There is at least one reason for Sarah Palin not to run

Sarah Palin said a million times that she's considering whether or not she'll run another campaign, that she's weighing the impact it would have on her family and all that. If Sarah Palin needs to find just one reason not to do it, she should ask Piper for her honest opinion.

Sarah Palin, you need better advisors. Piper, you need a better mom.

'I'm the mayor, I can do whatever I want until the courts tell me I can't.'

Now Sarah Palin is a private citizen, with no title. Can she do whatever she wants? Will the courts stop her?

Sarah Palin's One Nation bus has encountered a legal roadblock. It was one of the best weeks of her life, but her gaudy bus breached some trademark laws.

Sarah Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, is using a trademarked name for her current bus tour, opening her up to major liabilities that could potentially cause her to lose her bus.

According to an article on the Huffington Post, at man called Kelly Eustis has trademarked the name One Nation.

This is part of a cease-and-desist letter Eustis sent to another group when they used his One Nation name:

"Your actions constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition under both state and federal law, including the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1051-1127). Remedies for such infringement can include payment of actual and treble damages, recovery of profits, reimbursement of attorney's fees, and may also include injunctions against your further use of the Infringing Trademark and the seizure of infringing materials."

Oops! It wouldn't have been too much trouble for a professional team to do a few checks before spending a barrel of money decorating the bus and launching Sarah Palin's campaign to educate Americans about the country's history. Our friend Becky Mansour seems to be under the bus already (no new tweets since May 17). I wonder who's next.

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How can Sarah Palin qualify this tour as "one of the best weeks of my life" when her ten-year-old daughter appears to have had one of the most miserable weeks of her life? Oh, I forgot, a good mother always puts her own needs first.

"Thanks for ruining our vacation," Piper said to a Time photographer during the bus tour.

I hope Piper is having a better time since her mom's fantastic week.

This week promises to be a bit less enjoyable for Sarah Palin. Her e-mails are coming out later today, but we shouldn't get too excited until we see how much they've been redacted...

UPDATE

Here's a video about the e-mails:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Trig to Sarah Palin: "Who are you?"

Sarah Palin arrived in Arizona to regroup before she hits the trail again. She needs a break from her family vacation. [So does Piper.]



The family vacation didn't have many members of the family enjoying it. One by one, they seemed to disappear, until there were only Piper, Sally and Chuck left.

Trig is only three years old and doesn't seem to fit in Sarah Palin's present schedule. I'm not saying she should continue to parade him up and down the country, but he was conspicuous by his absence from the family vacation visiting historic sites on the East Coast. It wasn't so much Trig's physical absence that was strange, but there wasn't a single mention of his existence, not a word about him.

Was he in Alaska, being cared for by another member of the family because the One Nation schedule would have been too punishing for him? Perhaps he was in Arizona and the first thing Sarah Palin did upon her arrival was put her arms around him for some perspective, so the rest of the things in the periphery would just go away?



I don't think Trig has set eyes on Sarah Palin in a long time. He's probably tucked away somewhere in Alaska, hopefully receiving all the things he needs from somebody compassionate enough.

"Wild Ride" transcript:

...but just absolutely perfect in our eyes and we’re just very, very, very blessed and, um it’s, it's a perfect situation for us when we first heard it was, ya know, kind of confusing and, and at first blush hearing the news it was you know, I… it was received by me for a couple of hours there after hearing the news as, uh, very, very challenging… even sad… that day but just knowing that there’s purpose in every situation… there’s certainly good purpose in every child. Just knowing that, um, we should feel blessed that, uh God would choose us...

Sarah Palin is fond of saying that every child has a purpose. I'm beginning to suspect that Trig has served his purpose and is no longer a very useful, manageable, cute prop.

Considering recent events, I think Piper has blown that gig as well and the older children don't seem to help Sarah's image very much...

What's a Mama Grizzly without her cubs, eh?

