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Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

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The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Republicans in disarray!

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Finding joy where we can, and muddling through where we can’t.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

“They all knew.”

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You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

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You are here: Home / Who’s that woman on your arm, all dressed up to do you harm?

Who’s that woman on your arm, all dressed up to do you harm?

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I can’t deny that I find myself fascinated by the pictures from Lady Starburst’s latest publicity stunt.

All the jokes about the Palinese Liberation Army have never seemed more true to me. It’s a cross-country bus tour with Hell’s Angels types, how much more reverse ’60s can the whole thing get? All we need is for the motorcycle guys to stab a fan to complete the circle.

Reader Interactions

109Comments

  1. 1.

    aimai

    She’s really jumped the shark. Here’s hoping she takes her 27 percent share of the voting-while-angry populace with her into a third party candidacy.

    aimai

  3. 3.

    JasonF

    Am I the only person who thinks she looks as ridiculous as Dukakis did in that tank, or John Kerry did in that clean suit? I wonder if she’s going to get the same treatment that those guys got.

  4. 4.

    lamh34

    Ugh…so much saliva was coming outta Tweety’s mouth when he was discussing the video of Palin at the biker thing, and he was saying how good she looks in the video. I’m surprised Eugene Robinson and Howard Fineman didn’t drown in it!!!!

    seriously, if Obama made Tweety’s leg tingle, Palin def gives him a woody that Bachmann just doesn’t!!!!!

  7. 7.

    MikeJ

    Stones are always a good choice, but I might have gone with:

    People dressed in plastic bags
    Directing traffic
    Some kind of fashion

  8. 8.

    Felinious Wench

    On Sunday, Palin entered Washington on the back of a Harley-Davidson in a war veterans’ motorcycle parade that is part of the Memorial Day weekend observance in the capital.

    Why didn’t Hillary think of that?

  9. 9.

    Han's Solo

    The American media is going to wake up one day and realize that Sarah Palin, possibly the dumbest celebrity politician in the history of this country, is calling them stupid.

    It is one thing to be called stupid; it is another thing altogether to be called stupid by stupid.

  10. 10.

    Ana Gama

    @Han’s Solo: The media deserves it. They are behaving stupidly. They should not be behaving as though they are the paparazzi and she is a princess.

  11. 11.

    shortstop

    I love the abrupt end of the self-tanner at the wrist.

    What I love even more is that she’s still writing on her hand. Joo guys see those latest cheat-sheet photos among her Rolling Bungler shots?

  12. 12.

    beltane

    @kindness: Exactly. The real Hell’s Angles types might ride Palin but they would not want to be seen riding with her.

  13. 13.

    PaulB

    I didn’t think they were riding with her. Didn’t she just shoehorn her way in to an existing celebration, pissing off some of them? I thought this was just a one-shot and that the bus tour would continue with Saint Sarah on her own.

  14. 14.

    beltane

    @Han’s Solo: They will not wake up. Ever. The plug may eventually be pulled when the sh&t hits the fan, but they will never, ever wake up.

  15. 15.

    kindness

    @beltane: I know some Angels. They can be nice people and they can also be brutal aholes but
    they aren’t Sarah’s ‘type’ if you know what I mean.

  16. 16.

    BGinCHI

    @Makewi: Is this an old troll or a new one.

    It’s not very funny or interesting. Maybe it followed the Tucker boner pic over here.

  17. 17.

    schrodinger's cat

    What happened to Sarah’s hair? It looks fried, she used to have nice hair.

  18. 18.

    JonF

    A couple friends who were down there said that the bikers weren’t that supportive of her. Most of the other bikers they talked to felt that Palin was politicizing a non-partisan event.

    Also, they thought that “bikers” who rode with her might have been plants. No one had seen them there before.

  19. 19.

    arguingwithsignposts

    Meanwhile, the actual president of the United States spent Sunday commiserating with people who lost loved ones in Joplin, and then jetted off to Arlington on Monday for a memorial service for Memorial Day.

    Fuckin’ optics, how does it work?

  20. 20.

    beltane

    @BGinCHI: Make Wee is an old troll. He’s here subbing for Reality Check who had his internet privileges revoked by Mommy after she caught him looking a porn.

  21. 21.

