Since Palin and her team won’t share where the potential candidate is headed, reporters and producers have little choice but to simply stay close to Palin’s bus. This has resulted in scenes of the Palin bus tooling down the highway followed by a caravan of 10 or 15 vehicles – including a massive CNN bus – all trying to make sure they don’t lose sight of the Palin bus.
It adds up to a dangerous situation, says CBS News Producer Ryan Corsaro.
“I just hope to God that one of these young producers with a camera whose bosses are making them follow Sarah Palin as a potential Republican candidate don’t get in a car crash, because this is dangerous,” he said.
Corsaro asked a member of Palin’s team if he thought it was dangerous to have reporters forced to chase her from stop to stop. “You’re the ones that are trailing us,” he replied.
Actually, they have a choice. They could stop following her and quit letting her jerk them around. Starve her of attention and she will lose it.
Second, I just love the response from the Palin team when it is pointed out their behavior could be causing a problem- “NOT MY FAULT!”
Tonybrown74
The only people I really do feel sorry for in this situation are the poor producers who are forced to follow her.
The people who make the decision that Palin is important enough to risk other people’s safety on? Not so much.
shecky
For fucksakes… So you’re just compelled to follow?
lacp
I’ve got a real bad feeling they’re headed my way. After Gettysburg this a.m., Philly is sort of a natural. Maybe I’ll be lucky enough to get hit by the CNN bus and retire.
Allan
I have to confess that when I saw this headline on TPM, my heart skipped a beat. Let it be the bus that’s Wrapped in the Flag and Carrying a Cross, I prayed. And if not that one, then the CNNMobile. Sadly, there’s still no God.
BGinCHI
Sarah Palin, the Rosa Parks of Selfishness and Egotism.
aimai
Since Palin isn’t doing anything newsworthy I really hope that all the newsshows chip in to have one guy follow her and phone the others, like a pool, if she starts smashing things or throwing up or whatever they consider newsworthy. It would totally serve her and her second rate, also ran, publicity team right if they all just gave up in disgust–which I frankly think they will very shortly. Its one thing to spend real money and time covering someone who your viewers really want to see. Its another to waste a fortune taking pictures and shouting questions at someone who is, in reality, extremely dull. The way Palin is planning this thing following her and videotaping her is about as exciting as watching patriotic paint dry.
I’m watching the british series Being Human and after the werewolf explains to the vampire that his vampire life is really dull he compares him to “deadly furniture.” That’s about the size of it. Even a manufactured, made for TV candidacy, needs a little sex appeal and more fuck me pumps than America’s back seat driver is giving it.
aimai
geg6
So why are they following if it’s so goddam dangerous?
I would tell my boss to get fucked. I might get fired, but at least I wouldn’t be dead or a quadriplegic.
No sympathy from me for anyone in this.
Bulworth
…..
Then how would they know where to go for all the cool barbeques and parties?
Violet
I really wish they would do this. Her spokesmouth, Rebecca Mansour (before she recently disappeared after the Twitter leaks) got really upset when coverage of Sarah dropped. I can only imagine if the collective response to her bus tour was “yawn.” She’d lose it.
Oh, heavens. Nothing is EVER her fault. NOTHING. This kind of behavior has been going on for…well, probably since she was born. Certainly in her public life it’s well documented back to when she was just on the PTA.
Han's Guitar Solo
It’s like the US media and Sarah Palin are engaged in a “Stupid Off.” The winner will be crowned “Dumbest Evah” by a first of its kind partnership between the Nobel Committee (the Noble prize for stupidity) and the Darwin Committee (the Darwin Award – Non Fatal version).
As dumb as Palin is I expect the US media to win; there are more of them and they have a long, understated history of really bringing the dumb.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well this pretty much shows her candidacy is another reality show like Trump’s was.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Is it so wrong of me to fantasize about this lovely little vignette ending with a washed out bridge and a missing* “Road Closed” highway sign?
*missing due to draconian cuts in the highway dept maintenance budget of whichever state they happen to be traveling thru at the time.
Tim, Interrupted
The news media in this country is so fucking stupid.
Hunter Gathers
Who’s the more foolish? The fool, or the fool who follows her?
BGinCHI
On MSNBC right now, Mark “Village Idiot” Halperin touting Palin’s ability with her bus trip of getting her own publicity without worrying about the “liberal media.”
Thanks, douchebag.
Josie
I have to say the is one of the dumbest things the news people have done, and they have done a lot of dumb stuff. It’s not like she is going to say anything worth the trouble of following her. We could all write her speeches now from memory, doncha know. You betcha!
Han's Solo
I’m having posting problems, if this is a double post I apologize…
It’s like the US media and Sarah Palin are engaged in a “Stupid Off.” The winner will be crowned “Dumbest Evah” by a first of its kind partnership between the Nobel Committee (the Noble prize for stupidity) and the Darwin Committee (the Darwin Award – Non Fatal version).
As dumb as Palin is I expect the US media to win; there are more of them and they have a long, understated history of really bringing the dumb.
geg6
@Violet:
I’m with you. The only reason she has staged this abomination is because no one was paying attention to her. Hell, Mansour was getting more press than she was.
Starve the beast of oxygen. It’s the worst torture you could possibly inflict on that grifting piece of shit.
Steve
Palin has these people wrapped around her little finger. I’d probably be savoring it too.
alwhite
This is just like 90% of modern “news”:
.
OH! LOOK! SOMETHING SHINY!!!
dr. bloor
@aimai:
If I wasn’t already married, I’d be proposing to you for this one.
lacp
The bus tour has made me come back to my original view of La Sarah: an ignorant, none-too-bright, overage version of Paris Hilton.
Tonybrown74
@geg6:
I understand where you’re coming from, but in this economy? Does the poor sap forced to follow that bus because management decides that Palin needs to be followed really have that much of a choice?
IrishGirl
She’s a friggin sociopath….nothing is ever their fault and everyone else is the problem.
...now I try to be amused
In more ways than one, I expect.
