It looks like Sarah Palin quit on the Tea Party rally on September 3 - or maybe not...

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Sarah Palin canceled her Saturday appearance at a tea party rally in Indianola, Iowa, a person close the former Alaska governor told The Wall Street Journal.

The person cited “continual lying” from event organizers at Tea Party of America, including a recent mixup over whether former U.S. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell of Delaware would also speak.

Later in the same article:

Ms. Palin may still hold an event Saturday, the person said, though she has no firm plans. It’s also possible she could still attend the Indianola tea party rally, the person said.

Is she going? Is she not going? Is it because O'Donnell is going again?

The Tea Party of America call themselves the organizers of the event. Organizers? They don't seem capable of organizing anything!

And maybe Sarah Palin quit again... or not.

Whatever...

Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell - Grifting for America

The teabaggers seem to go by many different names. It's not a single organization and new tea parties pop up here and there all the time...

I googled "tea party" and found teaparty.org, teapartyexpress.org, teapartynation.com, teapartypatriots.org on the first page. I'm sure there are more.

Wikipedia lists some of the supporters of the Tea Party Movement:

The movement has been supported nationally by prominent individuals and organizations, including:

501(c)(4) Non-Profit Organizations:

- Tea Party Patriots, an organization with more than 1,000 affiliated groups across the nation that proclaims itself to be the "Official Home of the Tea Party Movement.
- Americans for Prosperity, an organization founded by David H. Koch in 2003, and led by Tim Phillips. The group has over 1 million members in 500 local affiliates, and led protests against health care reform in 2009.
- FreedomWorks, an organization led Dick Armey. Like Americans for Prosperity, the group has over 1 million members in 500 local affiliates. It makes local and national candidate endorsements.
- Tea Party Express, a national bus tour run by Our Country Deserves Better PAC, itself a conservative political action committee created by Sacramento-based Republican consulting firm Russo, Marsh, and Associates.

For-Profit Businesses:

Tea Party Nation, which sponsored the National Tea Party Convention that was criticized for its $549 ticket price.[103][104][105][106] and because Sarah Palin was apparently paid $100,000 USD for her appearance (which she put towards SarahPAC.)

Informal Organizations and Coalitions:

- The National Tea Party Federation, formed on April 8, 2010, by several leaders in the Tea Party movement to help spread its message and to respond to critics with a quick, unified response.
- The Nationwide Tea Party Coalition, a loose national coalition of several dozen local tea party groups.

Michele Bachmann will be addressing a rally in Des Moines tomorrow, an event organized by the long established Tea Party Express.

Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell will appear at another event on September 3, organized by the newly formed Tea Party of America. One of the co-founders left Herman Cain's campaign to form this new group. Both Palin and O'Donnell took part in earlier Tea Party Express rallies.

I find this teabagging thing very confusing. It looks like a bandwagon, with people jumping on it for reasons that don't appear to be very clear.

The formation of his latest arm of the so called Tea Party, by being associated with two grifters like Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell, may have been motivated by opportunism and greed.

Some people have been talking about Sarah Palin running for a third party, but I can't see all these different groups coming together to form a single party. The organizers of each group would have to get off their individual gravy trains and defer to a single central entity. Also, if they form a party for Sarah Palin's benefit, what would they do with Michele Bachmann?

There must be a deadline for registering a new party in time for the 2012 elections, but I couldn't find much about it.

The Tea Party rhetoric is disruptive and poisonous to the political discourse, but as a party they simply don't exist.

When I started researching this post, I hoped to write something enlightening, but ended up more confused about the whole thing than before...

I suspect that's exactly the goal of the Tea Party Movement: To spread confusion.

Thank you, Tea Party - UPDATE - Thank you, Bush

This video is very good. It was produced just before and released more or less at the same time as Standard & Poor downgraded the US credit rating from AAA to AA+.



S & P said:

The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy.


Of course, the teabaggers won't take responsibility for it, and perhaps we should expect to see Sarah Palin on Fox News blaming Obama...

UPDATE (via Andrew Sullivan). It all started with Bush...

Sarah Palin, Bandwagons and Relaxation

Sarah Palin jumps on the bandwagon:



She jumps off the bandwagon:



Sarah Palin jumps on the bandwagon again:



Sarah Palin was for something before she was against the same thing on a number of occasions, but this birther thing must be getting very tiring...

Literally, a bandwagon is a wagon which carries the band in a parade, circus or other entertainment. [It sounds right to me]



If Sarah Palin gets tired of jumping on and off the birther bandwagon, she could take a relaxing cruise with other birthers. The cruise is to the beautiful state of Alaska, so she could act as a guide!



Sarah should feel very comfortable in the company of so many "patriots"...

The Tea Party and the Billionaires - How the Koch Brothers Manipulate Politics - PLUS: Sarah Palin exploits Pat Tillman's death

The rise of the Tea Party cannot be properly understood without knowing who pulls the strings behind the scenes and provides funding. The Koch brothers came into the spotlight after the publication of a groundbreaking investigative article in the "New Yorker" in August.

Through their organization "Americans For Prosperity (AFP)", the Koch brothers have a huge influence on the Tea Party movement.