Safety tips from Sarah Palin - UPDATE

Sarah Palin doesn't like the government telling her to wear helmets, it should be left to the individual. It's all about common sense, blah blah blah.

“I don’t like the government telling me what to buy.” She cited the example of motorcycle helmets. “I think you would be crazy not to wear one (when riding a motorcycle), but I don’t like the government telling me I have to buy a motorcycle helmet,” Gov. Palin said. “Americans are a freedom-loving people and have common sense.”

Sarah Palin doesn't like to be told what to do, even if it's about safety. She loves her freedom and has plenty of common sense. She doesn't think it's crazy not to wear a seat belt, though.

Piper sucks her thumb, mom is glued to her Blackberry. No seat belts

Piper stares into the distance. No seat belt.

The driver of the bus has common sense and wears his seat belt, but Mama Grizzly can't be bothered to wear hers (too busy on the BlackBerry) or make sure her ten-year-old daughter is safely restrained.

It's an old habit of Mama Grizzly. She wouldn't mind her daughter flying through the windscreen of a moving vehicle, as long as she can keep her freedom-loving spirit.

Piper as a sitting projectile. No seat belt.

(H/T to sjkfromthebellyoftheplane)

UPDATE

The first few minutes of this video shows the vehicle moving, then stopping for the reporter. No passengers sitting in the back were wearing seat belts.



Here's a screenshot from the footage, showing Piper's seat belt, untouched and unbuckled.

*****

In order to clear any doubts about seat belts in the RV, there's no lap belt on the passenger's side. The front seats are identical, so the passenger should have the same type of safety belt as the driver.

Sarah and Piper were sharing a seat, so wearing a seat belt would have been an impossibility.

For seat belt guidance in different states, please click HERE.

Sarah Palin, your daughter needs a mother - UPDATE - Video

Piper Palin is making the headlines.

Sarah Palin keeps telling the media and the bloggers to leave her children alone. Correct me if I'm wrong, but did we make Piper a state official so we could see her everywhere around various functions all over Alaska? Did we keep Piper away from school so she could display her cuteness during the 2008 campaign? Did we take her out of school again to sell some books a year later? Did we take her to Rick Perry's campaign so Piper could stand next to Ted Nugent? Did we make Piper go on some phony waitressing stunt for a narcissistic reality show? Did we tell her she was going on a family vacation and then proceeded to subject her to a media scrum every step of the way?

We didn't drag Piper to a hair salon to have her hair streaked, we didn't paint her nails and didn't apply any make-up to this ten-year-old girl's face. We didn't buy her inappropriate sunglasses, we didn't take her to a funeral wearing jeans and a tee-shirt.

We didn't sexualize Piper by suggesting that a nextdoor neighbour was a perverted peeping-tom whose intent was to spy through her bedroom window.

We didn't manhandle Piper for a staged apology to reporters.

Sarah Palin In Jersey City: MyFoxNY.com

Sarah Palin did all these things and any damage to this child was inflicted by her own mother, not by any member of the media or any blogger.

Google "Piper Palin"

Try again for pictures

There's something wrong when a ten-year-old (who's not a Disney star) produces so many search results.

Well, Sarah Palin, it's not about your daughter. It's about you and your mothering skills. It's about how you use your children for your own gain, how you use them as shields.

You're the one exploiting them, Sarah Palin. We only write about them because you disgust us as a mother.

You're not protecting them, Mama Grizzly.

A person who has so little regard for her own children's health, safety, sanity and general wellbeing cannot pretend to have any regard for the people of America, real or not.

Here's a Piper Palin pictorial, in no particular order.

UPDATE (H/T to Guest)

Sarah Palin's Alaska - Episode 8

By Leadfoot_LA and Bella, Age 7

It is with a heavy heart that we begin tonight’s recap. But Bella and I have decided to finish the task that we started 8 weeks ago, and review the final episode. I have explained to Bella what happened in Arizona yesterday, and she had lots of questions. It is incredibly hard to explain to a 7-year-old why people sometimes get shot and killed as they go about their business. I try my best.

