Sarah Palin and her Lack of Humility. America's Enduring Strength Video

Without a hint of true regret Sarah Palin released a video on Facebook which barely acknowledged the full tragedy of the event on Saturday which involved the killing of six people, the wounding of many others and an assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords which has left her critically injured. Within hours of the shooting, significant criticism was directed at Sarah Palin’s 2010 election campaign “Take Back the Twenty”. The campaign comprised of bombastic statements such as “Don’t Retreat, Reload” and a map with symbols that resembled gunsight icons on it which was swiftly removed from SarahPac’s website shortly after news of the shooting broke. Since Saturday the suggestions in the media have been that heightened political rhetoric employed by Palin’s campaign may have resulted in a charged atmosphere which encouraged violent action against a politician. Sarah Palin flatly rules out such implications by stating that the responsibility for the violence belongs solely with “a single evil man” and that crimes are the responsibility of the person who commits them. No one else is to blame.

After a brief expression of sympathy for the victims and without referencing Rep. Gifford’s present critical condition, Sarah launched her denial. She made sure that she had her prop flag and her prop flag pin in place. Ronald Reagan, The Founding Fathers and American exceptionalism were invoked and the media soundly rebuked. She stated that she had spent the last few days “reflecting what happened and praying for guidance”. Mouth set and eyes fixed on the teleprompter she quickly took a swipe at the criticism that she has faced since the shootings when she said “I listened at first puzzled, then with concern, and now with sadness, to the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event.”

Moving on, Palin voices the concern that the media has conjured up false allegations about her that amount to a “blood libel”. “But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.” This is a somewhat curious accusation against her critics that suggests that she is being falsely persecuted and that she too is a victim. I find the suggestion that Sarah Palin is a victim in this situation reprehensible. Why does Sarah always have to make every situation about her? Why is it so difficult for Sarah Palin to accept any amount of responsibility for her actions? Does accountability mean nothing to her?

Sarah Palin had the opportunity to present herself to the American people as Presidential material; instead she retreated into true Palin victim mode. She could have accepted the fact that perhaps she shouldn’t have used symbols that appear to target people and manufacture images of violence because there will always be some people who may take her at her word. She could have accepted that she is a politician and as such she is responsible for the imagery that she promotes and that the media and the American people will hold her accountable when she does so. Until she understands that humility is an honourable virtue and a true trait in a leader then she should never consider offering herself to the American people as a possible Presidential candidate.

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Andrew Sullivan explains what is so menacing about Sarah Palin

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PLEASE RE-TWEET:

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/25314950813581313

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/25315784737693696

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/25316705454530561

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Major revelation: "Off-the-record" emails of journalists from 2008 released, discussing Sarah Palin's possible pregnancy hoax ("JournoList") - UPDATE!

"The Daily Caller" currently releases on an almost daily basis the leaked email correspondence from the "JournoList" email conversations, which happened during the last Presidential election. "JournoList" was a network of liberal journalists and academics in which they discussed policies "off-the-record" and, more controversially, sometimes agreed on certain "lines". Andrew Sullivan for example recently harshly criticized this (now defunct) network and accused them of "organizing a media narrative." He gives an example how this network tried to fix certain "lines" in their reporting.

Now we have real sensation: From August 30 to September 1, 2008, members of this network discussed in detail Sarah Palin's "mysterious" pregnancy with Trig. The general public in the USA has never ever heard before that journalists in the MSM ever had any kind of suspicions about the pregnancy. Even with the very limited information that was available on August 31 to September 1, 2008, several participants in the discussion express serious doubts whether the pregnancy really happened or whether Sarah Palin was telling the truth about the pregnancy. In the end the journalists decided "not to go there" for several reasons, some of them nonsensical, such as:

"On a plane you stand an excellent chance that one or more woman who have had several children can be a big help–not to mention the possibility of a doctor or a midwife"

and

"If you think about it, going into labor on a plane is not the worst thing–much preferable, say, to going into labor in a subway (too dirty) or a cab (only one person too help you.) or a car (with your husband in a total panic.)"

and

"The fact that her water broke does Not mean that she was in labor."

and

"None of this tells us what was going on with Palin. Nor is it any of our business."

...which are all direct quotes by Maggie Mayar, who is a "health care expert" at Politico.

Regarding these astonishing statements by Maggie Mayar I would also like to point out that the RGA convention on April 16 & 17, 2008 took place in the luxurious Gaylord Texan Hotel in Dallas, as we know for example from Sarah Palin's official schedule.

The award-winning, top-notch and very posh Baylor Regional Medical Center in Dallas, which has a NICU, was just an eight-minute drive away from the hotel!