Sourcewatch noted about AFP:

"The AFP is the third largest recipient of funding from the Koch Family Foundations, behind the Cato Institute and the George Mason University Foundation. Before 2003, when the AFP was still named the Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation, it received $18,460,912 in funding. 84% of that funding came from the Koch Family Foundations ($12,906,712) and the Scaife Family Foundations ($2,510,000). Koch Family Foundations is funded by Koch Industries. According to Forbes, Koch Industries is the second largest privately-held company, and the largest privately owned energy company, in the United States. Koch industries has made its money in the oil business, primarily oil refining. Presently, it holds stakes in pipelines, refineries, fertilizer, forest products, and chemical technology. Americans for Prosperity is also connected to oil giant ExxonMobil. According to ExxonSecrets, between the years 1998-2001, Citizens for A Sound Economy and Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation received $380,250 from ExxonMobil."

I planned to write about the Koch brothers for a while, but the publication of excellent new footage by the Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham gave me a new idea: Make my own short documentary about the activities of the Koch brothers.

Taki Oldham recently published the documentary "(Astro) Turf Wars" (see the website www.astroturfwars.com here and a PDF-document with further info here) . He obtained unique footage for example of the annual meeting of "Americans For Prosperity", at which the 25 state chapters report to chairman (and oil billionaire) David Koch. One attendee after the other boasts about their achievements of massively supporting the Tea Party movement and organizing events, thus firmly establishing the direct link between the Tea Party movement and "Americans For Prosperity."

This is important, because the Koch brothers previously strictly denied to finance the Tea Party movement. The available evidence, however, seems to prove conclusively the opposite. It is simply disgusting how these billionaires shamelessly exploit the dissatisfaction of US citizens in order to push their anti-regulation, anti-tax agenda. The interests of Koch Industries are clearly NOT the interests of the ordinary teabagger.

Confronted with the new footage in the documentary "(Astro) Turf Wars", the Koch brothers were now forced to change their language regarding the support of the Tea Party, as the Wall Street Journal reports.

You will find this important footage by Taki Oldham at the end of my clip. The clip contains examples of how Americans for Prosperity try to manipulate US voters, through adverts and propaganda at events. Furthermore, the clip contains excellent commentary by the investigative journalist Charles Lewis.

Please watch and send others the link of the clip:

In addition, here is the trailer to Taki Oldham's new documentary "(Astro) Turf Wars":

+++

PLUS:

I am very happy that the short clip I created yesterday with Sarah Palin's remarks during her speech in San Jose about Pat Tillman and Michelle Obama found a wide audience. Geoffrey Dunn used the clip for his excellent post in Huffington Post about Sarah's distasteful remarks, and our friend GottaLaff from "The Political Carnival" posted it as well.

Watch:

From Sarah Jones at politicususa:

"The problem is, Pat Tillman did not believe in God and nor does his family. His brother, Richard, expressed his disgust for people talking about God at Pat’s funeral on Bill Maher’s show just weeks ago. And Pat Tillman did not want to be used as a political weapon and most certainly not as war propaganda. His death was covered up by our military and made to look like Tillman had died “fighting for our country,” when in fact he had been killed by friendly fire. (...)

And Palin shouldn’t go to San Jose and think that just because she’s in the city where Pat lived, she can or should co-opt his death for her pro-war propaganda. Is there nothing sacred in Palin’s mind or heart? Palin thinks her religion trumps everything and everyone else, so much so that she would rather use Pat Tillman’s memory for her own purpose than to be respectful of him and his family.

Furthermore, as she should know (I realize she doesn’t read, but The Tillman Story is in theaters around the country) the Tillmans have a rather large issue with the military for the way they were lied to about their son’s death. They were originally told he died “fighting for his country” but he didn’t. He died by friendly fire.

Why would Sarah Palin go on about how he gave his life for our “freedom”? No, he didn’t Sarah. His life was stolen from him and while we do not know the circumstances, we do know that ‘blue-on-blue’ fatalities account for a significant percentage of all battlefield deaths – a tragedy, a reason to AVOID war if at all possible, not glorify it. Pat himself had decided that he would not have a military burial as he didn’t want his death to be used as a publicity tool."

Richard Tillman talking to Bill Maher - a must-see clip:

In addition, here is Pat's mother Mary Tillman talking to Keith Olbermann in 2008:

+++

PLEASE RE-TWEET:

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/27622857047

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/27623014098

.

What I saw as I wandered through last week's Wasilla Tea Party rally

By Bill Hess - Wasilla, Alaska, by 300

The following is an excerpt from Bill Hess's post: What I saw as I wandered through last week's Wasilla Tea Party rally

Of course, it is always a little bit challenging to remain respectful and civil when right away after you get out of your car and walk into the crowd you come upon the smiling face of a man who is telling you that you have a mental disorder. I know it doesn't really mean anything. It is just rhetoric. Everyone does it. So what the hell. Let him wave his sign.

I wonder, though - why is he wearing Mickey Mouse boots? And why is his friend wearing Bunny Boots? Those boots are designed for 40 below and it was 40 above.

One could develop sweaty feet this way. It still gets pretty cold at night. Maybe they were out all night, setting up.

And you who wave that flag just remember that it is not a conservative flag, it is an American Flag. Yes, wave it with pride, but don't forget that we who see the political situation differently than you do also love that flag - no less than do you.

Never have I felt more proud than I did on that day when I saw that flag draped across my father's casket as he was carried to his grave by six of his fellow warriors. They were much younger than he and I knew that some had fought or soon would fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe one or more would themselves return in a flag-draped coffin.

I looked at those soldiers who carried my father and I felt love - pure love; strong, heart-piercing love. Tears streamed down my face and they were not all tears of grief. There was pride in those tears. Afterward, I thanked them, but I owed them so greatly that I knew my thank you to be vastly inadequate.

Remember after 9/11, how flags few from just about every home, be it occupied by conservative, liberal, middle of the road, unsure?

