Dana Milbank has declared February as Palin-free, so I thought I’d put up a Palin thread, for a couple of reasons. First, fuck him, that’s why. Second, it’s typically stupid of Milbank to make this declaration after the self-inflicted gaping wound that was Palin’s January. Her disastrous post-Tucson video was bad enough, but the latest Sputnik idiocy is even worse. Both of those stories were real news, not celebrity gossip. Finally, just report the news and keep your status quo norm enforcement quietly supressed in your shame place where it belongs.
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Jane2
Actually, what’s been nice is that no one but the Palin watchers really give a crap about the Sputnik thing. The mainstream news has been largely and blessedly Palin-free.
TR
Even if you were to choose a month to try to ignore Palin — and, really, how can you, with her 24/7 onslaught of Twitter, Facebook, and Fox — why on Earth would you pick February?
There are so many possibilities for mockery here. What are Palin’s thoughts on the science behind Puxatawney Phil’s Groundhog Day weather forecasting? What deep thoughts will she offer on Washington and Lincoln’s birthday? How will she and the First Dude celebrate Valentine’s Day — some romantic snowmobile streaking, or eating the heart of a freshly killed baby caribou?
And for God’s sake, it’s Black History Month. Why would you want to avert your eyes from Palin during a month when non-Real Americans are given some attention, and she can offer her boy-howdy interpretations of the civil rights movement? You know she’s got a speech saved up on how Martin Luther King was the real racist.
February is prime Palin. Embrace it.
WereBear
Has Palin reached her sell-by date?
Snarki, child of Loki
I guess Milbank can be glad that Palins’ post-Tucson video didn’t have a someone in the background tossing live animals into a wood chipper.
Because nothing says “don’t you dare accuse us of fomenting violence” like a spray of fresh blood from an innocent creature.
WyldPirate
“Shame place…”? Milbank and the rest of the rest corpse doesn’t have a “shame place”. That’s their whole goddmaned problem.
nitpicker
This is giving her attention by default. Or meta-attention. Or something.
Matt
If you think Milbank is bad, get a load of Politico’s “Michelle Obama made a gaffe!” column. It’s enough to make your head explode.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/48756.html
Villago Delenda Est
@Matt:
Yet on that Kinsley piece the other day, the wingtards were out in force in the comments talking about how Politico is the epitome of the “liberal media” they so loathe.
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
Especially since he managed to break it the first bloody day by patting himself on the back over it:
And then got the WaPo editorial staff to cover by saying they, not Dana, wrote the line about Palin that’s under his byline. Thus hinting that, at best, someone else is writing Milbank’s stuff at times without correct attribution. (Sully, I’m looking at you!)
…which, in fairness, would explain some of his more inane work.
cleek
yay! robyn!
Marty
@WereBear:
If she were a stock, I would have sold everything the week she missed that caribou.
debit
Not having had enough coffee yet this morning, I read Dana Milbank as Dana Carvey and wondered why he had anything to say about Palin. Then I re-read it and felt silly. But not before I found a video for Chopping Broccoli.
Donut
I just want to co-sign that. Milbank and much of the rest of the Village have foisted that gaping asshole from Alaska on the rest of us for almost 2.5 years now. That’s about 2 years longer than her run should’ve been. Fuck him so much it hurts his mama.
Comrade Javamanphil
If Milbank wanted to make a statement regarding Palin and the press, wouldn’t the obvious choice be to ask her some questions instead of ignoring her? (Which is admittedly better than the current model of allowing her to control the narrative by one-way conduits of idiocy such as facebooking.) You know, journalism.
gelfling545
Reading about Palin gives me a headache but I don’t think we ought to give anyone the chance to forget how truly awful she is. People need to remember the party that brought this (to borrow from Wodehouse) weird God-help-us way too close to the White House.
jwb
OT, but does anyone know what’s going on with english.aljazeera.net?
El Cid
Something to freak out our nation’s neo-Confederate population.
Clearly, no better evidence is available that the Voting Rights Act is long outdated.
On the plus side, there will finally be (a) a much more current hyper-enemy than ACORN, and (b) an utterly clear next target for Breitbart to fabricate video against.
What’s the plan? Visiting MALDEF pretending to be young white male Salvadoran drug gang heads with a fake Mexican accent? Ask for MALDEF’s help to exempt your taco stand from food safety regulations?
JPL
@jwb: Just an opinion..The website doesn’t appear to be able to handle all the new traffic. Here’s another feed..link
the live feed is about half way down the page btw
Woodrow "asim" Jarvis Hill
@jwb: I suspect al-jazeera’s website is just slammed from all the attention (it’s actually hosted in the US, and I doubt it’s being DDOS’ed).
If you’re trying to get to the live feed, they have an YouTube channel that has it, as well.
Violet
@JPL:
Thanks for the YouTube link. I couldn’t get AJ to work this morning and was frustrated.
Edit: also thanks to Woodrow “asim” Jarvis Hill.
stuckinred
@JPL: This is good, thx.
El Cid
Not much explanation yet, but Al J. reported this:
wobblybits
@jwb: Too much traffic. You can access Al Jazeera English Live via YouTube channel.
ETA: I see many others have beat me to it.
jwb
@JPL: The site just came back up. I was actually looking to read the filed reports and blog rather than the stream.
Violet
@El Cid:
Interesting. No fleeing to Switzerland, then. I wonder if that also applies to Mubarak?
Boudica
@El Cid: Are the people setting up a guillotine yet?
