Manhattan Mini-Storage strikes again

Remember these controversial bus shelter and outdoor poster ads from Manhattan Mini-Storage?:

Here's their latest one:

The hands! That's perfect. Little details like that are what makes a good ad great.

(via feministing)

Up is down, war is peace...

... and Sarah Palin has been cleared of any legal wrongdoing.

It's already common knowledge that Palin lies a lot, but now she's wandering into serious DSM-IV territory. Taste the crazy:

"It's fair to say that Trooper-Gate hasn't exactly burnished Sarah Palin's reputation for honesty. And in a conference call she gave Saturday to respond to the legislature's report on the affair released Friday night, that reputation took another hit.

Palin opened her remarks by declaring:

I'm very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing ... any hint of any kind of unethical activity there.

But of course, it's simply untrue that the report cleared Palin of legal wrongdoing or unethical activity." (emphasis mine)

Can you say "narcissistic personality disorder"? How about "fucked up"?

Miserable lying douchebag

Satisfied for the moment with the level of spittle-flecked, foaming-at-the-mouth hatred she's whipped up in the GOP's racist base, Sarah Palin turns her attention to the anti-abortion lunatics, who as we all know have absolutely no history of spinning out and spiraling into violence. Working the stage and her rabid audience with yet another hysterical anti-Obama tirade yesterday in Pennsylvania, Palin conjured up visions of babies left to die on hospital floors by the order of the Bad Black Man:

"The GOP Vice-Presidential nominee saved her most scathing assault when talking about the Born Alive Protection Act, “Most troubling though, most troubling even, is that as a State Senator, Barack Obama wouldn’t even stand up for the rights of infants born alive during an abortion. These infants, often babies with special needs, they’re simply left to die. And in 2002, Congress unanimously passed a federal law to require medical care,” Palin said. “They are living breathing babies. But Sen. Obama describes them as pre-viable.”

Palin added, “Sen. Obama is a politician who has long since left behind even the middle ground on the issue of life.”"

And Sarah Palin is a politician who has long since left behind even the middle ground on the issue of Truth.

As ridiculous as it is, the terrible, pearl-clutching tale of how Obama opposed the "Born Alive" bill because he "favours infanticide" (of course!) has been flogged relentlessly by anti-choice organizations like National Right to Lie Life, who even made TV commercials about it. Launch the swiftboats! Just one little problem: the story is thoroughly debunked bullshit.

Obama voted against the "Born Alive" bill because it was so poorly-crafted. He's on record as stating that he'd support a similar bill as long as it was worded in such a way that it didn't endanger abortion rights. But of course that's what pisses them off, those who disseminate these odious lies, isn't it?

So Palin lied -- again -- for the sole purpose of ratcheting up the hate. Again. If Senator McCain is sincere about wanting to dial down the vitriol, he needs to let the rest of his campaign in on it. And if he really wants to do the right thing, unceremoniously dumping Palin from the ticket and kicking her lying douchebag ass back to Alaska to answer for her dishonesty up there would be a good start.

"Hockey Mom" Palin booed at Flyers' game

Alright hockey fans:

"Although many Philadelphia Flyers fans cheered and clapped as Sarah Palin took to the ice at the Wachovia Center on Saturday night to drop the ceremonial puck kicking off this town's NHL season, their warm reception was no match for the 90 seconds of sustained booing that rumbled through the arena, drowning out most of the cheers in support of the Republican vice presidential nominee.

As Palin stepped onto the ice before a capacity crowd to drop the puck, joined by her daughters Willow and Piper, the arena's jumbotron flashed a futile message to the thousands of notoriously harsh Philadelphia sports fans in attendance.

"Flyers fans, show Philadelphia's class and welcome America's #1 hockey mom, Sarah Palin," the massive electronic message board pleaded, to little effect. Booing quickly erupted when the smiling candidate emerged from a tunnel leading onto the ice, muffling the applause of any Palin supporters in the crowd.

Some in the audience simply gave her a thumbs down gesture. Others called her names."

Called her names!? Ha, she's lucky nobody beaned her with a squid. Here:

If you've been out all week giving hideously incendiary speeches to partisan audiences, it seems like a no-brainer that some of the audience at a non-political event (at least half, according to the polls) will probably be the very people you've been slagging. Common sense would dictate leaving the kids back in the stands, no?

Troopergate report: McCain campaign responds

Shorter McCainiacs: "Hey, unless there's a law against sleazy, slimy, unethical douchebaggery, Sarah Palin hasn't done anything wrong... and besides, the whole thing is a vast left-wing conspiracy." :

""Today's report shows that the Governor acted within her proper and lawful authority in the reassignment of Walt Monegan," said Palin spokeswoman Meg Stapelton. "The report also illustrates what we've known all along: this was a partisan led inquiry run by Obama supporters.""