And then there was that very chilly January 20 of last year, when I stood with my youngest daughter and wife in the midst of two million others on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Two million people, two million flags, all waving, people smiling, people cheering, tears of pride streaming down cheeks - white cheeks, black cheeks, brown cheeks, yellow cheeks, red cheeks; all the cheeks of a diverse America; an America that had become a place of greater equality and thus greater potential than had been the America that I grew up in.

And then, as we waited in the chill for the hour when the man who, under the provisions laid out by the US Constitution had been duly elected as President would be sworn in as Commander-in-Chief, images of Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger appeared on the many gigantic screens spread throughout the the mall. Chilled though they were, two million joined in the song, "this land is your land, this land is my land..." two million flags waved... Powerful! How proud we all were to be Americans. How proud I am to be an American. And how proud I am of the vote that I cast to make what happened that day on our National Mall possible.

Nothing that anyone could say or do or write upon a sign can ever take that pride away.

So wave your flag, but remember: it is not your flag alone - it is OUR flag.

And when you shout, "Patriot," remember that a liberal can be every bit as much a Patriot as any conservative and a conservative can betray his country as quickly as can a liberal. Liberals also wear the uniform. Liberals also shed their blood for America. They die right alongside conservatives, as Americans.

Read the full post HERE.

+++

Many thanks to Bill Hess for giving us permission to post this excerpt! We are big fans of Bill Hess. He has the most amazing posts and pictures. Never have we been able to get better insights into life in Wasilla and Alaska. Please check out his blog!

In addition, I would like to post a fabulous new clip by "New Left Media" - which is a project formed by Chase Whiteside and Erick Stoll, who are currently students at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

This must-see, highly entertaining and revealing footage was taken on April 15, 2010 in Washington D.C.

I just love the clips of these two guys, because it's an excellent example of what citizen's can achieve in the new media world. In their numerous clips, they thoroughly exposed the fans of Sarah Palin and the teabaggers as ignorant, shockingly uneducated and sometimes often as just plain crazy. Easy targets for Fox News, Sarah Palin and the others - rarely have we seen a group of people which basically is screaming to be manipulated, because they just WANT to believe the propaganda which is fed to them.

Amongst other things, this new clip contains a crazy female singer screaming on stage "There is a communist living in the White House", a teabagger who claims that President Obama "considers banning fishing in America" and even a loony British Lord!

.

Exclusive report and pictures from the "Boston Tea Party rally" with Sarah Palin - April 14, 2010 - UPDATE!

By Blueberry Tart

Blueberry Tart here, a long-time Bostonian reporting to my friends at Palingates from the Teabagger event in Boston. Today was my turn to be the boots on the ground. I have actually been debating about whether to go to the rally for at least a month, and almost chickened out when I couldn’t get any of my friends to join me. But, inspired by those of you who have stood up to protest Sarah Palin at earlier events, I decided today was my turn to take one for the team.

But how? First I thought I might bring a big protest sign with some pithy comment about Sarah and the Teabaggers (sounds like a bad rock band). I also debated about street theater. Finally, I settled on something a little more surreptitious: small posters to put up in various strategic locations near and at Boston Common. Several went on walls and posts along corridors in the subway station at the edge of Boston Common and a few went in the entrances to the parking garage under Boston Common. I even managed to tape one to the Tea Party Express’s table AND to their travelling white board (it’s on a trailer, and people sign their names to it) AND to the Tea Party Express bus! I also put one into the backpack of a woman who was aggressively signing up TP recruits. (TP is a good acronym for what they stand for!) And, I gave a few out to people after talking with them a bit at the event. It was kind of fun to post them in these places, to gain a little visibility for the truth about Sarah.

Now to the rally itself. I would guess that there were a few thousand people at the rally, and there were quite a few vendors selling buttons, T-shirts and other items, food, etc. so it made for a festive atmosphere. And it was a beautiful day in Boston – lucky for the organizers! There was a lot of patriotic music and über-patriotic speeches; in fact, most of the speeches and songs were about our troops, how “freedom isn’t free” and about several soldiers who had died. One speaker, Debbie Lee, spoke of her son as “that young man [who] willingly gave his life.” I wondered why this was specifically a TP theme, as I am quite sure that many soldiers, including those who have given their lives, are not or were not tea-bag types. Someone said something along the lines of “they say you are racist, angry and violent; that’s why I love you.” Another speaker talked about how his parents had earned the money that he is apparently living off, and how “his parents worked too hard to have the government take it away – they will have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers.” I couldn’t help but think that maybe he should have to work for a living himself rather than live off what his parents earned. One line (Sarah will say this next week) was “if you can read this bumper sticker, thank a teacher; if you can read this bumper sticker in English, thank the armed services.” Huh?

There were lots of “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, again co-opting a symbol of the American Revolution.

Amazingly enough, the setup of the stage and the huge number of media covering the event made it almost impossible for people in the crowd to actually see the speakers. (I’ve been at quite a few rallies at that same location over the years, and though this one was one of the smaller ones I’ve attended, it had by far the most press coverage – many, many media trucks lined up.



There was a VIP area right in front, then a platform with wall-to-wall press, so they blocked the view for many people in the crowd. And, in a technical glitch that may be a tangible sign of a merciful god, the sound during Sarah’s speech was terrible! Even though I had no trouble hearing the other speakers, she was often unintelligible – not just because of the usual gibberish, but because of the poor sound. Maybe there was a dead spot where I was standing at that time – right in the center in front of the stage, about 6-7 rows of people back...I can’t imagine how they could have their featured speaker sound so garbled. (Oh wait, what am I saying ;-)) Her speech was actually pretty short – maybe 20 minutes? Sounded like the usual pandering to the local scene (great sports tradition of the Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox yada yada), talking points about needing less government bureaucracy and more competiton, etc. At that point a helicopter flew over, drowning out part of her speech. Divine intervention, perhaps.