    JGabriel

    If Sarah! is gonna run with the Angels, she needs to get tatted up. I recommend a tat across her chest that reads Hell on the right tit, is for on the breastbone, and Libtards on the left tit.

    That would be classy.

    .

  23. 23.

    JGabriel

    @Han’s Solo:

    It is one thing to be called stupid; it is another thing altogether to be called stupid by stupid.

    And it’s infinitely worse when it is: deserved.

    .

  24. 24.

    Han's Solo

    @Ana Gama: Agreed. What the media is doing by following her around is pathetic. I’m expecting to see Anderson Cooper in a too-small black T shirt recording a report from the van following Palin around the country.

    “Yes, that’s right Wolffe, she stopped at the Citgo and got a cup of coffee and a danish. Yes, a danish. No word yet on how the AMERICAN pastries feel about this unAmerican confection. Word is that the donuts have appealed to the pastry council and are considering hiring bearclaws to sue Mrs Palin.”

  25. 25.

    Gramsci

    And now she’s going to have dinner with Trump in Manhattan– even Guy DeBord would think we’re through the looking glass now.

  26. 26.

    JGabriel

    Now that Palin is a motorcycle mama, I think we need a Tats For Sarah contest or thread.

    .

  27. 27.

    4tehlulz

    @Arclite: She apparently forgot that clean water and widespread vaccination were brought to you by the so she’ll ist government.

    She’ll retract that once she realizes that.

  31. 31.

    beltane

    @Stooleo: Let me guess: Rick Scott owns the lab that welfare applicants will be forced to use for these drug tests? That would, after all, be the Republican way.

  32. 32.

    Felinious Wench

    @JGabriel:

    Tats For Sarah contest or thread.

    I was thinking of proposing theme songs for the movie, since we had so much fun with movie titles. This was in retaliation for the ear worm of “Sara” by Starship that I unfortunately contracted.

    “I’ll never find another girl like you, for happy endings it takes two.

    We’re fire and ice, the dream won’t come true.”

  33. 33.

    jwb

    @beltane: I wondered what brought Makewi out of the woodwork. Not one of our brighter trolls, but often puts up a good fight.

  34. 34.

    RosiesDad

    Why are we talking about her? As long as anyone is paying attention, there is little to no chance that she will just go away.

  38. 38.

    piratedan

    @RosiesDad: tyvm…. enough with Sideshow Sarah, can we get back to the important stuff please? How about we create a new network news organization, called the Crap That Actually Matters show, starring real legislation and what it means to folks out on the streets and issues that might be relevant, for instance global warming, coping with natural disasters, the effect of judicial decisions on the constitution, education reform, extracting corporate interests and theologians from our political discourse and cute animal pictures?

  40. 40.

    JGabriel

    @Felinious Wench:

    I was thinking of proposing theme songs for the movie, since we had so much fun with movie titles. This was in retaliation for the ear worm of “Sara” by Starship that I unfortunately contracted.

    Here, maybe this will fix that for you:

    He said “Sara, you’re the poet in my heart,
    Never change, never stop.”
    __
    But now it’s gone, it doesn’t …

    I’ve noticed that if you don’t finish a lyric, people will automatically fill in the rest — and do the work of digging that earworm into their own head for you (he said helpfully).

    Edited To Add: Jesus, listening to that link, I’m struck again, as always, by how great a producer Lindsey Buckingham was/is.

    .

  41. 41.

    Violet

    @JonF:

    Also, they thought that “bikers” who rode with her might have been plants. No one had seen them there before.

    Seems to be a recurring theme. From the CBS “whining” article in the thread on Palin a few down from this one:

    The confusing nature of the trip – which was planned by two advance aides recently hired by Palin – played out at a coffee shop this morning, where Palin stopped to shake hands with locals in what looked to reporters like the very definition of a campaign-style photo-opportunity. Multiple people showed up at the event saying they were there because they wanted to see history –but they wouldn’t say where they had come from or how they had heard about the event.
    __
    “I just want to say that I’m witnessing history happening,” one woman said – three times.     She wouldn’t give her name.

    $arah doesn’t put her schedule on her website or release it to reporters or anywhere else. Yet these “supporters” magically appear in a coffee shop to “witness history” and won’t say how they heard she’d be there. Sure they’re supporters. Paid ones, maybe.

