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Sarah Palin: The Tea Party is real winner of the debate

"I was very pleased with this debate, and, you know, very excited about the validation of the Tea Party movement," Sarah Palin told Greta Van Susteren last night in a meaty analysis of the CNN/TeaPartyExpress debate that echoed our own take and set our woman-up, fight-like-a-girl heart on fire. Listen to full interview here.

While some of our favorite bloggers and columnists and talking heads debated the winners and losers of last night's CNN/TeaPartyExpress GOP primary debate, a shoot-to-where-it's-going, not-to-where-it's-been Sarah Palin disintermediated the usual premise of judging these contests. As she explained to Greta Van Susteren in a landmark "On the record" post-debate interview last night:

Here they hook up with a major news network, CNN — and more power to CNN for allowing that validation — of this grassroots Tea Party movement.

Participants from all over the nation being able, as a voice of "We the people," asking questions of these potential presidents …

The winner in this really, I believe, was the Tea Party movement.

"Greta, this is one of the reasons that many of us really love your show because you have been one on top of this issue from day one, talking about the fraud, the waste and the crony capitalism." From opposite ends of the political spectrum, the two women seem to have forged a sisterly bond through their shared mission to fight corruption wherever they may find it.

Palin and Van Susteren — the conservative Mama Grizzly and the liberal Fox News show host — may seem an odd pairing. A tough questioner, Van Susteren earned Palin's trust early on by giving her a fair hearing where others, even Fox libertarian Judge Napolitano, were buying — and promulgating — the "lamestream media's" Palin-is-Stupid narrative spin. Fortunately the Judge finally came to his senses.

 

"I'm not gonna let the media dictate when a drop-dead date should be," Palin answered Van Susteren's inevitable will-she-or-won't-she question:

In the meantime, I'm getting kind of a kick out of this, and I have to be honest with you. Getting a kick out of getting out there, giving a speech, making some statements about things that must be discussed, and then the very next day watching some of the candidates get out there and discuss what it was that we just talked about, like the corruption, the crony capitalism, the waste, the fraud … That perhaps is my role right now, is to get people talking about the issues that the American people deserve to hear discussed … I'm gonna keep doing that!

Mark America at US for Palin develops the theme in his must-read "Only One Republican is Shaping the Debate":

While it is true to say the Tea Party won the debate, it’s likewise clear that the themes Governor Palin has been discussing since 2008 are really the foundation of the ongoing Republican discussion.

See also Dana Loesch's insider's analysis "CNN Shows MSNBC How a Debate is Done."

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Cloven Not Crested.

Rick Perry: "Galileo got outvoted for a spell"

 

As a Palinista from day one, we're still  "undecided," but we loved this from Texas Governor Rick Perry (above) at last night's GOP primary debate: "Galileo got outvoted for a spell … Find out what the science truly is before you start putting the American economy in jeapordy." This morning irony-challenged MSNBC talking heads joked about whether Perry saw himself as Galileo, unaware that it is they themselves, our friends on the left side of the aisle, who are the Roman Inquisitors of our day.

"You yourself have said the party is in danger of becoming anti-science. Who on this stage is anti-science?" MSNBC whatshisname taunted flat-earther Jon Huntsman at last night's Republican primary debate. Darwinian libertarian that we are, we've been horrified for some time at the left's conflation of the science of evolution that we embrace with the mumbo-jumbo secular religion of anthropogenic global warming/climate change. We've been on the left's AGW case for two decades, at least, since Andrea Mitchell (God bless her now in her time of genuine sorrow) acknowledged her lack of objectivity way back when:

Clearly the networks have made the decision now, where you'd have to call it advocacy.

Now, when up-till-now AGW proseletizer Nature Journal of Science is finally acknowledging they got it wrong — Can you say cosmic rays and the sun? — our friends on the left side of the aisle continue to bury their heads in the sand. As we've said for a zillion blogyears, it's the importance of being noticed — aka tribalism — stupid.

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

Anti-Palin tempest in a teapot? "Fog of war describes Twitter in a nutshell"

"This has been a long tease with Sarah Palin, and at some point that tease has just got to go away. What's going to happen next," snickered Laura Ingraham (above left) to guest Ann Coulter last night as the two blonde bombshells shared what struck us as a covenly caterwaul over the Mama Grizzly's disintermediating GOP primary tactics. Twitter buddy Charles @repub9989 thinks it's a jealous-woman thing, but then there's Red State's Erick Erickson's complaint. See below for more, and click here for The Right Scoop's video.

"Fog of war describes Twitter in a nutshell," twittered Moe Lane this afternoon in response to our attempt to defuse a friendly-fire incident over our blogfriend's preference for announced Lone-Star candidate Scott Rick Perry (thanks to chickelit in the comments for the correction) vs our own first love, unannounced shoot-to-where-it's-going Sarah Palin:

Oh. Didn't realize you were a Perry supporter. Just retweeting a tweet that made sense to me. Reminds me of the fog of war.

We were but two hand-to-hand combatants in an army of cyberwarriors locked in a fiery internecine battle that erupted this morning between Palinistas and everyone else on our side of the aisle in the wake of a dishy catfest last night between mischief-maker Ann Coulter and host Laura Ingraham, subbing for O'Reilly:

Coulter: Most Americans don't want Sarah Palin for President, but she's become sort of the Obama of the Tea Party. She's just "The One" to a certain segment of right wingers, and the tiniest criticism of her — I think many of your viewers may not know this — no conservative on TV will criticize Palin because they don't want to deal with the hate mail.