El Cid
This wouldn’t have to happen if there were some other important news to cover in the US or elsewhere. The billion dollar news media have no choice but to follow Palin around, because there’s just nothing else to broadcast about.
Suffern ACE
Nope. I like the fact that she is being followed. Need to follow the other GOP candidates as well. Prevents them from giving the red meat speeches which fire up the base but turn off the voters. Candidates been banking on that behavior forever – you know, giving one speech at CPAC and a different one for News Hour. One message for Worldnetdaily’s audience, and a different one for Meet the Press. Let the press figure out who they are while the lights are on them in front of who they perceive to be “real Americans.”
Violet
@geg6:
Yep. Just imagine if the media didn’t cover her bus tour. Just…nothing. Imagine the stink she’d have to make just to get noticed. Please, media, please do this.
Carnacki
My favorite part in one of the Palin stories was how a bus tour with its own slogan is NOT a publicity tour.
I’d like for her to be questioned after each stop what did she learn about history from the event.
Also at Gettysburg, she should have been asked if she would have supported the Confederacy, a relevant question considering the locale and also her husband’s Alaskan separatist past. After the National Archive visit, she should have been asked whether the general welfare clause should be deleted from the Constitution. And I’d like her to visit a mountaintop removal site in West Virginia and see for herself how great our country is – at destroying ourselves.
beltane
Our media are like flies drawn to the stinking pile of crap that is the Palin bus tour. Maybe they are hoping to lay their eggs there or something.
joes527
I hate to agree with Palin, but yeah. It isn’t their fault. The people acting like idiots/assholes are the media. The solution to the problem is for them to stop acting like paparazzi, and start acting like journalists. (i.e. go somewhere else report on actual news)
Won’t ever happen, but the implication that Palin could somehow fix this problem is stupid. If she announced her next stop they would all speed (unsafe!) to get there first and block the streets (getting in the way of emergency vehicles) when while they wait for her to arrive.
Bleeech. I just defended Sarah Palin. I don’t care what time it is. It is time to start drinking properly.
Tonybrown74
@lacp:
Now, that’s just not fair … to Paris Hilton. At least her family accomplished something.
eemom
let us comfort ourselves with the knowledge that this can’t go on forever. She is rapidly approaching the sell-by date for her particular brand of winks and CFM pumps.
When the starbursts go, so will the cameras.
Violet
@El Cid:
The best we can hope for is some natural disaster or other headline-grabbing incident to push her “family vacation” off the front page. That sounds like I’m wishing for a calamity. I’m not. Maybe a Tom-Cruise-jumping-on-Oprah’s-couch type incident.
kc
Is it wrong of me to wish the Palin bus would drive off a cliff, followed by the pursuing media parade?
Suffern ACE
@Violet: We could declare June national show up to national monuments in the nude month. Or national rob a bank month, for those who are more modest.
Valdivia
I particularly love how Sulli and the Village enablers are saying this is the most brilliant way ever to run a Presidential campaign.
Who needs to actually campaign when you can just do photo-ops and wing it? I hate to agree with Ben Smith of Politico but he said on Twitter that what is happening is that Palin has NO clue what is happening next and just making it up as she goes along and the Village idiots think this is a great strategy!
Apparently she now thinks the media does not hate her so she is having fun. Are they ever going to say out loud that she has no policy positions?
bemused
@alwhite:
That’s the truth. They go out of their way to cover the freakshows, Palin, Sheen, Trump, Lohan to avoid looking too closely at real issues and then blame viewers saying that’s what we want to watch. Funny thing, attending any social event or hanging out in a bar, I have yet to hear people deliberately bring up any of these people or other assorted nutjobs or scandals. The rare times it happens, everyone groans and say they turn the channel or the tv off, they are so sick of the excessive coverage.
kc
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Ah, you beat me to it. Hell, no, it’s not wrong!
Moonbatman
I love it when John points out the people who are truly responsible for the improper actions of others.
Palin and the Tucson shooting as pointed out by Sheriff Clarence Dupnik currently being swiftboated over the justified actions of his SWAT team.
Terry Jones and the dead UN workers.
Theo van Gogh for his own murder.
Peace Out. The Power is Yours. Free Crystal Mangum
khead
You’d just be wasting time.
Flat mountaintops are good for ATVing. Plus, the smell of coal emissions is what makes this country great.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Carnacki:
Yes, I’d like to see that too, but there is a small chance they might be expecting it and have some sort of word salad prepared to deflect the question. Even better would be to ask her what she thinks of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s tax and economic policy during the halcyon days of the 1950s, given the locale.
Maude
@kc:
You beat me to it.
beltane
@Valdivia: Who needs campaigning and elections and all that boring stuff anyway. The Villagers would love if our country were led by the winner of a casting couch competition. After all, that’s how they all got their jobs.
We are living in pornocracy.
jimmiraybob
When I was a young tyke, there was an endless fascination with running behind the truck-mounted mosquito foggers – darting in and out of the mysterious toxic cloud – that would once or twice come down the street in the spring.
To this day I don’t know what the draw was.
Anyway, back to the bus story. Also too.
Valdivia
The Washington Examiner is a rag I hate to link to but this is relevant: a reported piece with the views of the rest of the Republican field on Palin and why she is not running.
@beltane: agreed. they like the horse race and because of that they seem to think the mimicry of a campaign she is doing is actually a campaign.
BO_Bill
Sarah Palin is smarter than Katie Couric.
Anoniminous
@El Cid:
Lot’s of things needing a critical journalistic eye.
Problems:
1. We ain’t got no critical journalists
2. Our Infotainment media can’t handle stories requiring more than 5 seconds to cover
jibeaux
Palin and the media is one big dysfunctional codependent relationship with a massive chicken-and-the-egg dynamic. You could try figuring out which one is more dependent on which and which one has more of the blame, but ironically then you’re just feeding into the discussion of things that don’t fucking matter.