From Google Maps:

Extremely interesting are for example the remarks in the emails by the investigative reporter Lindsay Beyerstein (please note that through an editorial mistake by the Daily Caller, these comments were first attributed to Harold Pollack - below you will now find the correct version. Originally the Daily Caller left out a part of the conversation by mistake and mixed two email messages together):

The fact that the governor is a public figure cuts both ways, ethically. On the one hand, it’s more embarrassing to have your unplanned pregnancy make headlines in the Alaska papers. But the alternative seems far worse. By sparing her daughter the short-lived embarrassment of a scandal, the governor would be committing her to a lifetime of complicity in a high stakes deception that, if revealed, could destroy her mother’s career and possibly much more besides. The stress of living that lie would be almost unthinkable–given how fragile any conspiracy of silence would have to be. Private citizens can abandon fictions when they are no longer necessary, or break the silence to the people closest to them. Whereas, a public family would commit itself to lying to everyone indefinitely. Imagine the damage this could do to relationships. Suppose the daughter comes to regret giving up her child. She can’t tell the truth now without destroying her mother’s career.

Claiming your daughter’s baby as your own isn’t just a one-off verbal denial at a press conference. A maternity hoax would require various kinds of fraud which would probably include suborning medical misconduct, falsification of medical and legal records, etc. Teen pregnancy, however awkward, just isn’t a good enough excuse in this day and age.

Holly Yeager from the American Prospect also has sharp observations:

I agree that it would be astonishing. But I think it’s quite possible – on this, or some other drama or two – that Palin got away with something in Alaska and so didn’t bother to mention it to the McCain gang. She has spent virtually her entire life in Alaska, and surely underestimates the scrutiny she is now under.

The investigative reporter Lindsay Beyerstein remarks again:

However, if some reporter thinks this rumor is worth investigating further, and he or she absolutely nails this story, that would be great.

If I had the smoking gun, I’d proudly publish the evidence. (I don’t think the story is plausible enough to bother looking, but that’s a separate question.)

Anyone who decided to raise her granddaughter as her daughter is a liar and a hypocrite, not to mention an abuser of two generations of children. What kind of parent would force her family to live that kind of lie?

Kathleen Geier from Talking Points Memo thinks that the story could be a "huge freaking deal" but shouldn't be touched without "compelling evidence":

Obviously, neither Obama nor any other Democrat should touch this story. At all.
But — and that’s a big but — if it’s true, *of course* it would be an issue. And should be! Forget the issue of whether or not she denied her daughter the choice of ending her pregnancy — that’s not the issue. The issue would be if Palin is lying to the McCain’s people, and voters, and basically the world, by trying to pass off a child as hers, if it really wasn’t. Your kids are as much a part of your basic life story as when and where you were born, who you married, and where you went to school. If she’s trying to pass off a child as her own, when that child is actually her granddaughter — that is a huge freaking deal.

Now, that said, this does sound like a pretty wacky conspiracy theory. If there’s no evidence to it other than the fact that Palin allegedly did not look pregnant, and her daughter was allegedly absent from school, that’s an extremely slim reed to hang a story on.

However, if a reporter investigated this story and came up with compelling evidence that it’s true — such as documents or eyewitness testimony from medical professionals and the like — the media should have no compunctions about running with it.

Will these new revelations be a breakthrough? I have doubts, but I am still hopeful. Because the media refused to touch the subject, it was up to the incredible brave Andrew Sullivan to put his reputation on the line and up to citizen journalists to spend much of their free time for years investigating the pregnancy. We are faced with an uphill struggle.

I really hope that Andrew Sullivan will in the end receive the Pulitzer Prize for being the ONLY ONE in the media who was willing to push the subject.

EDIT: Andrew Sullivan just published a post about this JournoList discussion.

Litbrit has also examined the emails in yet another brilliantly written post.

UPDATE:

Sarah Palin has responded on facebook, accusing these journalists of taking part in "a dark and demented conspiracy regarding my son, Trig."

But although Sarah Palin now has the chance to strike hard against the "liberal media", she still doesn't show the birth certificate and/or other documentation. The simple reason for this is: She can't, because there is no evidence!

I really hope that the complacent liberal journalists will now FINALLY wake up and strike hard against Sarah Palin, one of the biggest liars and frauds in US history.

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These are the participants in the email conversation - I have also collected links to their profiles and website:

Ryan Donmoyer
Government Legislation Reporter at Bloomberg L.P., Washington, DC

Adam Serwer, writing fellow at The American Prospect

Twitter

Dylan Matthews, "minipundit"
Twitter

Sara Mead, writer
Twitter

Harold Pollack, Professor for Social Services at the University of Chicago

Brad DeLong, Professor Of Economy at University of Berkely

Laura Rozen – Politico

Mark Kleiman – Professor for Public Policy at University of California at Los Angeles

Adele Stan – Washington Bureau Chief of Alternet

Katha Pollitt – Columnist for “The Nation”

Maggie Mahar, Politico

Lamar Robertson, speechwriter, Partnership for Public Service

Kathleen Geier, Talking Points Memo

Todd Gitlin - Academic, Intellectual, Writer

Ezra Klein - Washington Post – Inventor of “Journolist”