Bella says she hates Sarah Palin. I tell her that we shouldn’t hate anyone, not even Sarah Palin. “Are we allowed to really, really, really not like her?,” she asks. Absolutely, I tell her.

Before we turn on the TV, we light a candle for little Christina Green and the others who were killed and injured, and place it on the coffee table in front of us. My intent is to tone down the snark during this recap, but we will see how it goes.

The Palins (Sarah, Todd, Bristol, Tripp, Willow, Piper – no Track), Creepy Chuck, Sally, and Chuck Jr. head to a reindeer farm to feed reindeer. One is very aggressive with Sarah and she says, “JEEZ Todd!,” as if it is his fault. Todd just grins at her. He definitely really, really, really does not like her. They also feed a moose bananas. Sarah doesn’t want to put one in her mouth and feed it to the moose like the guide does, so she makes Willow do it.

Next they head to Valdez in yet another private plane. She says Creepy Chuck “taught her to think for herself, work hard, and embrace challenges,” and now she wants to pass those lessons on to Piper. From the plane, she points out the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline. Piper says her teacher told her about it. Sarah says, “so where does it end up?” Piper answers, “in the water.” Sarah says, “NO! Heaven forbid!” But she doesn’t tell her where it actually ends up. I guess Piper’s teacher wasn’t too great, and her mother, the great energy expert, never taught her about it either.

They go kayaking at the Valdez Glacier. Sarah says that when she was a student, she used to “bail on her own class” to go join her dad’s class. You don’t say, Sarah. YOU skipped school?! Shocker.

Piper is cute as she splashes and teases Sarah in the kayaks. Sarah, again showing off her complete lack of sensitivity, tells her, “don’t hit the iceberg, Piper, it’s like the Titanic.” They go into an ice cave that Sarah describes as “awesome.”

Sarah says that she learned from her dad when she was a little girl that “this isn’t a dress rehearsal. We want to seize the moment, get out there and enjoy, see it first hand. What I’m doing is passing on the tradition to our children now.” I look over at Bella and she looks very sad. I ask what is wrong and she says, “I don’t like the spinach on my pizza.” Relieved, I smile and tell her she can pick it off.

They get out of the kayaks and walk onto an iceberg. In a small cave, they see a hole and Sarah says, “if you fell in there, you’d never come back out.” Bella and I look at each other at the same time and just grin. We both know what the other is thinking.

They go out on a boat and see cute baby seals. Sarah says, “I have a beautiful seal skin purse that an Eskimo lady made me.” Why she would tell this to 2 kids who are enjoying the seals is beyond me. Piper gets to steer the boat to the end of the pipeline, where Sarah explains the history of it and how it affects the economy.

At the Cripple River gold mining camp in Nome, they have to take ATVs to get to the beach. Sarah says she wants the powerful one, but only if it is all automatic. She can’t drive stick. It is, so she hops on and drives off without a helmet. Piper rides with Chuck Jr. (and Piper does wear a helmet).

They get to the beach and Sarah says it is time to “dig baby dig.” She wants to know if finding gold is a matter of luck or hard work. The guide says it is a combination of both. The Palins divide into two teams to see who finds the most gold, because they turn EVERYTHING into a competition. Sarah says that Chuck Jr. is colorblind and Creepy Chuck is deaf, so she and Piper will win. But then she adds that Piper is wild. Piper responds, “and you are crazy.” YES. Best line of the whole series.

Piper wants to sell her gold on eBay because she wants to be rich. She tells her cousin she is going to sell all of it, for “a couple thousand.” He says he is selling his for 80. Piper says, “eighty thousand?” He says, “no, eighty dollars.” Ha! I hope someone pulls Piper aside and tells her that if she really wants to be rich, she should sell the story of who REALLY gave birth to Trig.