In more important news, did you know they’re selling Duff beer in Latin America?
aimai
@Valdivia:
SteveM at “No More Mr. Nice Blog” had an excellent blog post on this very topic–the idea is that Palin is selling a micro-targeting advertising campaign, a feel it/don’t think about it strategy as her actual campaign. It reminds me of the phrase “all process/no progress” or maybe I mean cargo cult. The idea that you can run a modern campaign on free media attention for stunts and that this somehow bypasses the media (rather than trying to use it cheaply) is absurd. Only someone who was all flash and no substance would imagine you could get far that way. What happens when the media turns its lonely eyes to some other candidate? If Palin hasn’t raised the big bucks from the real money donors there’s no way her candidacy can survive even a few days without paid for oxygen.
aimai
Jay in Oregon
…I really have no words.
EDIT: So I will give a hat tip to TBogg for the best Palin article title EVER:
My MILFshake Brings All The Boys To The Yard
JGabriel
John Cole @ Top:
I don’t think Palin cares if some of them quit following the tour. Palin wants the positive coverage from conservative press outlets, who will slavishly follow her no matter what.
If the rest quit tagging along, Palin would complain about the lamestream liberal media not following her, because that fits the resentment narrative she and her base want to propagate. Other than that, though, Palin doesn’t really want them catching and broadcasting gaffes that the conservative outlets would be more forgiving about.
.
patrick II
I am going to disagree with most of you. Palin is not stupid for doing this. Nor is she stupid for using twitter and facebook, and appearing only on FOX. She is a candidate who knows nothing about policy and is running a unique and creative campaign to distract from her policy ignorance. She has accurately appraised our corporate media, and is now trolling a shiney object down interstate 95. If she was as smart about actual policy as she is with her campaign(?) shenanigans, we might actually have a real candidate here. Instead, though, if she actually is running, someone somewhere will ask her an actual policy question at which time (hopefully) the gig will be up.
In the meantime, watching her flash a little thigh inciting media hopes of full intercourse later on is to be grudgingly admired.
jimmiraybob
“NOT MY FAULT!”
Translated to Latin this wouldn’t be a bad moto for the Great Seal of the Palin States*.
*Although the thought was passed on in jest, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that there’s also a rolling Grifter Souvenir Store selling mugs with this exact seal.
alwhite
@Valdivia:
Actually they may be right. Given that the media morons never get around to actually looking for any positions or agenda there may well be merit in the ‘SHINY OBJECT’ campaign strategy (I may want to trademark that term)
.
@beltane:
That’s a great term for what we have “pornocracy”. I think I’ll steal that, THANKS!
alwhite
@jimmiraybob:
My Latin is rusty but my guess is
nostra culpa
Nellcote
I wonder how much it’s costing various media to follow LaPalin’s bus around.
Valdivia
@aimai:
Exactly. I sent a really long email to Sully about this because he sometimes publishes my rants. The thing that most bothers me is that he and others seem to be saying–look Obama changed the way campaigns were won in 2008, she is a genius she is doing it again, her way. And the thing is that Obama and his team worked their asses off to use what they had to win–the big rallies etc were registration drives not ‘fun’ events done for the photo op. They point to how she won in Alaska, coming out of nowhere and running against the establishment. But she actually did do the work of a real campaign back then and NO ONE knew her. Now she has a track record and she is actually showing her colors as a lazy person who wants to swoop in and win by doing it all by remote control.
To me what this really is for Palin is a recreation of 2008 without the accountability. She thinks a campaign is what *she* did in that election because the McCain team was actually doing all the work and she was doing nothing, just showing up–no interviews after the disastrous ones, no press conferences. She wants *that* experience again, and thinks she can win by doing it. and the Village Idiots who seem not to understand how you actually WIN in a primary let alone a general are promoting this as brilliant strategy. Really? Just shoot me now.
Paul in KY
@jimmiraybob: Your parents were getting a free fumigation service (and you would get tuckered out). Double win!
piratedan
We have a complete failure in the media to begin with, i.e. the people who decide what is and what isn’t news are the problem. You want to know why the American electorate is stone cold stupid about so many of the issues, its because people in the 4th estate decided that the reason for their existence is to make profit instead of informing the public. Cripes, we have the potential second coming of a world financial meltdown if the debt ceiling issue isn’t addressed with a modicum of care and what is leading on CNN? Casey freaking Anthony. Then these same asshats lament that the public doesn’t “get it” when they are the ones who are supposed to report it.
Mike in NC
Does this absurd Palin “event” have a name yet? How about ‘Rolling Slumber’?
Failure, Inc.
She sure knows how to play the rubes, I gotta give her that. Better than W. Better than Reagan, even.
The Village has saddled up with her convoy and will follow her even if her goal is nothing more than to hit every Tex-Mex restaurant in the United States.
The
suckersblogosphere can’t look away. That includes you and I, by the way.jimmiraybob
@Paul in KY:
Ha! Good deal. They were innovative and thrifty back then – children of the Great Depression. Used to wash and save aluminum foil too.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Jay in Oregon:
Fortunately Oscar Wilde was never at a loss for words. “…the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible” was penned in a different context, but perhaps we can call this An American Foxhunt.
beltane
@patrick II: We are not saying Palin is stupid for campaigning like this. We are saying that our media is a sleazy, skanky, oozing herpes lesion of an institution. Why bother with boring debates when you can just substitute them for a wet t-shirt contest?
The next Republican president is probably working in a “gentlemen’s club” as we speak.
beergoggles
The media made the monster and now they are endangered by it. I think that’s delicious and that they deserve each other.
Southern Beale
AYYYYYYYYY FUCKING MEN
Jesus. The media is so fucking stupid. And the thing about it is, she’s not even running! I’ve already called it. It’s Balloon Boy all over again, chasing a shiny sparkly object in the sky wondering if there’s a Republican candidate hiding in it.
Stupid fucking media, I’ve completely lost all respect for them, every last one of them.
Valdivia
Also speaking of Village insanity-what is up with that great great legal analyst who knew her shit, Jan Crawford Greensburg, now doing political reporting and just blindly repeating Palin talking points. Do these people get lobotomized when they sign up for this?
alwhite
@alwhite:
Crap, here I am replying to myself
.