Lindsay Beyerstein, Investigative Journalist, Feminist
Twitter

Holly Yeager - The American Prospect

John Blevins, Professor of Law, South Texas College

Avi Zenilman, Reporter, Politico

Mark Schmitt, Executive Editor of the American Prospect

Michael Tomasky, The Guardian

Michael Cohen, New America Foundation

Shannon Brownlee, New America Foundation

Moira Wheelan, National Security Network

Rick Perlstein, Journalist, Author

Rodger Payne, Blogger

Mark Thoma, Professor of Economics, University of Orgeon

Eve Fairbanks, The New Republic

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You can read the complete leaked JournoList correspondence regarding Sarah Palin's pregnancy which has been published so far also on the Daily Caller. It's possible that there are other parts which exist and have not yet been made public.

In order to make this email discussion (which the Daily Caller has published on 15 web pages) easier to read I have put all the emails together in one document for download:

DOWNLOAD MS-WORD DOCUMENT

DOWNLOAD PDF-DOCUMENT

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Andrew Sullivan talks on the Joy Behar Show (CNN) about Sarah Palin's "wild ride" (VIDEO) - UPDATE: Joy Behar Interview with Levi Johnston!

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UPDATE:



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UPDATE 2:

I would like to add this clip from last year, because it gives a very good insight into the political convictions of Andrew Sullivan and his motivations. He considers himself to be a classic conservative, but in his opinion George W. Bush destroyed real conservatism. It's also clear that Andrew Sullivan despises Sarah Palin's anti-intellectual approach.

Levi Johnston together with Andrew Sullivan on the Joy Behar Show tonight! UPDATE: SEE THE CLIP WITH ANDREW SULLIVAN!

UPDATE:

Here is the clip with the excellent interview with Andrew Sullivan on the Joy Behar Show:



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Here we have some news - this could be exciting!

Andrew Sullivan, who relentlessly pursues Sarah Palin's lies on the Daily Dish, including several excellent posts today, will be on the Joy Behar Show tonight together with Levi Johnston! As there is nobody else in the media such as Andrew Sullivan, who is so well-informed about Sarah Palin's lies, including her faked pregnancy with Trig, he should do an excellent job. I do have to admit that I am carefully optimistic that we might enter a new stage in the investigation tonight.

On the website of the show, everybody can ask questions! The show starts at 9.00 PM EST on HLN, so we haven't got much time!

Although the comments are moderated, some comments questioning the parentage of Trig have made it through, so please don't hesitate and leave a question or a comment!

A short while ago, I posted a blog with three questions for Levi Johnston - I will try to post them on the Joy Behar website, let's see if they let them through!

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Here is a little snippet from the past of the Joy Behar Show - I love her, she's great!

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UPDATE:

Here is a first clip from the show, courtesy of CNN:



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Sarah Palin's "pregnancy": Andrew Sullivan goes on the attack!

Andrew Sullivan has published his most forceful and exhaustive article today about Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy - although Andrew Sullivan is still "just asking questions" and is not officially on the record yet with saying that the pregnancy was faked.

He writes on the Daily Dish ("Palin Puts The Trig Question Back On The Table"):

(...) Palin has never produced Trig's birth certificate or a single piece of objective medical evidence that proves he is indeed her biological son. A child with Down Syndrome must have a pile of such records, tests, assessments and ultrasounds that conclusively prove that he is Sarah's biological son. It seems bizarre to me that neither the public nor the campaign (so far as I can glean) has ever been given one of them.

Her doctor, Catherine Baldwin Johnson, offered a two-page summary of Palin's health just hours before polls opened on November 3, a bizarre approach to transparency. The summary omits certain details from Palin's medical history (two miscarriages, one serious), and does not provide any actual documentary evidence of the pregnancy and birth. It was authored by a doctor who has refused to return any phone calls, even from the New York Times, since the moment Palin's candidacy was announced. The hospital has three recorded births on the day Trig was born: the governor's son, by wishes of the parents, was not included on the list. There were only a handful of photographs over eight months that showed Palin pregnant, none showed her as visibly pregnant as with her previous children, and at seven months, her entire staff and all of Alaska's political class disbelieved her:

People just couldn't believe the news. "Really? No!" said Bethel state Rep. Mary Nelson, who is close to giving birth herself ... "It's wonderful. She's very well-disguised," said Senate President Lyda Green, a mother of three who has sometimes sparred with Palin politically. "When I was five months pregnant, there was absolutely no question that I was with child."

On the return flight from Dallas to Alaska, which she says she boarded despite having contractions at eight months - a "strange sensation" she had never felt before, according to "Going Rogue," - the flight attendants on the plane at the time, according to a contemporaneous account in the ADN, had no idea she was even pregnant, let alone in labor of some kind. The questions about this astonishing story are not a function of conspiracy theories and never were. They require no elaborate theory of whose child Trig may actually be. They are simply basic questions anyone would ask of a person who had recounted such an amazing tale. And yet not a single journalist has done so.(...)"