The crowd was almost all white. I walked around to all areas, and I actually only saw two black guys in the rally crowd itself. I found my way through the crowd to stand next to one of them, and after a few minutes I whispered to him, “do you support Sarah Palin and the teabaggers?” and he said “Not at all; I am here because I have been seeing news stories about them and I wanted to see for myself what this is all about.” Interestingly, he said that without knowing if I was a teabagger or not. While I was standing next to him, I thought the people to my left, a man and his teenaged son, were teabaggers. However, when Sarah Palin said something like “they are speaking down to us,” the man made a snarky comment about not being able to go lower than Palin, and his son became quite talkative about what an idiot he thought she was. I gave him one of my flyers (the detailed one), so he may visit Palingates – if so, hi again, and welcome! His father also made a comment about how her God was apparently on the side of “old Christian male white people.”

The crowd did have some diversity in other respects. There were quite a few women (maybe 2/3 men to 1/3 women) and also a fair number of younger folks – some teenagers, 20s, quite a few in their 30s and 40s. My guesstimate would be 60% with gray-white hair, 40% not. My totally subjective guess as to demographics is 90% suburban, mostly middle class, some upper middle.

There were quite a few counter-protesters, some of whom were together and others who did not seem to belong to any group, but nevertheless had come with signs saying what they thought of Sarah or the teabaggers or both. I took photos of some of these folks, and thanked them all for showing up and taking a public stand. I mingled in the crowd and heard some interesting conversations – clearly there were quite a few folks who were “infiltrating” the rally trying to engage the baggers in conversation. There were a few respectful debates, so that seemed good. I listened to one conversation where the bagger constantly responded to the other person’s questions with another question. The only nasty exchange I saw was when one of the men staffing the Tea Party Express table started yelling at a man about not taking away his Constitutional rights. He was very agitated, to the point where one of the others behind the table had to calm him down. The other man never raised his voice and could barely get a word in edgewise. He was so obnoxious that I decided to tape one of my Sarah flyers to his table (it was still there about 20 minutes later, but was torn off by the time I left the rally later).

This is the agitated teabagger.

Here are some photos of counter-protesters at the rally – kudos to them for having the courage to do this and hats off for many of the great signs:

I think the woman holding the sign in this last photo may be a Palingater…

+++

UPDATE (by Patrick):

Please see our previous post for more pictures of anti-Palin protestors with very funny signs at the Tea Party Express rally in Boston!

More hilarious new pictures from Boston in another collection HERE.

Many reader asked for a copy of the flyer that our poster "Blueberry Tart" handed out at the Tea Party rally. Our poster was very happy to send us the PDF copy, and I made it available for download HERE. It is an excellent flyer and you are all welcome to use it. Maybe you have ideas for improvements, which we would be happy to publish.

Please also have a look at this excellent article in the Daily Kos with great pictures discussing the number of attendees that turned up at the "Tea Party Express" rally in Boston. 10,000 people were "expected", and just about 1,000-3,000 actually attended the rally.

Another fun story about Boston: "The Tea Party Prank: How I Got My Butt Kicked (Literally), Just a Few Feet Away From Sarah Palin" (h/t austintxx)

+++

UPDATE 2 (by Patrick):

I think Keith Olbermann spoke for many us when he twittered yesterday:

+++

UPDATE 3 (by Patrick):

Obama supporters ("the other 95%) crash Tea Party rally in Washington DC today. Read the story on Huffington Post.

You can join them: Website of "the other 95%"

Video:

+++

Meanwhile, there are great news from Austin, Texas:

Last year: 5,000 people demonstrated there for the Tea Party.

This year: The incredible amount of 200 people!

Still enough reason for the media to report about it: Check out this local NBC news report.

+++

More news: What was going on in Oklahoma today? Well, the media hype is everywhere - here is an even more "agitated" TV news report. They say that last year also 5,000 people attended the rally in Oklahoma City - and this year? The TV news report doesn't mention it, but what I found on the internet were estimates between 500 to 1,000 people, and it surely looked liked that.

There is more: The Oklahoma Tea Party plans to form their own milita! See another very informative post HERE.

What could possibly go wrong with this plan...?

+++

In addition, Fox News and Sean Hannity discover the pitfalls of a "for-profit" Tea Party movement:

"Fox News has canceled Sean Hannity’s plans for a live Tea Party show in Cincinnati tonight after officials found out that their primetime talent was being used to sell tickets. Hannity has been hosting his show from various tea party rallies across the country lately in front of a live audience, but today his program was ordered to return to New York.

Apparently, Fox News officials were not notified that Hannity’s image would be used for profit. Not only were ticket prices determined relative to distance from Hannity himself, Hannity’s name was used to promote the rally, set at the University of Cincinnati."

(h/t honestyingov)

.

Internal Implosion in the RNC as Top Fundraiser Palin Bails on Them

Article by Sarah Jones - Cross posted from Politicususa

Palin Demands RNC Take Her Name Off of Fundraisers


Extremist Palin is all the RNC has left

It seems Sister Sarah is too pristine to associate with the likes of the RNC (bondage themes aside, as she remains their Mistress of Scold). And while many are saying this is a bad move on her part, it’s actually more of the same quite successful tactics she has been using to get elected since she started her political career with around 600 votes back in Wasilla.