They camp on the beach in Nome and Sarah says some people accuse her of being a Diva, but that they just laugh at that and say, “yah, it is all diva all the time up here in Alaska.”

Sarah leaves the kids on shore with Creepy Chuck while she and Chuck Jr. take the boat out for some underwater gold mining. Sarah is responsible for staying on deck and making sure the divers below have air. Chuck Jr. says, “my life is in your hands, Sarah, don’t forget that.” They say a quick prayer and he descends. She discusses the danger of the dive, but says it is worth it because they can bring in $2,000 worth of gold every hour. They find a big nugget and lots of little flakes.

Back on land, they decide to search for blueberries. Piper says it is muddy and gross. Sarah calls her “Piper Diaper” and says she “needs a nap.” Nope, no divas in sight.

They see a herd of muskox and Sarah says that if someone is going to threaten a baby muskox, the adults all surround and protect the baby. In fact, in her last speech as governor, she “used the example of a muskox protecting its young and thought that she is probably the only Governor in the nation who knows what a muskox is all about and how it is applicable to how we should be as a society.” I think of Cristina Green and I feel my ears and cheeks get red and hot with anger.

Next they fly back to Wasilla for the Anchorage air show. Todd has a “serious passion for aviation.” We see scenes of the Blue Angels performance. Sarah says it was so great, she can “die and go to heaven now.” I don’t think that’s where she’s headed. No mention at all is made of how 4 died at that same air show.

They take the gold they found during the weekend the Alaskan Mint to have gifts made for Sally and Creepy Chuck. Piper uses the torch to melt the gold. Sarah takes over halfway through. She is impressed by how it just takes “hands on, blue collar work to turn the gold into something pretty.” They make a ring for Sally and a plaque for Creepy Chuck.

Piper, Sarah, Chuck, Jr. and Sarah’s nephew present the gifts for Creepy Chuck and Sally. Sally is very surprised and gets emotional. Todd holds Trig, who drinks from a bottle at age 2-1/2.

When it ends, I ask Bella if she has any final thoughts. She says, “Yes, if I ever watch this show again, I will barf.” LOL!! I can’t think of any better closing words, so I’ll just say I agree!

Advertisers who did not pull their ads and allowed them to air during this episode:
David’s Bridal
Hunt’s tomatoes
Discover card
Caltrate soft chews
Old Navy
Silk soy milk
Geico
Blue cat food
Weight Watchers
Rm & Hammer Oxi Clean laundry detergent
Kashi Go Lean cereals
Keller University (DeVry)
Scrubbing Bubbles
Chevy (the Cruze)
Huggies
Tide
GoToMyPC.com
Swiffer
Special K
Centrum Silver
The Art Institutes
Magic Jack
Arriva Medical

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Thank you Leadfoot and Bella for going the extra distance last night and really taking one for the team, especially at this difficult time. As I previously mentioned in the comments, the decision to watch was Leadfoot and Bellas and I absolutely support and respect their wish to finish something that they started. Unlike Sarah Palin, Leadfoot and Bella decided that they were not going to "bail out" just because they might, understandably, prefer to do anything other than sit through two hours of Sarah Palin and her endless promotion of herself. Palingates is very proud to post this final report on Sarah Palin's Alaska and hope that we can tempt Leadfoot and Bella back for further guest musings.

Please feel free to use this as an open post.

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Note by Patrick:

Leota2 just left a superb comment about "Palin's prop stalker" (click for more info), which I would like to repeat here:

Well, he's now her prop stalker. She pulls him out when she's been called to task She's never met him. He's never been in the state of Alaska. He also stalked Obama and McCain by letters. He's a poor bi-polar kid who lives in PA and is too broke to get a ticket to Alaska. He's under a restraining order. But Sarah just has to tell everyone he wants the order lifted. Instead of getting security and STFU like most people do about these things she's trying to deflect the shit storm that has fallen down on her.