  42. 42.

    JGabriel

    @BGinCHI:

    Photoshop posts of tats and their place of habitation.

    Even though I suggested the idea, I was thinking more along the lines of verbal snark and word pictures. After reading your addition, I don’t think I’ve ever been so relieved that this site doesn’t permit image embedding in the comments.

    .

  44. 44.

    stuckinred

    These dudes are Gathering of Eagles not Hell’s Angels. They formed out of some trumped up shit that hippies were planning to deface the Wall and other patriotic monuments in DC.

  45. 45.

    Evolved Deep Southerner

    @Felinious Wench: Don’t be blaspheming on some Hillary or you’ll have Makewi to deal with. The fucker was off-the-chain crazy for that woman back during the ’08 primaries. I can’t read a damn thing s/he writes now without thinking back to then.

  46. 46.

    KevinNYC

    Also doesn’t Rolling Thunder support the myth that there are still POWs in Vietnam. Every time this is looked into, They realize it’s a myth.

  48. 48.

    PeakVT

    What’s historic about getting in a bus and going places? Doesn’t John Madden do that every weekend during football season?

  49. 49.

    stuckinred

    200,000 plus riders and someone didn’t recognize the people with her. Come on, what’s the point of silly shit like that. Plants of what? All you have to to is ride your bike there and you are part of it.

  51. 51.

    Lolis

    The whole event reminded me of a small town beauty queen taking her ride down Main Street in the back of a convertible during some random parade. It was really, really pathetic. Not at all presidential or even candidate-worthy.

  52. 52.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Doug Harlan J: I’m with you on that one, my boyfriend. She makes them look dignified and sensible in those situations, by comparison.

  53. 53.

    maus

    @Han’s Solo:

    The American media is going to wake up one day and realize that Sarah Palin, possibly the dumbest celebrity politician in the history of this country, is calling them stupid.

    They don’t care what you call them, only that you call them.

  59. 59.

    DonkeyKong

    She’s the sand in the tanker truck pursued by the media horde with mark halprin as……..humungus?

    …and the Rogue Whinner… she Lives now, only in my memories.

  60. 60.

    JPL

    I do have a request..can we have a balloon juice free of palin or anything that relates to the grifter… please…pretty please…

    think of it as a safe zone

  61. 61.

    Frank W.

    Well, I’m posting again, so I guess I’m part of the problem, but two pinhead-Palin threads just a couple stories apart? Balloon Juice, I must protest!

  63. 63.

    beltane

    @PeakVT: Millions of American schoolchildren get on a bus and go places every single day of the school year. I’m telling you, history in the making is all around us.

  64. 64.

    General Stuck

    I’m betting on reports of sniper fire by reported hippies, when Palin lands her clown cycle in the Big Apple. Saved only by Trump’s ballistic proof polyethylene hair.

  68. 68.

    JGabriel

    @PeakVT:

    What’s historic about getting in a bus and going places? Doesn’t John Madden do that every weekend during football season?

    But John Madden doesn’t have breasts.

    But Sarah Palin has better legs.

    But John Madden …

    Okay, I give up. You’re right. There is no difference.

    .

  70. 70.

    JPL

    @stuckinred: new response to Sarah’s threads… fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck…
    I’m not as polite as you are.
    It is so hot that I’m concerned about July and August.

  71. 71.

    beltane

    @Warren Terra: That’s weird. Just today, I found myself wondering “Whatever happened to Larry Johnson and Susan Hu and the rest of the nutters at No Quarter?”

  72. 72.

    beltane

    @MattMinus: See, I can’t even employ snark anymore while discussing Republicans. I just have to accept the fact that whatever the most evil, corrupt thing imaginable is, is what they are actually guilty of.

  73. 73.

    JGabriel

    @General Stuck:

    I’m betting on reports of sniper fire by reported hippies, when Palin lands her clown cycle in the Big Apple.

    Honestly, Palin’s been to NYC a couple of times. And we just ignore her. Probably why Sarah! doesn’t like us.

    .

  74. 74.

    Violet

    @JGabriel:
    LOL. When has the truth ever had any relationship to what Sarah Palin says? So she says someone in NYC attacked her or said something mean to her. Nevermind if it isn’t true. That’s not what matters. She says it, the media reports it. It’s now a fact.