CNN reports:

“Though Palin will speak on Friday at the SRLC, a gathering of top Republican officials and an early cattle call for potential 2012 presidential candidates, the former Alaska governor will not be participating in any RNC fundraising event, a Palin adviser told CNN.”

Palin specializes in the “I can’t associate with the Good Old Boys because they are corrupt, so I will damage my own career to take a stand!” move. And of course, the people are always so impressed by the spunky mom with a heart of gold that they rush to vote for her without ever checking her record. Ironically and predictably, she has consistently been guilty of the very accusations she has leveled at others.

But Sarah is the RNC’s biggest fundraiser. The RNC has built itself on image since their Reagan heyday, and the false narrative built around W as a “rancher” (on a non-working ranch) and “Texan” (east coast elite) was so successful they managed to hoodwink the country twice into “electing” him.

You know what they say: “Live by the sword, die by the sword.” The RNC is still pushing the same strategy; picking Palin to replace Hillary because they are both women (the similarities stop there). Picking Steele to counter our first half African-American president (Steele is no Obama). Pushing family values when their leaders have spent the last few years in the headlines for decidedly un-family values activities.

Their Orwellian use of language came to its inglorious head during the W administration with the “WMD” false narrative, which was carefully rolled out, one lie at a time until an entire war was justified in the mind of the public. Rove, who dropped out of college after two years, was credited with this “genius”. Yes, it worked. For a while. But the Republicans seem to have slept through the dawning age of Politifact, FactCheck.org, and most damning, YouTube. It was inevitable that their strategy of lying to the people would come home to roost.

Steele has humiliated them over and over again; between his campaign finance investigations and now the bondage nightclub there were gaffes a plenty. Remember the backwards hat and the reference to fried chicken?

Palin has pushed them into an extremist position, which is frankly unelectable should the general public get wind of exactly what these folks stand for. Her rallies remind me of the ancient games at the Colosseum, best known for bonding the people in an “us versus them” mentality via savage human executions and exploitation of the proletarian desire for retribution.

But they can’t fire Steele. They can’t fire their token African American. Can they?

They can’t dump Palin, even after her cross-hair targets. She’s their biggest brand, even if she is toxic to their long-term electability.

This is a classic result of years of running on fake narratives and standing for nothing other than fleecing the people. There are no values they can claim that they haven’t repeatedly violated and failed to address. So they are stuck with false narratives, slick images and Poster People. There isn’t an authentic conservative of the people to be found among their leaders. Not one.

Inevitably, these Poster People end up standing for nothing that the RNC claims they represent (Steele does not represent minorities in any real political way and Palin is as anti-woman as you can get without reaching back into history), and yet they have amassed great power.

The inmates are running the asylum.

And Sister Sarah has a keen nose for opportunities like this one. Palin was wily and clever to remove her name from the RNC fundraiser. She knows her base loves to think of her as standing up to the good old boys; their task-master in tight skirts, whipping the corrupt into shape as she bakes a pie for her beloved family and special needs prop. Yes, this is her moment to shine. She’s going to kick this door wide open whether God wants her to or not. Watch out, RNC.

The Palin bus has savagely run over those who backed her, supported her, and got her where she is today. She has no loyalty. She will stab the RNC in the back (just as she stabbed McCain, the Democrats who got her legislation passed in Alaska, her Republican supporters like Andree McLeod, her own legislative aides like Frank Bailey) while flashing her too-white, all-American smile for her base.

Of course, she will make a big deal about how she is on the “outside of the machine”. Never mind the levers she’s pulling as she pockets her glory. She’s a modern day heroine for the disaffected. Her carefully crafted and never-investigated narrative (this is their own fault, remember how they accused anyone who dared to question her record of being “sexist”?) way outshines their dusty old RNC jingles now.

Who does the RNC have without her? Steele? Santorum? Jindal? Mitt?

Not a rock star among them. And so the fall of the RNC begins, brought on by an excessive belief in their ability to lie to the people and it appears as if it will be brought to fruition by their own Frankensteinian creation. This is the inevitable result of the kind of sleazy cowardice that has run the RNC for the past ten years at least.

They stand for nothing and that’s why their monsters are eating them alive from the inside. This is, of course, bad for America. It’s bad for democracy. And it’s a depressing commentary on our consumerist culture. Not to mention, it leaves a window of opportunity for a Naughty Monkey clad toe to wedge itself further into our political arena.
.

Sarah Palin is an opportunist - cynical and dangerous

Aides to Sarah Palin have asked the Republican National Committee to remove her name from an invitation that suggests she might attend a series of committee fundraising events timed to coincide with next week's Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans.

Though Palin will speak on Friday at the SRLC, a gathering of top Republican officials and an early cattle call for potential 2012 presidential candidates, the former Alaska governor will not be participating in any RNC fundraising event, a Palin adviser told CNN.

It's difficult to make sense of the moves made by Sarah Palin's camp. Some decisions and statements from former aides were already a bit chaotic, but Meg Stapleton seemed more predictable. Since Meg was pushed under the bus by Jason Recher, things have become even more puzzling.

We have to keep jumping back and forth to guess what the master plan might be. What's driving the bus forward? Politics? Money? Religion?

Sarah Palin went rogue on purpose. Without any particular allegiance, she can slip into whatever mode seems more profitable at the time. She supported some Republican candidates and became the Queen of the Teabaggers, pushing her simplistic anti-government agenda. She tried to be the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan, but hasn't mentioned his name in a long time, so perhaps that didn't work out very well.