Upon further reflection it probably is closer to Sum nostra culpa
.
Now all I can think of is that stupid scene from “Life Of Brian” were the Centurion corrects Brian’s grammar for Romanae Ite domum
Paul in KY
@jimmiraybob: My parents are the same way. Both raised during the Depression. Thrifty to a fault.
arguingwithsignposts
@lacp: apparently, Palin is at independence hall atm.
patrick II
@Valdivia:
This type of campaign is the only one she can run and have any chance at all. I think nearly no chance actually, but if she ran a traditional campaign she would be gone as soon as intelligent verbal intercourse is required. She’s not dumb for trying to campaign another way. The Village Idiots are dumb for paying attention.
Countme In
Why does this Death Palin/media shitheads extravaganza remind me of the movie “The Great Race”, with Death Palin as The Great Leslie, the media as Maggie, and the Republican establishment as Professor Fate ….. or something?
[Leslie encounters Maggie stranded in the desert]
Leslie: I’m offering you a lift.
[Maggie ignores him]
Leslie: Or would you prefer an engraved invitation?
Maggie DuBois: I might consider an apology.
Leslie: An apology? For what? It’s twenty miles back to Borracho, you’d never make it.
Maggie DuBois: Well, that’s your fault.
Leslie: MY fault?
We once had “The Boys on The Bus”. Now we have “The Fuckwads In The Chase Cars”.
Couldn’t we get the truck driver in Steven Spielberg’s “The Duel” to catch up with the entire lot of them and deal some terror?
stuckinred
@jimmiraybob: My old man saved ice cubes!
Dennis SGMM
To show you how very stupid the media is in this instance; all they’d have to do is ignore her for a few days and she’d announce the Sarah Palin Show Us Your Tits Tour.
Cermet
What better way to avoid ryan’s plan to end old folks welfare than to follow the queen rat?
Suffern ACE
@Valdivia: Yes.
beltane
@Valdivia: No one gets paid the big bucks to speak intelligently or truthfully. These “journalists” are paid solely to service the needs of their patrons, no more no less. If these upscale street whores committed actual acts of journalism they have to live just like the rest of us “little people”, worrying about their mortgage payments and monthly bills and the cost of gas. Instead, they chose the comfy life of a paid collaborator, ready to betray their country in exchange for a hefty pay check.
gypsy howell
Makes you long for the days of shark attacks and Chandra Levy.
randiego
Who’s paying for this? Fox? Her minions via her PAC?
Nemesis
Fox can air video of the Paylin caravan, all 15 vehicles, and claim its a “media frenzy” following the Starburt non-campaign campaign and further evidence of her “amazing cross-demographic appeal”.
Tonal Crow
This is probably the only time I have ever or will ever agree with Team Palin. But media drivers are responsible for their own driving.If they cannot keep her under constant surveillance without creating an unsafe situation, it’s their responsibility to back off, not hers to end the shiny-object tour.
Valdivia
@Suffern ACE:
@beltane:
so so depressing. ugh.
jimmiraybob
@alwhite:
If Sum nostra culpa! (“NOT MY FAULT!”) is good to go, I think I’m getting a tea shirt made with that moto emblazoned on a banner above a mug of the Mamma Grizzly um, I guess that it’s Mamma Scorpion now that she’ll be taking up residence in AZ.
PS I would buy a coffee mug with this if available….
PeakVT
Improvified.
canuckistani
@Mike in NC:
How about Rolling Plunder?
Carnacki
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Or his warning on the Military-Industrial Complex
Southern Beale
I think the media look like clueless assholes for following this woman around like she’s Lindsay fucking Lohan or something. Seriously, “paparazzi” is an apt description, and I’m just sorta shocked that CBS News is so clueless that they’d actually cop to it.
I guess no one in the MSM realizes how bad this makes them look. Like they’re no better than freelance photographers trying to grab a photo of Brittney’s crotch for OK! Magazine.
I really despair of what’s happened to journalism in this country.
NamelessGenXer
@Mike in NC:
Greed Tour?
Tonal Crow
@NamelessGenXer: The Hate-talk Express?
kdaug
@Failure, Inc.: Sarah who?
BlueMonkey
@joes527
I concur. As much as I dislike the snowbilly grifter, she can’t make them follow her.
Our news media in this country sucks from top to bottom. If you turn on any so-called newscast on any channel you will understand why we as a country have gotten stupider over the past few decades.
Local news is no longer doing its job (feeling-based news – interviewing supposed witnesses- “I WAS SCARED” rather than giving its audience the actual facts on anything that may actually have to do with their lives). Or, worse yet, reporting on people who steal little instead of those who steal big.
24 hour news networks are like TMZ on a constant loop. If they do venture into actual reporting there is no critical thinking involved. Present both “sides” as equal (even though one is either factually wrong or just plain batshit insane).
Print media is just as bad. Headlines are misleading, stories are little more than PR releases from whomever the outlet favors.
Wow. I am really depressed now.
Tonal Crow
@jimmiraybob:
“tea” shirt? Oh no!
Mouse Tolliver
Just remember you’re not hearing about the nuclear meltdown in Japan because our liberal media would rather show you pictures of Sarah Paylin looking like Michael Dukakis on a motorcycle.
Valdivia
@patrick II:
I agree, my seething anger is at the Village Idiots.
cleek
Polling Dumber
jimmiraybob
@stuckinred:
My old man saved ice cubes!
Now that’s dedication. Growing up in Missouri prior to air conditioning at the homestead, we never had left-over ice cubes to put back into the ice box (translation note: premodern term for refrigerator with in-door, ice/juice-dispensing capability).
Shoemaker-Levy 9
Much as I’d like to see Republicans blamed for everything, I don’t know why you’re blaming them for this one. It looks like a collaboration between Palin and the press. I think the mainstream of the GOP would rather get the press for Mitt Pawlenty or Mitch Huntsman or somebody respectable, wouldn’t they?
Downpuppy
umm – isn’t she making public appearances? which require permits, and enough publicity to get people to show up?