Read Andrew Sullivan's post HERE.

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A picture says more than a 1000 words:

For more details regarding this picture, please visit THIS POST!

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The Daily Beast and Andrew Sullivan report about Sarah Palin's "fake bus tour"! - UPDATE: Harper Collins say Sarah used plane only for "three flights"

(picture of Sarah Palin's original private plane that

she uses for the bus tour - click to enlarge)

Joe McGinniss on the "Daily Beast" and following Joe's article, Andrew Sullivan on the "Daily Dish" gave us a nice surprise today!

They reported the story about Sarah Palin's "fake bus tour" - the story which started here on Palingates a few days ago with THIS POST.

On this occasion I would like to thank again our reader "snowbilly" who has the distinction of having identified Sarah's plane!

Sarah Palin is a fake, from beginning to end - and the end is near.

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UPDATE:

Huffington Post also reports the story!

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UPDATE 2:

CBS News has now also picked up the story!

Gawker also report with some funny observations!

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UPDATE 3:

Greg Sargent from The Plum Line reports that Harper Collins has now confirmed that they paid for Sarah's flights - but they say that she has only taken three plane trips, although the plane was following her all the time!

Does anybody believe that? Because I sure as hell don't! The plane was following her, but she was not flying with it? NO WAY.

Harper Collins want us to believe that an EMPTY PLANE was following Sarah Palin half-way across the nation, for $ 4,000 per hour?

Here is the complete flight log of the plane, beginning from November 18, 2009, the start of Sarah's "bus tour" (click to enlarge) - there are 10 flights in the flight log, and they match the destinations where Sarah had her book signings - the flight from Jacksonville to Orlando on November 23 was obviously an "empty" flight, because Sarah travelled on November 24 from Jacksonville over The Villages to Orlando by bus, then boarding the plane again on November 25 in order to fly from Orlando to Tri-Cities. The flight from Teterboro to Westchester County would have been empty, too, as the plane was based at Teterboro:

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UPDATE 4:

C4P has written a big article about "planegate" (they even use this word), but unfortunately C4P and Harper Collins can't even get their story straight!

C4P writes:

"The Birmingham event is a great success, with thousands of people shouting her name and... Sorry, that's not what McGinniss wants to hear. Let's talk flights. On the evening of the 23rd, the private jet (...) takes Gov. Palin from Birmingham to Jacksonville (FL), the place of the first of her three stops in the Sunshine State. The jet flies ahead to the destination of her final stop in the state, Orlando."

Screenshot (click to enlarge):

Wait a second!

Jacksonville???

Harper Collins said:

"Tina Andreadis, a spokesperson for Palin publisher HarperCollins, confirmed to me that Palin did in fact take three plane trips by privately chartered jet, flying to stops in Michigan, Rochester, NY, and Birmingham, AL."

So: C4P said she flew to Jacksonville, and Harper Collins said she didn't?

BUSTED - AGAIN!

You know it's a lie when they can't even get their story straight.

Not a good day for the Quitter Queen! ;-)

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UPDATE 5:

The plane story goes global!

The leading German news website "Spiegel Online" (belonging to famous magazine "Der Spiegel") reports the story! Have a look at the slideshow, it's very interesting!

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In addition, the extensive reporting of "palingates" with regard to Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy with Trig CAN BE READ HERE.

Pictures: ozmud at "Oz Mudflats"

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Andrew Sullivan demands to know from Harper Collins whether "Going Rogue" was fact-checked

Andrew Sullivan has stepped up a gear again and now demands to know from Harper Collins whether "Going Rogue" was fact-checked. Especially regarding Sarah Palin's "pregnancy" with Trig, he wonders whether Harper Collins has actually received documentation.

Andrew Sullivan writes:

"I've emailed Bellow (Andrew Bellow from Harper Collins, editor of "Going Rogue"- P.) asking him about the fact-checking process for "Going Rogue." Getting an on-the-record confirmation that, for example, Harper Collins reviewed the medical records proving Palin's multiple medical stories (including corrected hospital records by her own account) would be a useful piece of information. Since it appears that the McCain campaign knew nothing of these rumors, and indeed, by some accounts, nothing even of Bristol's pregnancy, it would be reassuring to know that someone somewhere has actually sought proof of some of Palin's wildest embellishments or total fantasies.

A responsible editor would do due diligence and check them out, right? I'll let you know Bellow's response to the fact-checking question when I get it."

I am very intrigued to know what the result of Andrew's inquiry will be. However, Harper Collins cannot have received any medical documentation regarding Sarah's supposed pregnancy, because her pregnancy with Trig was faked. This is a FACT.