  75. 75.

    stuckinred

    @JPL: No shit, I worked on some stuff in the garden for an hour after work and it whupped me!

  77. 77.

    jl

    @JGabriel:

    I am sure chow is better and more ample on Madden bus, especially brats and BBQ pork.

    The amount of grub downed in the vicinity of John Madden is surely historic.

    The news media is stumbling trying to find out what is historic about the self advertised ‘family vacation’.

    I see on TPM that CNN decided it was worth covering because she stopped at historic places. Funny, I don’t remember the press chasing my mom and dad when they took us through Civil War and Revolutionary War battle sites. Which I loved because I could play soldier sometimes, and for some reason, lots of ice cream was involved, IIRC.

  79. 79.

    JGabriel

    @jl:

    Which I loved because I could play soldier sometimes, and for some reason, lots of ice cream was involved, IIRC.

    And rock candy. Historic tourist sites always had rock candy. You can probably always pick someone up by bonding together over that time you had rock candy as a child at [insert historic tourist site here].

    .

  80. 80.

    JPL

    @jl: Decades ago when I lived in Dallas I had read about Madden’s favorite BBQ place while in Dallas. My Brother-in-law who was a commodity trader and at a much different economic level than we were was visiting and he wanted to eat some good bbq. We brought him to Madden’s place. It wasn’t the torn vinyl seats that caused my appetite to disappear, it was the roaches. The BIL enjoyed the bbq though.
    Not sure there is a moral to the story..maybe Sarah will know.

  82. 82.

    JGabriel

    @General Stuck:

    I did say “reports” of sniper fire. Not anything real.

    Ah. I thought you were fantasizing that we Manhattanites would take care of America’s Sarah problem. Really, the word hippies should have tipped me off. Very few tie-dyes here unless Phish are playing at MSG.

    .

  83. 83.

    Anya

    Why do Republicans love playing weird dress-up? I really would like an answer to my serious question.

  84. 84.

    General Stuck

    All we need is for the motorcycle guys to stab a fan to complete the circle.

    Could this be Sarah Palin’s Altamont?

  85. 85.

    MikeJ

    @Anya: They don’t seem to believe in the efficacy of hard work. They believe that saying the right thing over and over again makes it so. I think it was Fred Clark who labelled believers in the theological flavour of this “Harry Potter Christians”. Say the magic words and good things happen.

    There actually could be some relation between the protestant belief in faith over works and juvenile posturing in politics.

  86. 86.

    Davis X. Machina

    “Sarah Palin”…..

    Sounds familiar. Rings some sort of bell. Is she the answer to a trivia question?

    I’m trying hard to remember, but it’s not working.

    On a related note:

    J Pers Soc Psychol. 2011 May 23. [Epub ahead of print]

    You probably think this paper’s about you: Narcissists’ perceptions of their personality and reputation.

    Carlson EN, Vazire S, Oltmanns TF.

    From the abstract:

    Results bring 3 surprising conclusions about narcissists: (a) they understand that others see them less positively than they see themselves… (b) they have some insight into the fact that they make positive first impressions that deteriorate over time, and (c ) they have insight into their narcissistic personality (e.g., they describe themselves as arrogant).

  87. 87.

    JGabriel

    @Anya:

    Why do Republicans love playing weird dress-up? I really would like an answer to my serious question.

    Costumes/uniforms seem to feature in all fascist movements. The Klan had their robes & hoods, Nazi and Italian Fascists had their brown and black shirts, as did Mosely’s fascist party in the UK.

    The Republicans new-found love of playing dress-up — I don’t remember them being that fetishistic about costumes in 80s or 90s — seems to be another step in their evolution towards full-bore fascism.

    There’s probably some deep psychological reason for this connection between costumes and fascism, but I have no idea what it might be.

    .

  89. 89.

    JCT

    @General Stuck: Maybe she could play the role of Hunter, we should be so lucky at this point.

    What I love about this is the classic Palin fakery — c’mon honey if you’re so fucking authentic ride your own goddam bike.

  90. 90.