Aren’t “Reporters” supposed to be able to read said publicity and be there like, waiting for them?
Because seriously – if her goal was to make them look stoopid, she can stop now. Mission accomplished!
arguingwithsignposts
@beltane:
speak for yourself. I say she’s stupid, full-stop.
gypsy howell
Rolling Blunder
Tonal Crow
@Shoemaker-Levy 9:
Palinadhis *are* the mainstream of the GOP. The rest are fringe leftists and RINOs.
kdaug
@Cermet:
Stoled.
geg6
@Tonybrown74:
Yes, he or she does. I’m sorry, but if my boss was expecting me to risk my life to chase this twit, I’d work at the Applebee’s salad bar before I’d do that.
Elie
Don’t look now, but aren’t we part of the problem? Commenting on her behavior is worth 94 comments (and counting)?
Why hit the MSM for following her around on a bus when we are doing the same on the blogs and comment threads.
In fact I just broke my own rule to not comment on her… sheesh
Elie
Don’t look now, but aren’t we part of the problem? Commenting on her behavior is worth 94 comments (and counting)?
Why hit the MSM for following her around on a bus when we are doing the same on the blogs and comment threads.
In fact I just broke my own rule to not comment on her… sheesh
gypsy howell
Shitty Shitty Gang Bang
Poopyman
@arguingwithsignposts:
Crap! I was thinking maybe the Surekill Expressway would do its magic.
Ah well, maybe they’ll head west again on the way out of town. With luck, they’ll be leaving at rush hour.
SiubhanDuinne
@Southern Beale:
…helicopters… laughing… credenzas….
Kevin
The Rude Pundit has a great take on this today..
rudepundit.blogspot.com/
Sorry if someone else had already posted this link; I skimmed over the comments to this point.
jimmiraybob
@Tonal Crow:
I blame it on the other Sarah, Michele Palin….Sarah Bachmann….something…….
OK, I blame it on the Top Grifter also too.
Poopyman
@Elie: Double post no less!
No. I doubt that most of us are tuned in to TV or radio coverage of the half-term governor. I’d equate it more to complaining about the weather. It kills time, does nothing to modify the topic’s behavior, and is not profitable for anyone involved (including SP and the media).
Joel
Maybe the reporters’ cars get a cool feature like a smoke screen or oil slick if they mount the back of the Palin bus.
Jay in Oregon
My favorite tour name comes from TBogg (again, I swear I’m not blogstalking him):
Jim
Somebody slap a GPS tracker on the bus. Problem Solved !
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@BO_Bill:
Body Odor Bill?
That’s awesome!
slag
Maybe this is just an elaborate protest in favor of high speed rail.
Which of course makes me wonder which is more soci.alist: trains or busses? Shouldn’t all these people be driving their very own shiny new Hummers down the highway just like Real Americans?
jimmiraybob
@Elie:
Not if just one managing editor reads this thread and comes to a realization that the circus is absurd and then recalls his producer, reporter, and/or cameraman. Note to media management on possible angle, for everyone recalled from covering the freak show an angel gets it’s wings.
jheartney
Couldn’t someone just let the air out the tires of all the media vehicles? As the Sarahmobile drove off into the media-less sunset, you could shout out “You’re welcome!” to all the stuck press schlubs.
geg6
@Poopyman:
Plus, the vast majority of the comments are not about Caribou Barbie, but about our idiocractic media. These fucking assholes are about 65% of the reason this country sucks balls over the last 30 years or so.
nepat
@patrick II: What you’re describing used to called cowardice. Now it’s strategery. Oy.
Paul in KY
@Elie: See what she does to you!
I know I can’t wait until Todd has control of our nation’s nuclear arsenal. That dude who won the Iditarod 4 or 5 times is gonna get some ‘death from above’.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
@Tonal Crow:
Not so sure about that, a recent poll had her favorability amongst Republicans down to 58%, a couple of points below Romney.
Davis X. Machina
“Sara Palin”
The name is familiar, but I can’t place it.
I know it’s the answer to a trivia question….
It’ll come to me in a moment.
grandpajohn
@piratedan:
This a thousand times this, I am 73 years old so I am an eyewitness to the descent of our media into this collection of brainless, cowards who call themselves reporters. I honestly believe that when we as a country finally reach third world status, the blame will be more the fault of the media than the republicans.
As we talk about peak wing nut, we can also use the opposite to define the media, every time we think that the media has reached a point where they could not possibly humiliate and degrade themselves to a lower point and become any less relevant, they pull something like this stunt to prove us wrong
Violet
Can someone follow along behind the media caravan and blare Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” from a roof-mounted loudspeaker? Maybe that would get through to them. Might actually get some media attention and then everyone could point and laugh.
hilts
John,
You obviously didn’t get the memo from John King. According to him, if a crowd waits for several hours in the sweltering heat in Gettysburg or anywhere else to get a glimpse of Palin, this is enough for CNN to send out a camera crew and wait for her to show up.
asiangrrlMN
@patrick II: SHE’S not stupid for it at all–the MSM are. Good lord. Seriously. Stop. Following. Her.
@Southern Beale: You and Larry O’Donnell. He doesn’t think she’s running, either. It’s all about the gravy train for the Grifter.
@SiubhanDuinne: CLASSIC!
Church Lady
Reading CBS whine about having to follow her is one of the funnier things I read in a while. She’s a private citizen – so far, she isn’t running for dogcatcher, much less the GOP nomination. And these nimrods feel compelled to chase her bus around. It makes me think she’s not quite as stupid as some believe, but the journalists hot on her trail are stupider than most think they are.
Martin
Why the fuck are the Dems threatening to vote against the clean debt limit vote? Jesus, they’re falling into the ‘do the opposite of whatever the GOP does’ trap. The GOP doesn’t win by holding and passing the vote, they actually lose against their base if it passes. They only win if it fails.
Fucking retards.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
@Jay in Oregon:
The Rutles on line two.