I must say that this victim play is one of the MOST DISGUSTING things she's ever done after what just happened. Her timing sucks playing this victim game after what has happened to those poor people in Arizona.

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UPDATE:

Progressive talk-show host Nicole Sandler, who I had the pleasure to talk to on the air twice (here and here), today posted an excellent clip that should be spread wide:

"Carefully taught":

Short link for tweeting:

http://youtu.be/202-ajNmZPo

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In addition, Sarah Jones wrote an excellent commentary on politicususa.

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Sarah Palin's imaginary threats to her daughters - projection, marketing strategy or distraction?

When Sarah Palin drops hints about perverts targeting her children, we get suspicious.

This is not the first time she has used her children in some imaginary scenario where her children are at the mercy of sex predators.

Sarah Palin used some alleged threats of gang rape against Willow and Bristol as an excuse to move them away from Juneau.

From Going Rogue:

"In that first year, I was alerted to threats against Willow by students at her Juneau school, one particularly disturbing. Someone posted a note on an Internet site threatening to gang-rape her at school. I never felt safe for her after that. Later, the same thing happened to Bristol."

Last year David Letterman was depicted as a dirty old man who craked jokes about the statutory rape of Willow.



Now Joe McGinniss is supposed to get a kick out of peering through Piper bedroom window and watching her children swimming in Lake Lucille.

"Wonder what kind of material he’ll gather while overlooking Piper’s bedroom, my little garden, and the family’s swimming hole?"

Why does Sarah Palin have such an unhealthy preocupation with sexual threats against her daughters? Why does she paint an image where her daughters are the objects of men's fantasies? Who is sexualizing her underage daughters?

Bristol is now a famous teenage single mother. Encouraged by mom Sarah, Bristol associated herself with a company that uses sex in the most cynical way to sell their shoes and clothes while promoting abstinence as the only form of birth control.



Sarah Palin's own image revolves around a sexy image. Her own father thought it was appropriate to wear a t-shirt proclaiming his daughter to be the hottest governor of the coldest state.

Sex sells and Sarah Palin exploits the interest people have in all things sexual to stay in the headlines.

If she decided to become a pole dancer or pose for Playboy, good for her. But she's putting her own daughters out there as sex objects.

The grizzly mama conjured up images of Bristol and Willow being gang raped, of Willow being raped in the Yankee Stadium, of Piper taking her clothes off in her bedroom being observed by a dirty old man.

Sarah Palin has a very strange mind and projects her darkest thoughts onto men whose minds are NOT dominated with dreams of illegal sex with minors.

But there are plenty of other men who must be very grateful to Sarah Palin for providing them with the sexual imagery involving her own famous, good looking daughters to fuel their fantasies.

Sarah Palin uses sex to sell herself and uses her daughters sexuality to exact revenge on any man who dares to challenge or mock her.

Her latest stunt is generating many headlines and has Fox News in a frenzy. While they're discussing her fence and Todd's wrestling prowess as an alpha male, while people are debating the perceived threats to her daughters by the presence of a journalist and author too close for comfort, a number of other things that happened in the past week are not being discussed:

Rand Paul made a fool of himself.

Vaughn Ward lost the primary in Idaho.

Tim Burns didn't win the vacant congress seat in Pennsylvania.

Nikki Haley's skeletons are falling out of her closet.

Sarah Palin's speech in Las Vegas was a disaster.

She put her foot in her mouth regarding BP's donations to Obama.

The fee for her appearance at CSU Stanislaus was disclosed.

Chuck Heath said she doesn't make her own decisions.

Is it a coincidence that she turned the spotlight on her new neighbour when she was being criticized by the media? Is it a coincidence that she portrayed him as a threat to her daughters?

Yes, sex sells, sex distracts. In Sarah Palin's case, sex is a weapon she reloaded when things became a bit tricky.

What a cynical move by a woman with a very disturbed mind!