Sure. Nothing to see here. That's why the McCain campaign has had lawyers up in Alaska for weeks, working feverishly around the clock to stall the report's publication.

But but but

but yesterday the McCain campaign cleared her!!!:

"Report reveals Palin abused power...

A 263-page report that was released following a six-hour hearing reveals that investigator Steve Branchflower concluded that Mrs Palin was guilty of violating state ethics rules for public officials.

The investigator said Mrs Palin had allowed her husband Todd Palin to use the Alaska Governor's office and its resources to pressure officials to sack trooper Mike Wooten, her former brother-in-law."

Say it ain't so, Sarah, say it ain't so! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

UPDATE: From TPM Muck, all you ever wanted to know about Troopergate. HAHAHAHAHA!

It's getting ugly

In these vile contests we call "elections", you can always tell when someone knows they're fucked by the ugliness of the accusations they hurl at their competition. It's a tactic borne out of total desperation -- just keep throwing shit and hope some of it sticks.

The McCain campaign shifted into full-bore "ugly" gear this week, with ludicrous accusations of a so-called "terrorist" connection to Obama. When Palin first started this shit on the weekend, some didn't see the racial undertone, but it was there -- Obama was the guy who "doesn't see America like we do", The Other. It's a dog whistle -- most of us don't hear it, but the racist scum does.

Today the open hostility spread to the media:

"Worse, Palin's routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's questions for her "less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media." At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew. One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, "Sit down, boy.""

Yeah, right... what was that about the incivility of the angry, angry left?

Olbermann on pallin' around with terrorists

Go Keith go!




HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Women go back to Obama

I don't like to get too excited about polls because they change like the weather, but there's definitely a trend building and it's good news all over for Barack Obama. Time has him at 50% overall, and even Rasmussen (which tends to favour the GOP) has him at 51%. He's taken the lead in several swing states, including the pivotal Florida.

Two things are bringing voters to Obama: worries about the economy and, most interestingly (to me, anyway), women voters are returning to the Dems faster than Sarah Palin initially brought them to the GOP. Time:

"Propelled by concerns over the financial crisis and a return of support from female voters, Barack Obama has opened a formidable 7-point lead over John McCain, reaching the 50% threshold among likely voters for the first time in the general campaign for President, according to a new TIME poll." [...]

"Among the poll's most dramatic findings: McCain is losing female voters faster than Sarah Palin attracted them after the Republican National Convention. Obama leads McCain by 17 points with women, 55%-38%. Before the conventions, women preferred Obama by a margin of 10 points, 49%-39%. After McCain picked Palin as his running mate, the gap narrowed to a virtual tie, with Obama holding a 1-point margin, 48%-47%."

See? Heather Mallick was right. Our vaginas do not call out to each other and demand some kind of weird solidarity, regardless of a candidate's credentials (or lack thereof).

So, hahaha, remind me again what it was that Palin brings to the GOP ticket?

Don't hate me because I'm average

Oh boo hoo hoo!:

"Sarah Palin has an answer to her media critics who say she isn't fit to be next in line for the presidency: They hate me because I represent the average "Joe Six-Pack" American."

Funny how she gets that she's "average", but doesn't get how that "averageness" extends a lot further than her persona.  And why it makes her candidacy a farce worthy of the movie "Being There".  

Setting the stage?

Since reading that rousing and snarly little speech to a friendly partisan audience at the RNC, it's been all downhill for Sarah Palin, and rightly so. One by one, even conservative columists are backpeddling on their initial enthusiasm for Palin -- some quietly grumbling that it might be time for her to bow out. With the pivotal VP debate coming up tomorrow night, Palin is locked down and incommunicado, feverishly cramming at Debate Camp as the McCain campaign tries to figure out how to keep this thing from going sideways:

"The McCain campaign moved its top officials inside Gov. Sarah Palin's operation Sunday to prepare for what is certain to be the most important event of her vice-presidential campaign: her debate on Thursday with Democrat Joe Biden.

Additionally, at the urging of the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, Gov. Palin will leave late Monday for his Arizona ranch to prepare for the high-stakes debate.

The moves follow several shaky performances by Gov. Palin last week and come amid concern and grumbling from Republicans, and even a few queries from her husband, Todd Palin, according to campaign operatives and Republican officials."

