you mean, as that is how I read your reply to me.

    Actually, after reading your other two comments further down, I have no idea what you are saying, unless the first comment was sarcasm, maybe. This Sully character would seem to be supporting this “biology is everything” statement.

    BTW, that liberal/conservative empathy study has naught to do with genetics, or at least, not necessarily (which amounts to the same thing, empirically).

  153. 153.

    shortstop

    August 10, 2010 at 5:17 pm

    Here in New Orleans they pronounce Burgundy Bur-GUN-dy and Calliope Cal-EE-ope. It goes downhill from there.

    My favorite is “Cont-eye” for Conti.

    Here in Chicago, we enjoy driving down Dah-VON (Devon) Avenue, GO-thee (Goethe) Street, RAY-seen (Racine) Avenue and Paw-LYNA (Paulina) Avenue.

  154. 154.

    John Hassell

    August 10, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    Good Lord, why are we bloggers – ostensibly the ne plus ultra of humanity – giving Palin and time at all?

    Review:

    1. She took the votes, money and trust of Alaskans, then spit in their faces and stabbed them in the back solely to stuff money in her pocket. She laughed all the way to the bank. She is a traitor! She is a quitter! She is a hypocrite!

    2. Easiest way to campaign against her: Sarah, darlin’, tell us who you will pick for your VP running mate. We don’t really care about you, but we need to know everything about your running mate. Why? We want to know who will be running the country when you quit two years into your term. “…to help elect more conservatives, I suppose.”

    3. Good Homer Simpson moment: Sarah wants to quit being president so she goes to her dad. Dad takes her on his knee and says, “Sarah, you don’t have to keep being president because…….it’s too hard.”

    Why oh why do we waste time on this worthless, self-serving twit. Indeed the Twitter Twit of the nation.

    Sorry, have to leave and throw up. Just talking about Palin makes me ill.

    Come on Sarah dear, hide behind Twitter, screech out a few unintelligible and meaningless phrases then slither back into the sewer. No courage, No skill, No value.

  155. 155.

    matoko_chan

    August 10, 2010 at 5:51 pm

    @DPirate: what ? you need a tutorial on inheritance now?
    there are four kinds of inheritance; genetic, epigenetic, symbolic and behavioral. im talking about third culture scientists, of which THERE ARE NONE on the conservative side.
    SO FUCKIN WHAT if Marx is a dead white guy……he still sukks. Marx is just another idea guy TALKING about ideas

    The third culture consists of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.
    In 1959 C.P. Snow published a book titled The Two Cultures. On the one hand, there were the literary intellectuals; on the other, the scientists. He noted with incredulity that during the 1930s the literary intellectuals, while no one was looking, took to referring to themselves as “the intellectuals,” as though there were no others. This new definition by the “men of letters” excluded scientists such as the astronomer Edwin Hubble, the mathematician John von Neumann, the cyberneticist Norbert Wiener, and the physicists Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Werner Heisenberg.
    How did the literary intellectuals get away with it? First, people in the sciences did not make an effective case for the implications of their work. Second, while many eminent scientists, notably Arthur Eddington and James Jeans, also wrote books for a general audience, their works were ignored by the self-proclaimed intellectuals, and the value and importance of the ideas presented remained invisible as an intellectual activity, because science was not a subject for the reigning journals and magazines.
    In a second edition of The Two Cultures, published in 1963, Snow added a new essay, “The Two Cultures: A Second Look,” in which he optimistically suggested that a new culture, a “third culture,” would emerge and close the communications gap between the literary intellectuals and the scientists. In Snow’s third culture, the literary intellectuals would be on speaking terms with the scientists. Although I borrow Snow’s phrase, it does not describe the third culture he predicted. Literary intellectuals are not communicating with scientists. Scientists are communicating directly with the general public. Traditional intellectual media played a vertical game: journalists wrote up and professors wrote down. Today, third-culture thinkers tend to avoid the middleman and endeavor to express their deepest thoughts in a manner accessible to the intelligent reading public.

  156. 156.

    Older

    August 10, 2010 at 6:27 pm

    In Oregon we have Buena Vista (Byou na Vista).

  157. 157.

    Older

    August 10, 2010 at 6:48 pm

    Oh, and I forgot Madras (MAD russ).

  158. 158.

    Mike in NC

    August 10, 2010 at 7:09 pm

    VY-enna (Vienna), Indiana

    Lived for a couple of years in Vienna, VA, where nobody had the imagination to pronounce it differently.

  159. 159.

    Triassic Sands

    August 10, 2010 at 7:17 pm

    @rob!:

    I don’t think Palin did roll her eyes. If she did, that would mean Sarah Palin has the ability to take in information, consider it, and then have her brain send electrical impulses to her body to reflect what the brain is thinking.

    Not at all. It could have been a purely Pavlovian response. She heard the bell ring (i.e., the word “teacher,” which Sarah knows equals godless communist) and automatically salivated (i.e., rolled her eyes). No thinking was required.

  160. 160.

    SFAW

    August 10, 2010 at 10:37 pm

    Late to the party, yet again, but:

    I am a little amazed that no one has contacted Assrocket, to have his crack (sorry!) staff (sorry!) check the kerning on Gustafson’s sign – which would conclusively prove, once and for all, that she is not, in fact, a “teacher”. Also.

    Hey, wait just a minute! This right here… is this peak wingnut? The wingularity? Has it finally happened?

    No. And it never will.

    [Unless there really is a God who cares what goes on down here. If there is, then someday soon, he’ll look “down” (yeah, I know, He’s everywhere, so the “down” thing is figurative), and say “You wingnut assholes are a crime against Humanity and Me, and you’ve finally pissed me off.” And then he’ll Rapture their sorry asses straight to Hell.

    Hey, I can dream, can’t I?]

  161. 161.

    Comrade Mary

    August 10, 2010 at 10:37 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    And I keep coming back to Gautier, MS = GO-shay, which, surprisingly, is dead on correct. That insidious colonial French influence.

    Not quite dead-on correct. The usual pronunciation is closer to GO-tyay or GO-tee-ay, which some people shift to GO-chay, but GO-shay is getting pretty far from the original. However, at least the locals don’t pronounce it go-TEAR, so I don’t have to shed any.

    There’s audio of the name Théophile Gautier available here. (Yeah, it’s spoken by a German, but he’s close enough.)

  162. 162.

    zelig

    August 11, 2010 at 3:03 am

    A well-known slogan and bar poster from the last century:

    Homer, Alaska: A quaint drinking village with a fishing problem.

  163. 163.

    icantsay

    August 11, 2010 at 8:35 am

    @JenJen:

    No, it’s actually Willow. Bristol hasn’t been seen since the engagement breakoff. Willow is shorter than her mother and has thicker eyebrows than Bristol – and has been kept close to Mama Hyena since the B&E in December that cut Sarah’s vacation short.

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