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I would like to use this opportunity to point out some "highlights" in Andrew Sullivans reporting on the Daily Dish about "babygate", although I also would like to mention that Andrew Sullivan himself has never finally concluded that the pregnancy was faked, but "just" continues to ask "persistent questions" up to this point, being the responsible journalist he is:

August 31, 2008:

Things That Make You Go Hmmm

"(...) There must be plenty of medical records and obstetricians and medical eye-witnesses prepared to testify to Sarah Palin's giving birth to Trig. There must be a record of Bristol's high school attendance for the past year. And surely, surely, the McCain camp did due diligence on this. But the noise around this story is now deafening, and the weirdness of the chronology sufficient to rise to the level of good faith questions. So please give us these answers - and provide medical records for Sarah Palin's pregnancy - and put this to rest. (...)"

October 6, 2008:

Transparency, Please

"(...) So it is part of Palin's record to demand the marriage license of a fellow Republican, but to ask for any medical confirmation of the mysterious birth of Trig earlier this year, any affidavit from the obstetrician, any objective evidence at all that Trig is indeed Sarah Palin's biological child is, well, in the words of John Podhoretz, "virtually unspeakable." Look: this is usually not hard at all. Births are recorded at the hospitals where they occur. And, as you might expect, there's a long list of babies born at Mat-Su Medical center, where we are told Trig was born on April 18 this year. But for some reason, Trig Palin's name is not among them.

Why would a hospital exhaustively record all births on their premises and leave out easily the most famous baby ever born there? There were only 24 births at Mat-Su in April of this year: it's not like they could have mislaid one. So why is there no formal record of Trig's birth? This is not an "unspeakable" question. It's a simple factual one. Presumably there's an explanation. Perhaps the Palins decided that it would be an invasion of Trig's privacy to have the birth actually recorded in the hospital where he was born. But at least they should be able to tell us that. Or perhaps the hospital decided for some reason not to record that one birth. I have no idea. I do know that if Sarah Palin were running against Sarah Palin, she would demand evidence, as she did with something just as accessible with respect to John Stein's marriage license.

How much longer are we supposed to put up with the far right running on different standards than everyone else? Hand over all the medical records and put Sarah Palin in front of a press conference now. We need answers to an almost dizzyingly long list of questions and accountability for an equally long list of public lies."

December 5, 2008

A Fourth Picture

"As Dish readers know, there are only three public photographs that I could find of Sarah Palin pregnant with Trig (the McCain campaign insisted there were "loads" and then was forced to retract). But we now have another. The date of this photograph, which turned up on a Flickr account, has been clearly established as March 26, 2008:

Here's a link from the Alaska state website discussing the event. Here's a news video.

That's barely three weeks before she gave birth to Trig, a full-term, 6 pound baby. It's also around a week before video footage of Palin, captured here. Since Palin refused throughout the campaign to provide any medical records (although, in classic Palin style, says she has), we only have three photographs of her pregnant and one doctor's letter, released hours before the polls opened November 3. If you're interested in why any sane person would ever doubt a mother's announcement of her own pregnancy, read this.

Maybe this photo has been photo-shopped. Maybe Palin had an anomalous pregnancy that showed far, far less than her previous ones, one that went from close to nothing to a serious bump in two weeks. Maybe the angle in the photo is misleading, and leaning toward us her pregnancy is concealed. Maybe her fifth labor really did take 26 hours combined via a speaking engagement (as amniotic fluid was leaking) and an 11 hour airplane flight (when a birth could have begun at any moment at extreme risk to the child), and maybe the bizarre and, to my mind, incredible stories she has told about the pregnancy and labor are true (there is still a chance they are). But if all these things are true, the Palin camp has had months to provide what would be instantly available records to dismiss all and every "insane" blog speculation about this. And yet none came - on or off the record.

I begged the McCain campaign by private email and in a private meeting to give me something - anything - to kill the story off. I promised to run any evidence that would blow this out of the water. That offer still stands. Please make me look like an idiot for asking these questions. But they didn't offer a thing, asserting that even asking the question was an outrageous reputation-destroying offense. Maybe Michelle Malkin is right that this is truther, tin-foil hat territory. But Malkin's only substantive point rebutting the photographic evidence is: We’re all obstetricians now!

Actually, the Dish went out and interviewed eight of the leading obstetricians in the country and laid out all the facts of the case and asked the experts for their take. While none would say that this pregnancy could not have happened, and none would comment on a case they hadn't examined personally, all of them said it was one of the strangest and unlikeliest series of events they had ever heard of and found Palin's decision to forgo medical help for more than a day after her water broke and risk the life of her unborn child on a long airplane trip to be reckless beyond measure. (...)"

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Please note that a slideshow with the above picture from March 26, 2008, including the picture in the original size and complete documentation CAN BE FOUND HERE.

In addition, the extensive reporting of "palingates" with regard to Sarah Palin's faked pregnancy with Trig CAN BE READ HERE.

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Pat and Palin (and more) - UPDATE: Andrew Halcro takes aim!

I just found this great article, which is also a nice Thanksgiving read.

You will find out at the end of the article who Pat is (it's not me, of course, nor our special friend Pat Dougherty).