Sarah Palin has been exploring a number of different avenues since she quit as governor for the good of Alaska. Author, Fox News contributor, TV presenter, speaker, Facebook blogger, twitterer. Her main aim is to stay in the headlines. If a controversy is not readily available, she creates one. And she has props for each occasion. Her family, Alaska, the Republicans, the Teabaggers, God, unborn children, Israel, the military... they are all props.

SarahPac made some eleventh hour token donations to political candidates in order to justify its existence, but in reality it seems to be a nice piggy bank for Sarah Palin and her cronies.

Sarah Palin is a cynical opportunist. If she made her money in the same way as Octomom or the Gosselins, if she grew an extra head and became a freakshow, if she decided to fake another fifteen pregnancies for a reality show, if she made millions of dollars from any of these things, all would be well. The problem is that politics is her main theme. That's why she's dangerous.



This following was no.5 in the top ten 2009 editorial cartoons in the TIME annual competition:



Sarah Palin already appears in several other categories. I hope her targets and inflammatory rhetoric won't find their way into some sinister list in 2010.



She's not the only dangerous person around but seems to be one of the most pernicious and high profile among many. Others may have genuine concerns and are driven by their fears. Sarah Palin's sole motivation appears to be money and she doesn't care about the consequences of her poisonous statements, it's all about her bank balance...

Take the money away and Sarah Palin, with her "servant's heart," would sit down and shut up very quickly.

(Our friend Ennealogic has a very good and very graphic analysis of Sarah Palin's metaphors)
.

Sarah Palin runs out of steam in Nevada, and hecklers experience the limits of freedom of speech - UPDATE! Letter from "heckler" Ethan Elder!

Sarah Palin had a busy day. In the morning, she campaigned in Arizona together with John McCain. For them, the event didn't go as planned. During her speech, Sarah Palin was heckled - twice. When the first heckling happened, her voice immediately changed to that of a mean schoolgirl with the high-pitched sound we know all too well:

The heckler, Ethan Elder from Arizona, was brutally removed from the hall. Here is a picture:

UPDATE!

We have a new video showing the heckling and the removal of Ethan Elder - and this time, it's even more shocking! It becomes much clearer how aggressively the crowd behaved towards Ethan - mob rule! The video includes some annotations by a Palinbot. Watch (I recommend full screen!):



ANOTHER UPDATE!

A new video has emerged, which shows even better how violently Ethan Elder, who was walking to the exit already at this point, was grabbed by Palin's and McCain's supporters and then removed from the hall.

Ethan also told me in an email-message today that he is considering a lawsuit because of the violation of his rights. I would say, go for it, Ethan!

He also told me today that he and his friend Alex are very happy about the strong support coming from the blogsphere.

As it turns out, he was there together with a second young man called Alex who later heckled Sarah Palin during her speech again. Here is the video of the second heckler being wrestled to the ground, subdued, arrested and escorted away:

ABC15.com has more details:

"But just as Palin took the podium, hecklers began to disrupt the former Alaska governor.

Witnesses said one of the hecklers was pulled up by the hair by a McCain/Palin supporter.

As the man -- who said his name is Alex -- was taken out of the auditorium, he is seen in video being tackled by three men, one identified as a police officer in plain clothes, a man in a McCain T-shirt, and another man.

Witnesses say another protestor was also punched by someone in the crowd.

Ethan Elder was taken into custody by police, but was later released.

Police say no arrests were made and nobody is facing charges.

"I shouted my message. My intention was to speak my political opinion and leave peacefully," Elder said. "I was immediately assaulted by the crowd. They turned angry and belligerent."

Some protestors complained that the Palin/McCain supporters who attacked them were not taken into custody or charged by police.

Meantime, McCain supporters called some of the protestors rude and wondered why they would attend a rally for McCain if they don't agree with him.

Alex said the group of detractors went to the rally with the intent of disrupting Saturday's event."

On the first youtube video above which I posted in my "doublegrandmapalin" youtube account, Ethan Elder aka "azcarpetman" commented 3 hours ago:

"Let me just say that I was the who shouted "He sold us to the corporations in the bail out bill" I was physically assaulted and put into a choke hold by fans. Then i was led outside and cuffed. I was not charged with anything. My friend is in the other video being arrested as well. People need to wake up."

I believe that this comment is genuine. UPDATE: An internet search has confirmed that "azcarpetman" is indeed Ethan Elder, the first heckler! His friend Alex in the second video shouted "I hate Obama. I don't like Obama. I'm a libertarian!", therefore it's obvious that these protesters don't consider themselves to be liberals, but neither are they McCain supporters. It's rather telling that the hecklers were libertarians, as these people are sometimes regarded as the "real" teabaggers. Sarah Palin and John McCain however claimed in their speeches today that the teabaggers are part of the Republican party - and therefore they try to "suffocate" the teabaggers at the same time. The brutal treatment of these protesters is almost symbolic.

It doesn't matter for us whether these protesters are libertarians or Obama fans. Their treatment was despicable. Sarah Palin and her faithful Palinbots have no interest in freedom of speech. You have the right to hail Queen Sarah - if you don't agree with her, you could face a rough time. I was pretty shocked, as were some of our commenters on Palingates today, that the crowd in Arizona in the morning was in a "nazi like frenzy". Where is this supposed to lead? This looked like the competition "Who is the biggest demagogue in town".