    JPL

    @jl: I can’t remember.. It was supposedly a popular place but most folks picked up their order. I did not try it. After my husband and bil ate they brought his girl friend and myself someplace else.
    Bugs and food just didn’t appeal to me.

  91. 91.

    maus

    @Anya: Because the demographics they are trying to reach love to be pandered to and hate voting for people they consider more intelligent than themselves.

  92. 92.

    Jay in Oregon

    As shallow and as vapid and as toxic to the body politic as Sarah Palin is, you have to give equal credit to the “news” organizations that enable her.

    Reading that CBS News article honestly made me feel dirty. Reporters chasing her around the fucking hotel she was staying in? Seriously?

  93. 93.

    maus

    @Jay in Oregon: Of course! She’s a self-generated “media sensation”!

    What’s the difference between one manufactured fad and any another?

    I don’t think there’s really much difference between beanie babies, lady gaga, and Sarah Palin in the media’s eyes.

  95. 95.

    Felinious Wench

    Pretty much the best song ever, rivaled only by a couple others after Exile.

    I owe you guys one. A wonderful earworm replacement.

  96. 96.

    hilts

    Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are going to put out of business because they can’t do a better parody of the MSM than it’s doing of itself.

    John King:

    I’ve been getting e-mails and tweets all day. There is no question Governor Palin is a master of media manipulation. But spend a little time in this little town and you’ll also get a taste of the Palin factor. Look at these pictures we can show you right now. Families waiting for hours some of them eight or nine hours, 100-degree heat almost here to get a glimpse at the biggest remaining wild card in the 2012 presidential race.

    As we continue our conversation here we’re told by our political producer Peter Hammy that Governor Palin — and I don’t want to over-excite the people standing around here — that she has left her hotel and she’s on the move. We think she’s going to buy running socks for Piper in her SUV. That’s what Peter Hammy is telling us, but we will continue to watch this.

    David Gergen:

    This woman, for all of her sort of you know questions about her policies, she has a knack, almost a genius for attracting attention, publicity, stirring people up. And there are a lot of people out here just like her. I mean she is friendly.

    transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1105/30/jkusa.01.html

  97. 97.

    James E. Powell

    @JGabriel:

    There’s probably some deep psychological reason for this connection between costumes and fascism, but I have no idea what it might be.

    Fascism and fascist thrive on mythology and creative history. It forms the narrative that they use as a substitute for reasoning. The costumes, the decorations, the music, it’s all part of the myths that sustain them.

    Reagan and Little Bush were cowboys. But the generations that were raised on westerns as the dominant American myth are passing. The new mythology seems to be military fetish plus angry oppressed white guy.

  98. 98.

    Davis X. Machina

    Shit, at least Mussolini could edit a newspaper.

    We can’t even do incipient fascism right.

  99. 99.

    hilts

    @lamh34:

    So much saliva was coming outta Tweety’s mouth when he was discussing the video of Palin at the biker thing.

    Chris Matthews should retire from MSNBC and just get a fucking room so he can spend all of his waking moments jerking off to Sarah Palin. Matthews has always been a smarmy, drooling idiot but he’s attained a new level of douchebaggery with his delirious, over-the-top observations of how kinetic Palin is and how wonderfully she’s able to modulate the tone of her voice.

  100. 100.

    James E. Powell

    The mostly unspoken fact one infers from the media attention to Sarah Palin is that the declared candidates for the Republican nomination, including especially Mitt Romney, are not able to generate any attention for themselves. Will that fact incline Palin toward running?

  101. 101.

    Anya

    @MikeJ: @maus: Your answers raise more questions that are too horrifying to contemplate right now. My fried from the sun and heat brain, cannot sustain the required energy. Anyway thanks lads.

  103. 103.

    maus

    @hilts: Hah!

    But spend a little time in this little town and you’ll also get a taste of the Palin factor. Look at these pictures we can show you right now. Families waiting for hours some of them eight or nine hours, 100-degree heat almost here to get a glimpse at the biggest remaining wild card in the 2012 presidential race.

    So? Some people are always looking for a hero/messiah.

    If this was a hundred years ago, our lady of Wásilla would have them staring at the sun until their eyes burned away.

  107. 107.

    NamelessGenXer

    All we need is for the motorcycle guys to stab a fan to complete the circle.

    One way or another, this darkness got to give.

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