The beginning of the article reads:

"Pat does not like Sarah Palin.

If Pat doesn't like Sarah Palin, than I would feel pretty confident stating Republicans need to stay away from giving Palin the go-ahead nomination for 2012.Pat is as Independent as they come. She's registered Independent and true to form, she has voted for Democrats and voted for Republicans. She does not vote based on party, but for the person who she feels will be a stronger leader.

Pat does not like Palin.

Pat did like Candidate Obama, and thought he would be a much better President than the one that was currently in office (Dick Cheney- her words, not mine) and she had no problem saying she would never vote for McCain for one reason: If McCain kicked the bucket, Palin would be her President.

And, Pat does not like Palin."

Continue with the article HERE.

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All this "Pat" stuff inspired me to take a look at the Anchorage Daily News, and what a surprise: The ADN published a good article called "Palin's anti-intellectualism dangerous", written by Alaska Professor Steve Haycox.

Although I really like what the ADN has done there, is still strikes me like kicking a dead corpse. When Sarah Palin was the Governor, you wouldn't find those articles in the ADN. Am I unfair? Probably - after all, I am just a non-commercial citizen blogger, and I have no boss asking me whether the urgently needed revenue from the State of Alaska will arrive this year as usual!

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Andrew Sullivan has published another very revealing article about the affairs of Sarah Palin, and about the non-existing fact-checking by Harper Collins in particular. He writes:

"You also wonder whether any fact-checking was done at HarperCollins. Well: you don't have to wonder. They had no fact-checkers at Harper Collins when they marketed my book (I had to hire two of my own). A random blog, I'd wager, has more factual reliability than a book published by Jonathan Burnham and edited by Adam Bellow. Yes: Adam Bellow. Editing Sarah Palin. What a stunning emblem that is of so much."

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UPDATE:

I almost had overlooked the most important article of the day, but an invaluable source in Alaska alerted me to it!

Andrew Halcro has taken off the kid gloves! In a must-read, long article on his blog, the former Republican AK State Representative, successful business-owner and challenger in the primaries against Republican Don Young for his congressional seat, blows Sarah Palin to smitterens.

He writes:

"(…) Those who line up to buy her book are disillusioned by the perceived East/West coast "elitist, smarty pants" mentality that they believe looks to the heartland with a disparaging eye. Talk about a red herring.

Do the parents in Port Washington, Pennsylvania really hope their kids grow up "not smart enough" to have a shot at getting into the best (dare I say elite) colleges in the country?

Ironically, the people in rural America are supported heavily by the federal income tax dollars that flow from East and West coast inhabitants, that pay their farm subsidies, auto industry bailouts and Ma and Pa Jones Medicare and Social security.

But they apparently want a return to the simple times when you could gather around the kitchen table and not worry about the complexities of a global economy and the real challenges of governing a country where our greatest strength is our diversity.

It's all noise, generated by the Sarah Palin's of the world who want to distract from their inability to articulate real solutions to real problems by repeating meaningless phrases. Last week in answering about a dozen questions from Rush Limbaugh, Palin said some combination of "solutions," "conservative" and "commonsense" twenty-five times.

Here's a tip: If you have to repeatedly qualify what you're saying is a commonsense solution, than it's not really a commonsense solution.

The beauty of commonsense solutions is that they are common without having to be labeled as such. In fact it's all common "nonsense." (…)

She writes harshly about John Bitney, but did she ever talk to him directly about his Blackberry or anything else she took issue with? No. In fact when Bitney was fired, he found out only after trying to use his state issued Blackberry to call his office and it was turned off.

Then to blame him for not communicating with lawmakers about her vetoes is another sign of her ability to lie. The fact is in June 2007, in the weeks leading up to Palin's vetoes, lawmakers knew she was considering cuts to the capital budget and tried desperately to meet with Palin but she refused. (…)

And then there are the things she conveniently left out about during her two hundred word assault on me. Oh the stories I could tell...and will in time.

Palin writes about how my gig as a radio host and blogger was a "step up from my previous job as a limo driver at Todd's cousin's wedding."

Why didn't she write that I owned the company and I was driving because the chauffeur originally scheduled for the run was sick? I guess in Palin's world a small business owner should take the same approach she did when faced with a challenge; give up and quit instead of taking care of your responsibilities.

And why did she leave out that when I was elected to the State House in November of 1998, she sent me a hand written note congratulating me and saying she hoped I'd bring my "small business" experience to Juneau?

Why?

Because in doing so Palin would reveal what many of us found out years ago; her inability to tell the truth is only second to her inability to accept the truth. (…)"

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A short note which has nothing to do with Sarah Palin:

While writing blogposts, I have listened very often to THIS ALBUM.

Just a general recommendation! It's very inspiring music.

:-)


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Andrew Sullivan takes the Trig Truther argument mainstream!