In the afternoon, Sarah Palin spoke in Nevada, in Harry Reid's district, and she delivered what was one of the worst speeches of her career. It was clearly not her day, and she tried her best to spew as much vitriol at the "Obama/Pelosi/Reid gang" as she could. Her voice was a mess, her talking points were moronic, she was glued to her script, and I am pretty sure that Harry Reid had a good laugh:

+++

UPDATE:

On his facebook, Ethan Elder gives more details about what happened and about his opinions, - and he clearly is not publicity shy ;-) His facebook also confirms that he has libertarian views.

Some of his comments from today:

"Watch!!!!!! ALEX AND I ARRESTED AND ASSAULTED AT MCCAIN RALLY!!! WAKE UP!! WATCH MY INTERVIEW AND OTHER VID. IT WILL BE ON NEWS."

"This is me yelling at palin. I said "John Mccain sold us out to the corporations in the bail out bill" Then as i tried to leav, i was attacked by the attendees. They put me in a choke hold until unmarked cops came and cuffed me. Wake up people, watch the news for my interview."

"Alex and I protested and heckled mccain and palin. This is what happens to us. More to come. Watch the news. Wake up america, the movment is beggining"

This was the "public preparation" on facebook for the events today:

"Anyone want to crash john Mccain and Sarah Palins rally this saturday at Dobson High. The more the better. Lets give this neo-con some quality advice. I cant wait to see him stammer in frustration in front of the whole audience lmfao!!! I'm serious though so dont tell me you will come if you wont."

"you want to join anthony? We are up to nine people so far. At staggared intervals we could interrupt his entire speech. Mccain is a self-righteos lying turncoat son of a bitch. Palin is his ignorant celebrity gimp for arousing bored christian mothers"

"crash them! lol. it would be hard on your lonesome. Im talking to my frineds parents today who are hardcore libeterians that might come to. they support either way."

UPDATE 2:

A few hours ago, I contacted "azcarpetman" Ethan Elder over youtube. At this point I was still asking for a confirmation of his identity, which is now not in doubt any more.

I am happy to say that Ethan Elder just responded to me, and the following is what he wrote (unedited). Thanks a lot, Ethan! Here is his message:

"Hi Patrick

Please excuse the grammatical and syntax errors as I have been responding to people all day. I guess I'll start with introductions. I am Ethan Elder, a freshman at ASU majoring in Industrial Engineering. As far as proof goes, you are free to look at my facebook page. Also, abc15.com covered the event with a less slanted angle and included my name. My friend and I do not support either the Democrats or the Republicans. If you could, please make it clear that I am in no way a Obama Supporter.

I attended the rally to voice my opinion peacefully. I feel that John Mccain represents a neoconservtive movement that has infiltrated the republican party and tainted conservative principles. The exact words I yelled out was : "He( mccain) sold us to the corporations in the bail out bill". I yelled several more times in response to Palins dismissal and then attempted to leave. I was then attacked by the nearby supporters arround me. I was pulled, shoved and punched in multiple directions and then a man came up from behind and put me in a headlock. I nearly past out, but wasnt concerned about that (to tell you the truth I was glad that they exposed their immaturity and irrationality).

I assaulted no one, and used no explicit language inside the building. One of the men who came up and grabbed me was an unmarked cop ( the man without a hat) and led me out. I was then thrown to the ground and arrested in the same manner as my friend. I was confused because since the cops failed to identify themselves till later, I had no idea who they were. Again, only one unmarked cop grabbed me from inside. The rest were Angy protesters.

I could of pressed charges for assault but chose not to. After i left and the speech continued, my friend yelled out as well after Palin remarked on the deficit. he said from something along the lines of "The war on terror is whats putting us in debt". He was then also attacked by the crowd and thrown outside. My local nbc news channel has an exccellent angle of the physical assaults he recieved inside from the attendees. We also have a video from the other end of the bleachers of him we have yet to compile and post. We were detained there, then we were both released without any charges. As for my motivations? Mccain is a neocon. Palin is as well. They do not represent conservative values. They preach war mongering and fallacious misconstrued information about there involvement with the financial collapse. This is just a summary, I would be willing to provide a more adequate account concering my motivations however if you have any specific questions."

+++

UPDATE 3:

Want to see some REAL hecklers? Just take a look at the teabaggers, Sarah Palin's crowd. They love to exercise their right of free speech, love to scream at members of Congress, harrass them and to spit on them. Spit on them? Well, Fox News didn't believe it, and Tea Party groups offered a $ 15k reward for proof of the incident!

It looks like they will have to cough up the money - Huffington Post now released the video of the incident:

The teabaggers are a mob, nothing else - free speech only applies to them. See what happens if somebody shows dissent - they DO NOT appreciate it at all:

+++

UPDATE 4:

I just spotted something. On the video with the spitting incident I just posted above, from about 2:20 onwards, you can clearly see a flag in the background which is a variation of the original nazi swastika flag. These type of flags are very popular amongst neo nazis so that they don't have to display the real swastika - it's a code:

This flag or a variant which is very, very close has actually been used at a violent incident in Los Angeles before, as we learn from this educational website about flags.

Here is a comparison between the already know nazi-symbol (as explained on this website) and the flag that was shown at the teabaggers rally in Washington (many thanks to EyeOnYou!):

+++

EDIT:

I was forced to make an addition to "update 4" because I have seen in comments which were left on the "Congressman spitting" youtube video and also on blogs that some people persistently claim that the flag in the background is not a nazi flag, but the state flag of Tennessee!

Well, here is the state flag of Tennessee - does it look ANYTHING like that? Do you people need new glasses or what? Look:

Anybody who still claims that the flag in the background is the state flag of Tennessee has to be either blind or ignorant...