Tony J
One thing this does show up in widescreen living colour is the desperation the MSM feels while trying to make the GOP’s ‘Search For A Star’ project look less boring. Can you imagine how galling must it be for Pawlenty and Gingrich and Romney, etc, to realise that the people they count on for favourable coverage next year would rather big-up Palin’s Edumacational Tour of Real Merkin History than talk about them?
They’re following Palin because no one else in this most gripping of races to be the one who gets to lose to Obama in a landslide is actually driving around the country in a sort of bizarro Fred Phelpsish homage to a current Superman storyline? Why wouldn’t they make it the centrepiece of their coverage, given the options?
BTW, how long before the Palin Tour starts calling itself ‘The Freedom Riders’? And how long does it take for the MSM to pick up that meme and happily shift their coverage to illustrating for undecided voters how Liberal fury over this decision is counter-productively winning Palin support amongst ‘Average Americans’ who don’t like people “playing the race card” so casually?
I give it about a month.
Violet
Jessica Yellin on CNN just called the coverage of Palin’s bus tour a “media low point.”
jimmiraybob
How about Gravy Bus Summer Tour 2011.
Leaves room for Gravy Bus Summer Tour 2012, Gravy Bus Summer Tour 2013, Gravy Bus Summer Tour 2014, Gravy Bus Summer Tour 2015……..
After all, there’s new Scottsdale property to pay for. And a Sarah Palin Vice Presidential Candidate Library to consider.
MikeJ
@jimmiraybob: She should really be on a boat.
WaterGirl
@Martin: I”ve been on vacation for 3 days, just got back. Is this really true? Please say it isn’t so.
Violet
What’s that Sandra Bullock bus movie? “Speed”? Maybe this one should be “Greed.”
chopper
♪♫ Just don’t look! Just don’t look! ♪♫
geg6
@Tony J:
I bet it’s even more galling to the Karl Roves and other GOP bigwigs. And I think PM Carpenter has it right:
pmcarpenter.blogs.com/p_m_carpenters_commentary/2011/05/on-the-road-with-sarah-palin.html?utm_source…
The Dangerman
Late to the thread, so this might be a repeat of others, but my predictions:
1) She is going to declare for the Presidency;
2) She won’t debate in the Republican Primaries;
3) She won’t give any interviews to anyone not affiliated with Fox News (I’m guessing even THOSE will be with either Hannity or Greta; sorry, BillO);
4) She can win the nomination with such a strategy;
5) She will use the same strategy in the General; no debates with Obama, no interviews with the Lame Streamers.
She’ll lose the General and the carnage may be severe, but the doubt going in will be enough to scare the living shit out of every sentient American that isn’t a Palinite.
Frank W.
Sarah Palin… the Spencer Pratt of politics (emphasis on pratt). I am trying to think of anyone else who I have found so utterly distasteful… Barry Bonds for cheating (in sports and on the foolish women in his life — how do you get an annulment from a woman you’re married to AND already had two children with?)
She refuses to go away; the media refuses to stop covering her every vitriolic belch of nonsense; even we bloggers/blog readers feel compelled to click on one more story and comment.
Let the madness stop!
cathyx
Why is following someone dangerous? I’ve followed other cars going places in my life and never felt either one of us to be in danger.
geg6
@Martin:
There’s a lot more to this than meets the eye.
First, this is a game being played by GOP rules which means that there IS no upside for a Dem to vote yes. It’s a trap to get them all to vote yes and hang it around their necks and Obama’s because the American public doesn’t know what the debt limit is (they think it’s like their credit card limit).
Second, the language of the “clean” bill ties the debt to Obama’s budget, as in it is entirely Obama’s budget that is to blame for the high debt.
Third, it’s going down no matter which way they vote.
Personally, I’d vote present if it was me.
geg6
@cathyx:
And you don’t think the Palin Clown Bus would try to fuck with anyone trying to follow it? Really?
MattR
@Martin:
But the vote cannot pass since the GOP will unanimously vote against it. The only purpose of the vote is to get Democrats on the record. There is an argument to be made that the Dems should step up and vote YES anyway, but I don’t have a major issue with the majority of the Democratic caucus voting present if they think that will help prevent GOP demagoguery
@arguingwithsignposts: Valid point. I guess the better statement would be to say that the Dems think voting this way would make the GOP demagoguery less effective.
arguingwithsignposts
@MattR: Nothing will *ever* prevent GOP demagoguery.
cathyx
@geg6: I think a bus is not the same thing as following a car. They’re bigger, slower, and easier to spot.
James E. Powell
The corporate press/media really are doing their level best to cajole some note worthy person to enter the race. Even their considerable skills with propaganda cannot create.
So whose the savior? Bloomberg? Imagine the 27% trying to choose between the black guy and the billionaire Jewish guy.
My sense is that the Republican powers that be are going to let Romney have the nomination and concentrate their efforts on defending the house and gaining the senate. This plan would be blown up by a Palin nomination because she will depress the Republican vote so far that Nate Silver will need a whole new model.
arguingwithsignposts
@cathyx: If she was going into center city, philly, that’s some narrow streets, and lots of opportunities for ppl to get in some interesting traffic situations. Not so much on a rural interstate area. Better to have an idea where she’s going and be able to plan alternate routes.
joes527
@cathyx:
slow news day.
hueyplong
We all know how this is going to end. Halfway through it, the Quitter will quit and hold an impromptu press conference at which she’ll blame various people for the result, doing so in a verbal manner that generates a bunch of ridicule from the left, which in turn will prompt the right to call the lefties elitists.
Kind of hard to stifle a yawn over this.
cathyx
If this were an open thread, I would post this:
Bangladeshi woman cuts off rapist’s penis and gives it to police
rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/31/bangladeshi-woman-cuts-off-rapists-penis-and-gives-it-to-police/
geg6
@cathyx:
Buses go pretty damn fast if they want to. And, just like a tractor trailer, can fuck with every other vehicle on the road if they want to and have a vicious streak. Ya think maybe Sarah and Todd might have a bit of a vicious streak maybe?
Southern Beale
That’s a good point. Though it’s making the once-“legitimate” media look like hacks, too. That’s gotta be pretty galling.