Wait-wait-wait a minute. That's interesting:

"For his part, Mr. Palin has worried about the frequent separation of his wife from her family, friends and Alaska staff, an adviser said. Accordingly, her family will be with her in Sedona during this week. Also, a key Alaska staffer joined the Palin operation Sunday." (emphasis mine)

One foot out the door and the other on a banana peel!

"I read all of 'em!"

Oh, GAWD, this just gets more and more excruciating. From Katie Couric's interview with Sarah Palin tonight, Couric asks her what news sources she reads to stay informed about, you know, the world. And SaWah, as usual, came up a little short:

COURIC: And when it comes to establishing your world view, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this — to stay informed and to understand the world?

PALIN: I’ve read most of them again with a great appreciation for the press, for the media —

COURIC: But what ones specifically? I’m curious.

PALIN: Um, all of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years.

COURIC: Can you name any of them?

PALIN: I have a vast variety of sources where we get our news.

She couldn't even name one news source that she reads? The Anchorage Daily News? The Wasilla Weekly Wazoo? Nothing? Seriously? I'm pretty sure most people, right off the top of their heads could name at least ONE news source. It's not a hard question. Is it!!????

McCain mafia "protection" racket

Nice VP debate-moderating job you got there, Gwen. It'd be a shame if anything happened to it.

Planned Parenthood donations soar

Since their viral fundraising campaign started last week, Planned Parenthood donations in "honour" of fetus fetishizing extremist Sarah Palin have reached $763,350:

"Thanks to abortion foe Sarah Palin, Planned Parenthood is $763,350 richer.

That's how much money a viral e-mail campaign, which urges foes of the Republican veep candidate to make a donation in Palin's name, has raised."

Apart from the fundraising aspect of things, the beauty of this campaign is that with each "in honour" donation, the McCain campaign receives a thank-you card -- some 30,000 of them so far. Ha! Fuck with women's rights at your peril (or at the risk of being buried alive in thank-you/fuck-you cards).

Sarah Palin Bye-Bye Watch

The wheels have fallen off the Palin train, the rats are fleeing the sinking ship and the McCain campaign is beginning to realize it has a world-class disaster on its hands. Even her own campaign people are calling Palin "clueless". After a mock debate and town hall presser meant to shore up Palin's coherency, McCain insiders wept openly: "What are we going to do?"

What indeed? The VP debate is looming on the horizon like a thundercloud, and all indications are that Palin will be demolished, squashed like a salmonberry with ease by Smokin' Joe Biden.

Somehow the GOP has to stop that debate from happening. They tried to "delay" it to "an unknown time" (like November 5th). That didn't work. Now what? Will a family emergency call SaWah home to Alaska and Mitt Romney (or someone) heroically step in to pick up the slack? I think that's exactly what will happen, it's just a matter of whether they're smart enough to do it tonight (so it's old news by Monday).

Can you imagine John McCain's brain right now? It must be squirming like a toad. I wonder how he'll do in the debate tonight?

UPDATE: Here we go... Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

That was then

Rod Dreher ("The Crunchy Con"), September 3rd:

"...as of tonight, Sarah Palin made it clear that she is a superstar. The Republicans have found their Obama. Game on."

Or maybe not. Rod Dreher, September 25th:

"Palin is mediocre, again, regurgitating talking points mechanically, not thinking. Palin's just babbling. She makes George W. Bush sound like Cicero." [...]

"UPDATE: New Palin excerpt up, in which she discusses why having Russia next to Alaska gives her relevant foreign policy experience. I am well and truly embarrassed for her. I think she's a good woman who might well be a great governor of Alaska. But good grief, just watch this train wreck..."

Reality's a bitch, ain't it?

UPDATE: When you've lost K-Lo, it's Game Over:

"I'm not where my friend Kathleen Parker is -- wanting her to step aside to spend more time with her family and Alaska -- but that's not a crazy suggestion."

Anybody want to start a SaWah Buh-Bye Watch?

Because it would be sexist not to make special debate rules for Palin

Oh, here we go -- the Vice-Presidential debates. The Democrats and Republicans have agreed on the format for the VP debate on October 2. Not surprisingly, the Rethugs want to protect their dainty candidate from having to do too much actual talking:

"Under the plan agreed to yesterday, Palin and Biden will have less time than McCain and Obama to reply to moderators' questions and discuss each other's answers." [...]