(end of edit)

+++

Why am I not surprised?

But Sean Hannity would probably say now: "What? This good American just doesn't discriminate against the color red and was creative!"
.

Tea Party Clowns Parrot Sarah Palin on Healthcare - UPDATE

By Kathleen

The circus comes to town....great clips of elephants, just listen to the clowns.

For more excellent videos, please visit "www.newleftmedia.com".

"Control, government control, Government won't listen to us, losing our country, tyranical dictators" - all Sarah's talking points neatly rhymed off. But ask them what their specific problems are with the Health Care Bill and they will say "I don't know" or "Obama care is euthanasia - it's rationing" or "I don't even know what's in the bill, per se".

The clowns are content to listen to “titbits” but they are not interested in facts. They don’t believe that Obama adheres to the constitution or that he was a constitutional lawyer but they do believe that the Bill advocates Sarah's death panels or that Glenn Beck's principles are the “truth”

Glenn Beck's "Nine Principles":

1. America is good.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

(click here watch the clip of this photo session

with Glenn Beck's fake tears)

The interviewer, Chase Whiteside, points out that not every person in America believes in God. I guess that that fact alone will make it difficult for some to follow Glenn's “truth”. What rights will unbelievers have in the Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin's America?

The Tea Party wants to “take America back”. From what and from whom? It’s my reading of their ideas that they would prefer a country run along the lines of a theocracy and my view is that they are the ones who want to give America away to the theocrats.

The fact is that the Health Care Bill has not been rushed through – various versions of Health Care reform in America have been debated on for years and it’s time for the US to finally take a stand and vote on the reform, no matter what the outcome.

(h/t to our reader wayofpeace for the video!)

+++

UPDATE (by Patrick):

I have just discovered that "newleftmedia" put up a "b-roll" of their former interviews with Tea Party demonstrators in October 2009. I have never seen this clip before - it's also great!



In addition, these two clips have been mentioned in the comments and will give you lots of laughs for the weekend:

- Jon Stewart with the ultimate Glenn Beck parody: "Conservative Libertarian" (via "freerangetalk")

- A hilarious satirical encounter between Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

Have fun!

+++

UPDATE 2:

Here is an amazing clip of a very, very brave man - protesting the protesting teabaggers: "Public Option Now!"



There you have your right of free speech, teabaggers!

+++

UPDATE 3:

A reader sent us an eyewitness report from the demonstration by teabaggers protesting the healthcare bill which took place today in Washington D.C.:

One of the first comments I read this afternoon made reference to Rep. Cantor's statement about crowds at the demonstration held today at the Capitol. Well, here's an eyewitness account. I was having one of my usual walks in Our Fair City this afternoon. First, I ambled through LaFayette Park, where, indeed, as your commenter pointed out, groups had gathered on the anniversary of the beginning of the war in Iraq.

But that crowd is not the point of this message.

I then walked down Constitution Avenue, stopping at the corner of First Street, from which location I had an excellent view of the gathering on the Hill. (I would go no closer because I make it a point not to expose myself to the people who attend such events.) At approximately noon, the crowd had filled about one-quarter of the front lawn (only the area directly in front of the building) that runs from the Capitol to First Street.

I have lived in Washington for 58 years, and I have seen massive crowds of people gathered here for a variety of reasons. Just as an example, the people who marked Solidarity Day in 1991 filled the entire lawn in front of the Capitol, both its east and its west side lawns, and the entire National Mall, from the Capitol to the grounds of the Washington Monument at 16th Street. I am sure I need not remind people of the huge numbers who attended better-remembered events, such as the march at which Dr. King delivered his "I have a dream" address.

Today, there were a few thousand people in attendance -- I am being generous in my estimate.

Not exactly impressive. Maybe it's just because I've been here a lot longer than Rep. Cantor.

Keep this in mind when they start circulating the bogus photos of the "massive crowds."
.

Sarah Palin's affair with the Tea Party is over - she cashed in her $100,000 and said good bye.

Examiner commented on Sarah Palin's speech in Arkansas:

Yesterday at an event hosted by the Arkansas Republican Party, Sarah Palin told the audience that the Tea Party is not strong enough to field its own candidates on a Tea Party ticket so they need to pick a Party, preferably the Republican Party.

"Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party," Palin said. "Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’."

Sarah Palin is a shameless opportunist and is using the Tea Party movement as yet another political prop. She spins and lies to suit her own needs.

Sarah Palin answering pre-approved questions after her speech in Arkansas

She said about her fee to speak at the Tea party convention:

"The speaker's fee will go right back into the cause. I'll be able to donate it to people and those events, those things that I believe in, that will help perpetuate the message, the message being: Government, you have constitutional limits. You better start abiding by them."

Sarah Palin made sure she had enough wriggle room when she said that. The teabaggers believed she would use the money to support their candidates. They do have candidates...

Palin marginalized the Tea Party with her saying that they are not capable of running their own candidate and then ridicules them some more by saying that its time to pick either the “R” or the “D”. Palin knows that they have already qualified candidates in some States such as Nevada where the Tea Party is now recognized and they are running their own candidate against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

So, Sarah didn't commit to supporting any particular party, but has consistently endorsed and campaigned Republican candidates, apart from Rand Paul. The only reason she supports and donates to any candidates at all is to justify her SarahPac, a great money earner for herself and her "consultants".

The sentence "I'll be able to donate it to people and those events, those things that I believe in" really means that she will keep the money, thank you very much, because the only thing she believes in is her growing bank account. Perhaps she realized she can make more money from the Republicans...
.