MattR
@cathyx:
Have you been part of a caravan of 10-15 cars all trying to follow the same lead vehicle, especially when that vehicle is not trying to help out the cars following it? What happens when a traffic light changes after the bus and 4 media vehicles get through? Do the others try to run it? Do they drive like madmen once it is green trying to catch up and/or locate the bus if it has made a turn? Or how about when it changes lanes to make a turn, take an exit or even get around a parked vehicle and all 10-15 vehivles behindit try and copy that maneuver?
Southern Beale
BREAKING: via Twitter:
It’s a confederacy of dunces. Literally.
Well at least CNN got its money’s worth on the bus. They finally have something to talk about.
Martin
We really should have a thread to come up with names for politician’s vacations as Palin has offered up here.
sukabi
the big media bosses are truly retarded… with all the advances in tracking tech, and with all the loopholes in the law, it should be easy, and cheap to slap a gps tracker on her bus and follow remotely… it’s not like one of their local affiliates couldn’t or wouldn’t send in someone to “cover” Palin inanities.
geg6
@MattR:
Exactly. I’ve been in total clusterfucks in a funeral cortege with police escorts. Imagine that many cars following the stupid but totally evil Palins, who I’m sure would think it was just collateral damage if their bus screwed with the media vehicles enough to cause an accident, even with innocent civilians involved.
Suffern ACE
@hueyplong: It will end with a minor traffic accident and many comparisons by the Palin Camp as to how she is the American Princess Di.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Southern Beale:
The Grifter Summit.
Amir_Khalid
I wonder why the US media is paying Sarah Palin any attention at all. This woman isn’t currently holding any political office nor is she a declared candidate for any. In 2008 she was ignorant about what a vice-president does, about national and global policy issues, and resisted the McCain campaign’s attempts to coach her. Since then she has not improved her knowledge of policy, and she has never shown the seriousness of purpose one would expect from any political candidate.
Sarah Palin can’t distinguish between what she does (and is doing here), attention seeking, and a real political candidacy. She is a celebrity, nothing more, just like the Cardassian sisters. Her run for president is already taking place, I believe, but only in her head rather than in the real world. By humoring her delusion of candidacy, the news media are letting themselves and their audiences down.
Southern Beale
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
The outcome of this dinner will be that Palin gets to appear on the next season of Celebrity Apprentice.
Tonal Crow
@Shoemaker-Levy 9: There appear to be no available internals on that poll, which surveyed both Republicans and “GOP-leaning independents”. The latter seem to be much less positive toward Palin. For example, 58% of the total sample view her favorably, while only 47% of “GOP-leaning independents” did so. So clearly GOP members view her much more favorably than “GOP-leaning independents” who, almost by definition, are not the GOP mainstream.
Martin
@geg6:
Voting to not have the US government default has no downside. Relatively soon they’re going to have to vote for it, so they’re going to be on the record anyway.
This is chickenshit behavior because the Dems don’t think they can effectively campaign in favor of a good idea, and one that will come to pass no matter what.
Tonal Crow
@The Dangerman: This.
Southern Beale
Least popular governors in America:
It’s between Kasich and Rick Scott, with Michigan’s Rick Snyder and Iowa’s Terry Branstad close behind. I’ve never heard of Branstad.
Poopyman
@hueyplong:
Hard to tell where halfway is in a journey with no itinerary. It’s like the media circus is following an itinerant tinker.
Violet
@The Dangerman:
I agree this is how it will go down. I think the GOP elite want Romney to be the candidate (so he’ll go away finally) and they’ll just concentrate on the House and Senate. I don’t think they can control her or her voters and she can win.
@Southern Beale:
A Palin will appear, but it won’t be Sarah. It’ll be Bristol, she of the perpetual appearances on reality shows.
Violet
@Southern Beale:
Palin endorsed him last election. At the time people figured it was groundwork for primary season.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Amir_Khalid:
Because like it or not she has an outside shot of becoming the next President in Jan 2013 [insert your the Mayans were right joke of choice here].
Why? Because 40-45% of the electorate would vote for Botulism-in-a-Can in the general election if it had an R after it (which means the GOP nominee only needs a 10 point swing away from the mean to win the election), and the GOP nomination is very much up for grabs judging from the pathetic state of the David Brooks friendly side of the field, and the possibilities that social-media based political fundraising has created for non-establishment campaigns.
We are a few good screw-ups during the GOP primaries and either another financial sector collapse (like in fall 2008) or spectacular terrorist attack away from Sister Grifter being a viable candidate to win in 2012.
lacp
@Poopyman: David Carradine did that wandering-around shit a lot better in Kung Fu.
Suffern ACE
@Martin: Also, would someone remind them that the election isn’t for another year? We’re still a little less than a year away from PRIMARY elections.
Whatever. If the chamber and the ABA want us not to default, they can cough up the cash into Democratic campaign coffers so at least some of that cash is off the table for Republicans next year. Otherwise, we’ll get an increased debt ceiling followed by Chamber sponsored ads attacking Democrats. Dems need money to run counter ads. It’s a shitty system we got, but the people with the money have to be shaken down since they have lost the ability to control themselves with the candidates they support for office.
Chinn Romney
Did Kenai Kardashian make it to Philly yet? Once they see her ordering cheese whiz and bashing dandies who put swiss on their steak she’ll have another state in the bag.
It’s been a long cold winter up here in Godless MA, so she’ll need to show some boobies if she’s going to make any head way here.
Southern Beale
Did the News Corp. scrolling ticker in NYC get hacked? Video says yes … though there is some skepticism that this is legit on the interwebs.
Tony J
@geg6:
Point. Palin isn’t running for the Presidency in any real way, that would be silly. She couldn’t possibly win, but that’s not the point of the exercise.
She is running to be the leader of the Radical Tea Party Republican faction when it all crashes down around them and they need a figurehead to cling to. There’s money in that, and the fact that she’ll play a part in putting her followers in that position is an essential part of the grift.