Andrew Sullivan
BIOGRAPHY

Anybody who thinks that Andrew Sullivan has "folded" is very mistaken. Exactly the opposite is the case. Andrew Sullivan today published a brilliant article in the UK Sunday Times, also published in the London Times Online, called "Beware the powerful fantasy world of Sarah Palin, Warrior Princess".

He writes in the UK paper what no US mainstream media outlet has dared to publish before:

"(…)
What can one say about one of the most compelling and bizarre works of “non-fiction” on the market, Going Rogue by Sarah Palin?

I have to say it stymies me somewhat. Treating it as some kind of factual narrative to check (as I began to), or comparing its version of events with her previous versions of the same events (as I have), and comparing all those versions with what we know is empirical reality, is a dizzying task. The lies and truths and half-truths and the facts and non-facts are all blurred together in a pious purée of such ghastly self-serving prose that, in the end, the book can really be read only as some kind of chapter in a cheap 19th-century edition of Lives of the Saints.

It is a religious book, full of myths and parables. And Sarah is fast becoming a religious icon of sorts for what is now the Republican base. On the first day of her tour, she dragged her infant with Down’s syndrome everywhere she went, even waving his hand to the crowds at one point as his little head swung back and forth. Here is the Madonna with child and a child that is an emblem of everything those who oppose abortion believe in.
(…)

So you simply read the book as if it is fiction and enjoy it. Or you read it as non-fiction and believe that Palin is a magical mythical figure who defies the laws of time and space and normal human nature.

Take one story that every mother will relate to: the drama of her delivery of her fifth child, Trig. She tells us that at eight months pregnant with a child she knew had Down’s syndrome and would need special care at birth, she got on a plane from Alaska to Dallas, Texas, to attend an energy conference. Most airlines won’t allow this but Alaska Airlines did. Palin then tells us that at 4am on her first night in Dallas, “a strange sensation low in my belly woke me and I sat up straight in bed”. In an interview she gave with the Anchorage Daily News just after Trig’s birth, she confirmed that she had amniotic fluid leaking at that point.

So she was a mother eight months pregnant with a special-needs child thousands of miles from home. She wakes up in the middle of the night with contractions and amniotic leakage and she tells her husband she doesn’t want to call her doctor because it would wake her up at 1am. And she is the sitting governor of a state and her doctor is a close personal friend. Not only that, but she gives the speech as planned in the afternoon, during which she makes a rather good joke. She then tells us what happens next: “Big laughs. More contractions.”

After the speech, does she then go to a local hospital to get checked out? Nah. She gets on two separate aeroplanes all the way back to Alaska, with a stopover in Seattle, because she is determined to have the child in her home town and she just knows that the contractions and amniotic leakage are not signs of imminent delivery. She has had four previous kids so she has experience. “I still had plenty of time ... It was a calm, relatively restful flight home,” she explains of the next 15 hours.

You might imagine that an airline would have some qualms about letting a woman in some sort of labour at eight months, and pregnant with a Down’s syndrome child, get on a long transcontinental flight. What if the baby were born in mid-flight? The plane would have to be diverted. What if something happened to the baby? The airline could be liable. Palin never told the flight attendants. Couldn’t they tell, one might innocently ask. In the Anchorage Daily News story about the birth, Alaska Airlines said: “The stage of her pregnancy was not apparent by observation. She did not show any signs of distress.” Palin makes Xena, the warrior princess, seem fragile.

It is this image of a frontierswoman, capable of almost anything, fiercely independent, fathomlessly brave, totally unflappable, driven and blessed by faith in God, resisting the evil cynicism and hatred of the eastern elites, ambushed by hostile interviewers, persecuted by her godless enemies and carrying on as an “iron lady” of Alaskan dimensions, that makes her such a powerful cultural and political icon. Her physical beauty doesn’t hurt either. (…)"

So far there are only a few comments, and almost all of them negative (left by males). Please comment there and show Andrew Sullivan your support.

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UPDATE:

It should be noted that today the London Sunday Times has not only printed Andrew Sullivan's article, but also a large excerpt from Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue", focusing on the events leading up to the Trig's birth ("Sarah Palin: my life with a Down's syndrome child"). You can also leave comments on this article.


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"Going Rogue": Sarah Palin is "thankful for the opportunity to write the truth" / Plus: A little lesson in psychology - UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan

Sarah Palin has gone on the great roguish trainwreck tour across the USA, and despite of the fact that she has become a laughing stock, her supporters are enthusiastic. Having just written the greatest book of lies in living history, Sarah Palin apparently misses the irony when she says that she is "thankful for the opportunity to write the truth." MSNBC reports:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Then I saw that Stephen Colbert had this moment of brilliance and I would like to share it with you:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Grand Old Pity Party
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

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But that's not all. In order to properly understand Sarah Palin, we have to look a bit deeper into the science of psychology.