"In the negotiations, Republicans wanted to limit the amount of time available for their neophyte candidate, Palin, to be questioned on a single topic. Democrats, meanwhile, wanted to be sure Biden and Palin spoke from lecterns rather than sitting at a table the way Vice President Cheney and his rivals in 2000 (Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut) and 2004 (Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina) did. Both sides got what they wanted. Palin and Biden will each have 90 seconds to respond to questions, followed by a two-minute period for discussion between the candidates." (emphasis mine)

Well, you had to know that was coming. And who can blame them? When she gets on a roll, the results are... curious. Here's SaWah on something to do with energy policy (I think -- though I can't be sure):

“Oil and coal? Of course, it’s a fungible commodity and they don’t flag, you know, the molecules, where it’s going and where it’s not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first,” Palin said. “So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it’s Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It’s got to flow into our domestic markets first.”

SHRIEEEEEEK!!!

I'll be watching to see if she wears her hair up or down, to hide the earpiece.

UPDATE: Andrew doesn't like it. Wow, in 6-odd years of reading him, this is the first time I can recall ever seeing him use the F-word. But he's right -- all Americans should be using the F-word about this, it's ridiculous.

UPDATE II: Heh.

Oh, great...

I see that demented old harridan Phyllis Schlafly is back with more of her insufferable anti-feminist gibberish:

"The nomination of Sarah Palin for vice president is a big step forward for women, but a long backward step for the movement we have been taught to call feminism. That is obvious from the anguish, indeed the fury, of feminist commentators. They are so intemperate in their criticism that they are incoherent. Men who are clueless about feminism naively think all women should be cheering. Sarah Palin is a woman who has done it all; she has a successful and even more promising career, five children and a supportive husband.

She crashed through the ultimate layer of the feminist fiction -the "glass ceiling" - and she joined those very few women destined to be known only by their first names. What more could any woman want?"

Phyllis, you braindead old bag. SaWah didn't crash through any ceiling, glass or otherwise. Her nomination was like the dark side of affirmative action run wild -- she was chosen because of her gender, not in spite of it, to get those disgruntled Hillary votes. Not because she had the skills and qualifications for the job, but because her lack thereof meant she'd never challenge Presidaddy McCain. She adds nothing to the ticket but an extra "X" chromosome and an extremist ideology that will deliver a few million votes from the cataclysmically stupid religious right, who while Wall Street burns and war metastasizes into nuclear-armed Pakistan, fret about other peoples' sex lives. But onward. Schlafly can't resist a dig at Gloria Steinem:

"When Hillary Rodham Clinton failed to get the Democratic nomination for president or vice president, she and her allies rained a torrent of tears all over the media about the injustice of it all, ranting that rampant sexism denied her the nomination she was due. The aging Gloria Steinem opined on CNN that it is "clear that there is profound sexism." She whined that Hillary couldn't crack the "glass ceiling" because there are "still barriers and biases out there." (emphasis mine)

The "aging Gloria Steinem"? I'll gladly respond to that vacuous little jab in kind. Steinem (pictured above left) and Schlafly (top of post) are both mature women, not too far apart in age, but wow, look at them -- I know which one I'd rather be! Okay, onward:

"The feminists resent Sarah because she's the exact opposite of Hillary Clinton.... Sarah didn't need any Equal Rights Amendment, which Hillary is still promoting even though it was declared dead by the Supreme Court 26 years ago."

That's right. When you're appointed without credentials by God, the Oil Industry and the War Pimps, who needs Equal Rights? And though I can't speak for everyone, I know that's one of the main reasons I resent Palin -- because she got the nomination handed to her like a free pass, just for being a fundie and a woman, and in spite of her own virulently anti-woman policies. It's reverse sexism at its worst -- but I wouldn't expect a misogynist crackpot like Schlafly to understand that.

UPDATE: Antonia Z weighs in... money quote:

"No, Palin did not ''crash'' through the glass ceiling. She got a leg up by a bunch of Republican backroom boys who knew that they needed an extremist on the ticket to placate the right-wing Republicans who had their doubts about McCain's conservative credentials. She also was a cynical attempt to win over white Democrat women who were disaffected by Hillary Clinton's being left off the ticket.

A ''crash'' through the ceiling leaves a hole through which other women may follow, and chip away some more.

But Palin believes in nothing that will improve women's chances of making it."

Tru dat!

Bastards

From Defenders of Wildlife, a video about Sarah Palin's support for the aerial *cough* "hunting" *cough* of wolves:



If the wolves aren't shot dead from the plane, they're chased until they run themselves into exhaustion... in other words, tortured. And we know what studies show about people who get a charge out of torturing animals. Only a sick bastard could support this vicious, brutal practice.

Just one more in a growing list of ways that Palin is a fucking disgrace.

(via Grizzly Bay)

I love Andy

From Bill Maher's Real Time the other night:



"We need to be more upset!" Go Andrew! That's the kind of conservative voice the world needs more of.

(from andrew sullivan)