She gets ‘forced’ to run, then it’s Victimitude 24/7 as she gets ‘sabotaged’ by the Liberal Media in 2012. If she gets to be Kingmaker in the Primaries, the inevitable defeat in 2012 can be put down to “Everything would have been different if Sarah hadn’t been stopped from running”. Either way, she rides the Resentment Express to big money and a comfortable retirement regardless of how much the majority of Republicans will hate her. She doesn’t need more than a few percent of them to milk millions in donations.
And at no point will she ever have to do any work. That’s what her ‘enemies’ in the MSM are for.
PurpleGirl
@Violet: But Grifter Jr. has already signed to do a reality show based on the idea of her and her kid moving from Alaska to L.A. so she can live with her DWTS partner (and his brother) in an apartment while she goes to work at a small non-profit. Forget for a moment that she is already living in the house in Maricopa AZ.
Elie
@Poopyman:
Yeah, sorry about the double post!
(For some reason if I press submit in just the wrong way, that is what happens)
Yeah…Palin blogging = picking lint from your navel and other such worthwhile activities..
Tom Q
@alwhite: Sorry to chime in so late on this: Google translate says “It is not my fault” can be quickly expressed as “Non culpa” — one of those idioms that elides words. (I last took Latin over 40 years ago myself)
patrick II
With all of this raw material for outrage, I wish Hunter S Thompson was around to write a new “Fear and Loathing” for the 2012 election. No one could so eloquently describe political sociopathy as Hunter, although with a cost to his own sense of despair.
hilts
@Amir_Khalid:
Because she draws large crowds wherever she goes. Personally, I think this is a bullshit justification. Unless or until she formally declares her candidacy, the MSM should ignore her stupid bus trip.
The Palin circus will kick into higher gear when she stops in NY to visit Ellis Island and/or the Statue of Liberty.
Tony J
@Southern Beale:
They have a job to do, and they don’t have very much to work with. Given the sheer inevitability of what’s going to happen in 2012, these are heroic measures we’re seeing employed here. Doomed, but heroic.
And I’m using the word ‘heroic’ entirely wrongly, as you must have noticed.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
@Tonal Crow:
We’re quibbling. If you add up the Presidential preference numbers the “respectable” candidates are polling roughly the same as the “lunatic” candidates, and if you separate out the libertarians no wing of the party really comes close to a majority. Point being, Palin’s doing her own thing, as always, and I don’t think her latest stunt represents the party in general. And that said, it’s fine with me if the various factions cause a general intraparty bloodletting.
gnomedad
@Amir_Khalid:
Actually, she’s more like those Klingon sisters.
Tonal Crow
@Shoemaker-Levy 9:
The problem here is that all the Republicans are lunatics. While some are crazier than others, none are not crazy.
Vive le Guillotine!
Poopyman
@hilts:
You know what else draws crowds? News cameras. Interesting synergy, huh?
Poopyman
@gnomedad:
I’m unfamiliar with this concept. Does Rule 34 apply here?
abscam
Trolling Plunder?
Tom Q
@Tonal Crow: It’s also possible, as in 2010, the intensity level of the maximally crazy causes them to turn out in proportions greater than their polling numbers, and exaggerates the swa they will hold in the selection.
Violet
@PurpleGirl:
Grifter, Jr. can finish filming the “move to L.A.” show in time to do Celebrity Apprentice. In fact there could be some great synergy; she could be playing for the charity she supposedly “works” for in the other show.
I don’t believe she’s living in Maricopa. She may have bought it, but the video tour she released a few weeks ago made it look utterly unlived in. I think it was designed to throw people off the Palin trail while mama Palin bought the mansion in Scottsdale.
Southern Beale
@Tony J:
At first I read that as “…a nd they don’t have very much work to do. …” There are so many other stories which are not being covered because CNN and the rest are wasting money on a fucking bus following these losers around. Frankly it pisses me off.
Origuy
The Electric Kool-Aid Meth Test?
Eugene
@Hunter Gathers: Thank you Ben Kenobi!
alwhite
@jimmiraybob:
@Tom Q:
Its been 40 years for me too but I think Sum nostra culpa is literally “I am not at fault” and Non culpa would be “not at fault” with the I am understood. Given what has been done to the language over the last 1700 years & how poor I was at it I think either would work. Do we have any Latin experts here?
.
If I were going to make an official looking seal I would want a bunch of words in old English script & damn the grammar :)
Julie
@Hunter Gathers: Winner!
jonas
The poor media schmucks who have been assigned to cover Caribou Barbie should all band together and rent a giant luxury tour bus and plan their own itinerary called something like “Real American All Star Patriot Tour” or something and dare HER to follow THEM in order to get coverage.
Until then, they can consider themselves fully pwned.
Lojasmo
President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, thy name is palin. Everybody crack a Brawndo, Let’s head to Buttfuckers.
4jkb4ia
(Sigh) Yes John. (After some selective editing)
DFH no.6
@Violet:
I also agree with you on The Dangerman’s predictions for the Snowbilly Queen and the 2012 elections.
Contra the conventional wisdom, I believe Starbursts is running for prez, and has a not-insignificant chance of actually winning the fascist nomination (I think they’ll pull back from that abyss and end up nominating Romney, despite the Mormon cult, but The Grifter can win).
If we double-dip into recession (which is beginning to look not just possible, but likely) then the economy might truly crater as it nearly did in ’08-’09, and all bets are off for the general – in fact, I think in that eventuality Obama, and the Dem majority in the Senate, are toast, no matter who the fascist presidential candidate is.
An elected (and appointed, in the case of the SCOTUS, the majority of the federal bench, and federal agency heads) rightwing dictatorship, with the country – and the world – in a major depression. Fucking fantastic.
Sorry to be Captain Bringdown here, just my take from closely watching this shit for well over 40 years (from Nixonland on). I try to be even-keel, but I am becoming less sanguine about our collective prospects.
If we lose all this, we can point to the Dem Leadership accepting — in reality, if not in theory — the fascists’ neo-Hooverite economic nonsense as the primary reason. For all the good that’ll do anyone.