There's a definition:

Narcissistic Personality Disorder > 5 of following criteria

1. Requires excessive admiration
2. Grandiose sense of self-importance; believes self to be superior
3. Preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance
4. Believes that he/she is special and should have only the best
5. Has sense of entitlement, ie deserves special favors or treatment
6. Exploits interpersonal relations, ie takes advantage of others
7. Lacks empathy and concern for others
8. Is envious of others or believes them to be envious of him/her
9. Displays arrogance

Modified from *Diagnostic & Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed, Am Psychiatric Asso, 1994

I have to admit that I had never looked closely into this before. But now I understand what's going on here. It's crystal clear, and I wonder why this hasn't been discussed in more detail in the media regarding Sarah Palin.

"Psychology Today" explains:

"Deep desire to be at the center of things is served by extreme self-confidence, a combination that makes narcissists attractive and even charming. Buoyed by a coterie of admiring friends and associates—protected by the armor of positive self-regard—someone with a mild-to-moderate case of narcissism can float through life feeling pretty good about himself. Since they feel entitled to special treatment, they are easily offended, and readily harbor grudges. Yet narcissists are often very popular—at least in the short term.

The beauty of being a narcissist is that even when disaster stares you in the face, you feel neither doubt nor remorse. In a study, researchers asked a pair of participants to undertake a task that was rigged to fail. Most people tend to protect their partner, sharing either the credit or the blame. "But the narcissists would say, 'It's totally the other person's fault.' They're completely willing to step on someone," says narcissism researcher Keith Campbell, associate professor of social psychology at the University of Georgia.

(...)

Don't cross him. Entirely dependent on others' opinions, a narcissist can act like a cornered animal if he or she feels threatened. Research shows that narcissists become aggressive when they feel an ego threat—confronted with proof that they aren't special—or feel they aren't getting enough respect. In the lab, they are willing to punish other experimental subjects with a noise blast when they think they've been put down. If you have to tell a narcissist he isn't doing a good job, do it gently—and be prepared.

(...)

Unfortunately, anyone can be seduced by a narcissist. One misconception is that only those with low self-esteem date someone who's so self-centered, but people with normal self-respect can also end up involved with a narcissist. They have decisive, take-charge personalities in a society that shuns wishy-washiness."

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At least Andrew Sullivan get's it:

"Watching someone this delusional and this uninformed and this narcissistic strut around the world stage telling empirical untruth after untruth is a car wreck worth rubber-necking. The book is so weird, and its fiction so bad, and its facts so non-checked, you'd have to have every single journalistic bone in your body removed to be indifferent to it."

Please don't miss Andrew Sullivan's current extensive coverage about Sarah Palin on the "Daily Dish".

He just reported how Sarah Palin uses Trig on the tour shamelessly as a prop.

UPDATE on Andrew Sullivan:

Andrew Sullivan has written a long article about his attempt to make sense of Palin's book. He tries to take her book seriously and struggles. I can understand him and I think that he gives a very sharp analysis.

Excerpt:

In this, the book is emblematic of late degenerate Republicanism, which is based not on actual policies, but on slogans now so exhausted by over-use they retain no real meaning: free enterprise is great, God loves us all, America is fabulous, foreigners are suspect, we need to be tough, we can't dither, we must always cut taxes, government is bad, liberals are socialists, the media hates you, etc etc.

I tried to write a fair account of Palin's various stories of her incredible fifth pregnancy, labor and delivery and to reconcile all the various facts we know and the various versions of the story she has told. Just for the record and because we have aired the public record on this before. I honestly however cannot make total sense of them in a way that I'm completely convinced by and so simply do not feel comfortable making any judgment on them in any way at this point. That's fair to her, my readers, my colleagues, and the innocent private people caught up in this circus.

I thought there might be some new facts in here that would illuminate my confusion and dispel the whole thing.

There is, rather, more barely-credible myth-making and descriptions of actions taken that really make no sense even on their own terms. But since we now know that Palin tells odd lies all the time even when she doesn't have to, we cannot hold her to common sense readings. The story she tells is largely incredible if you assume a rational actor at the center of it. But we do not have a rational actor in the center of it; we have an unbalanced, delusional, ambitious fanatic whose relationship to reality is entirely instrumental and can change from minute to minute. And so we cannot even say: that doesn't make sense so it probably isn't true. With Palin, anything is possible her world is so imaginary and magical. Much that makes sense with others may not make sense with her. And without external evidence, how can we tell which is which?

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UPDATE:

Can somebody PLEASE show this clip of John Oliver from the Daily Show to Sarah Palin?

I sooo hope that she gets to see that.

"I would rather jump into a vulcano than read this book." (little unknown kid from New York, 10x cleverer already than Sarah Palin)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Excitement Over Sarah Palin's Book Release
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

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On Hannity, Sarah Palin mixes up Iran and Iraq, and Sean Hannity (who recently wrote the foreword to the book of the lying pornographer Carrie Prejean) doesn't even correct her!

I just hope that there is no parallel universe in which Sarah Palin became Vice-President, because their nuclear bombs might hit us, you never know. She might feel threatened by planet earth.





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