Rosalita
Personally, I’m happy about any Palin free zone. I’m sick of her and the media reporting on it every time she as much as farts.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@Violet: Looks more to me like Mubarak tossing some to the wolves… “I don’t have to outrun this revolution, I just have to outrun you…“
Violet
Where the hell are the front page posters this morning? Slow morning.
Violet
I’ve got the AJ feed on. Lots of gunfire in the background.
Buck
@Donut: This. So much this.
wobblybits
Here is a link to the blog of an Egyptian human rights worker, who has been posting videos direct from Tahrir Square.
wobblybits
@Violet: They say it’s the army trying to keep the two sides separate.
Zifnab
Damn you liberal media! The Caribou Barbi will not be silenced so easily! First Amendment Rights! First Amendment Rights!
Redshift
@debit:
Hmm, maybe that’s the subconscious reason why my immediate reaction to the Palin thread was “Not gonna do it!”
NickM
I love Robyn Hitchcock, and this is a great song.
Rosalita
@WereBear:
I’m beginning to think she’s like a Twinkie, and will never rot away…
Superluminar
February is such a dick.
GregB
Her latest idiocy is the victim first attitude that the First Amendment was designed to protect politicians and elected leaders from media scrutiny.
It doesn’t get more backward than this.
scav
I thought the Palin First Amendment protected her from people disagreeing with her? I really need to keep up with these changing amedments
Poopyman
@jwb: Since I’m working in a place that doesn’t tolerate audio, I keep checking their Live Updates page. I also cross-check at The Guardian live updates page.
JasonF
By an amazing coincidence, I’ve declared that I’m ignoring Dana Milbank in February (and March. And April. And May ….)
Libby
Sorry, but Snowflake Snooki saying something stupid is not news, it’s dog bites man. Yeah fuck him, but I’m sort of with Dana on this one. Maybe declaring a Palin free month is just him trying to get attention, but I think it would be very interesting if some blogger with a big audience suggested a dump Palin week where everyone who follows her on FB and Twitter simply to laugh and point, unsubscribes for a week, or even a day. Would love to see how far her follower numbers dropped.
hueyplong
It seems like we’re in the middle of a transition from Palin to Bachmann in terms of who is filling the Crazy Right Wing Woman* role as we head into the 2012 campaigning season.
Palin isn’t going to leave because we hippies wish it so, or because “the media” want to persecute her. She’s leaving because the GOP has done a cost-benefit analysis and has determined that it needs to happen.
The only real issue is how Palin is to be phased out. One path is for her simply to fade away, which is what Milbank is apparently proposing. The other is for her to be given plenty of exposure in a question-and-answer type setting so that she can spectacularly flame out.
Because we are all so exasperated by her contempt for thought, reason and human compassion, many of us consciously or subconsciously desire the most spectacular, on-screen flameout possible. We know that doing so would not be good for the GOP in a presidential election cycle, though we have no idea just how “good” it will be, especially in light of the complete imbalance between the parties in terms of ability to manipulate events or cast blame for why some unpleasant fact exists. So we secretly wonder whether there is some conscious effort afoot to keep her from hurting the GOP on her way down.
It’s for these reasons that I want more and more Palin. To paraphrase Christopher Walken, I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more Palin. Milbank’s decision to go the other way is an objective indicator that the “more cowbell” theory is correct.
* The whole concept of the apparent need for an acknowledged #1 Crazy Right Wing Pin-Up Woman who gets all the coverage is a subject that professionals probably ought to be discussing in the public forum.
Admiral_Komack
@TR:
“February is prime Palin. Embrace it.”
You know Pat Buchanan wants to.
Fleem
I’m creeped out that Robyn, at that age, and with his hair that way, looks so much like Rand Paul. Does not compute…
But yeah, bring on the Palin. Make sure to ask her political questions. She can only look dumber.
jwb
@Poopyman: It seems that even when english.aljazeera.net was down, blogs.aljazeera.net was working. I didn’t know that at the time, however.
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Rosalita: If we could get that it would be great. But loudly announcing you are ignoring Palin in advance, then mentioning it each day you “ignore” her would be the exact opposite of that. It simply seems to be a refusal to discuss the issues surrounding her actions.
“Today I will not be talking about Palin. Here are all the things I’m saying that aren’t about Palin. Hey, have you noticed I didn’t talk about Palin today? Why on earth is everyone else still talking about Palin when I’ve clearly declared February ignore Sarah Palin month? Why won’t anyone look at me and praise me for not talking about Palin?!?!” – my impression of the dick whisperer
Mike in NC
@Rosalita:
It’s the caribou stew that does it.
canuckistani
I would like as much public humiliation of Palin as possible, please.
Benjamin Cisco
@hueyplong: I’ll readily admit to being torn here: I’d LOVE to see a crash and burn that would bring a NASCAR fan to his/her feet, so splendiferous that replays would be shown across the cable spectrum, so complete that no one with an IQ higher than that of burnt toast would ever consider voting for her again.
__
I’d LOVE to see that.
__
But there ain’t no such thing as unicorns, and her quietly fading (particularly in light of her recent idiocy) accomplishes the same goal. I’d settle for that too.
Benjamin Cisco
I changed my email addy this morning, can someone take me out of moderation plz? okbye
Another Commenter at Balloon Juice (fka Bella Q)
But if we were to embrace the dick whisperer’s emabargo, we wouldn’t remember the horror of this classic Palin shot, posted at TPM with there story of her turning down a CPAC keynote invite. She looks like the creepy harridan she is in that pic – it’s like Palinessence.
Chris
Robyn Hitchcock was in DC/Arlington when I lived there, and now I see him in my local coffee chains/supermarkets here in London. Love him, he’s usually wearing purple cords and a green shirt in a fairly neutral toned world.