Ingraham: People like Palin to show up at these events and whip up the crowd. There's a place for that, and I think we need that. but people, when I talk to them, they seem to be desperate and hungry more that ever for real substance, beyond kind of the sloganeering and the bumper sticker stuff.

Bring on the smelling salts. Then there was Red State's Erick Erickson, "all wee weed up over Palin," as Dan Riehl so memorably puts it. We particularly liked Rants for Reasonable People's PolitiJim's open letter to Erickson:

Did you forget it was PALIN who helped galvanize and garner the conservative movement in 2008? Have you not read the citations of those of us who started with Santelli and were empowered with Palin who comment how many ended up as 'the tea party?'  When the 'big government' republicans and pretenders forced us onto McCain - Palin was a sign of hope.

Update: Memeorandum links Erick Erickson's "Enough."

Update II: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Cloven Not Crested.

Palin Undefeated: It's the crony capitalism, stupid!

This weekend Steve Bannon's Palin documentary ‘The Undefeated’ will be available On Demand and Pay-Per-View from a major cable or satellite company near you. We wrote about the movie — sight unseen — last June in "Palin Undefeated: 'A story of empowerment for modern women and their daughters.'" Now we can put our money where our mouth was, in the comfort of our own home. Above, sugar-and-spice Sarah (center) with her siblings.

Funny how incurious the "intellectually curious" hive mind of the left can be when it comes to all things Sarah Palin. The latest is a classic blinders-on, Journolist-talking-points-in-hand "review" of Steve Bannon's Palin Documentery "The Undefeated." (h/t Tim Graham of News Busters). Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday is the mouthpiece of this particular outpouring of Palin envy. A few excerpts and then our take:

Based on her modest demeanor and record of budget, energy and ethics reform in Alaska, it’s easy to see her appeal to McCain, who called Palin while she was at the Alaska State Fair to ask her to run for veep. What "The Undefeated" doesn’t explain — in addition to the title "Undefeated" when Palin was, actually, defeated in 2008 — is how a woman whose early career had been dedicated to transcending partisan politics became such a ferocious political warrior while on the stump. Instead, Bannon sets Palin up as a victim — of liberals, of establishment conservatives and of the "lamestream media" that his subject has become so skilled at manipulating (a talent the filmmaker strangely neglects to mention).

About that title, "The Undefeated." Ever heard of wordplay, Ms. Hornaday? Sarah Palin may have lost an election, but she fights like a girl! Disintermediating the powers that be, she picked herself up and got back in the race. The words of Sun Tzu come to mind:

To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

Then there's Hornaday's fixation with "trascending partisan politics." You see a lot of that from the left, presumably hoping to catch the eye — and poll-tested votes — of the mushy middle. How could a "non-partisan" Palin who rooted out corruption in her OWN PARTY become "such a ferocious political warrior while on the stump"? It's the crony capitalism, stupid. Real Clear Politics has the scoop:

In her speech at the bucolic National Balloon Classic field in Indianola [tomorrow], Palin will lean on loaded phrases like “crony capitalism” and “permanent political class” in laying out her view of the U.S. political system’s deep-rooted ills, according to a source close to Palin and familiar with the content of the speech.

And this from National Review:

“She will also talk, more broadly, about how she is not enamored of the political class, both Republicans and Democrats, who do not deserve to be elected if they only continue the status quo,” the source continues. “She will discuss corporate lobbyists, White House operatives, and others who enable the vested interests.” Many of the themes from her recent Facebook post, “Conquering the Storm,” will be mentioned.

Will she or won't she? Dan Riehl says "yes" on Twitter:

Overseas trip had to be Palin's last check box. She's getting in.

Disintermediate at will:

The former Alaska Governor is scheduled to attend the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, where she will speak alongside global economic leaders like Larry Summers and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The conference begins Oct. 11, the same day as the GOP primary debate hosted by Bloomberg in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Update: Doug Ross Larwyn's Lynx link.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Cloven Not Crested.

It's the water, stupid

"Whether that is in the Everglades or whether that is in the eastern Gulf region, or whether that's in North Dakota, we need to go where the energy is," Michele Bachmann said during a Florida stop Sunday: "Of course it needs to be done responsibly. If we can't responsibly access energy in the Everglades then we shouldn't do it." Why, oh, why, did she volunteer the Everglades in a Florida stop? We're with Debbie Wasserman Shultz (!), Allen West, John Hayward, the alligators and the manatees (above) on this. But it's all in how you frame the argument (see below).

"As a Floridian, I can see that Michele Bachmann's outrageous proposal to drill for oil and natural gas in the Everglades demonstrates just how out of touch Republicans are with the needs of Floridians and all Americans," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D FL-20) today, tarring all of us on the right side of the aisle with a broad, holier-than-thou JournoList brush. We hate the land — especially the wetland — and all things bright and beautiful! Water purified by natural systems? Who needs it. Contrast her vitriolic tone with the measured rhetoric of her fellow Sunshine stater Rep. Allen West (R FL-22), who had this to say about Bachmann's proposal:

West also said fellow tea party celebrity Michele Bachmann made "an incredible faux pas" this week during her presidential campaign swing through Florida when she said she'd consider allowing drilling for oil and natural gas in the Everglades if it can be done safely.

"The Everglades is one of the natural wonders of the world …

"When I see her next week, I'll straighten her out about that," West said of the Republican Minnesota congresswoman. Freshman West is a member of the House Tea Party Caucus that Bachmann chairs.

"I happen to live quite near the Everglades, and I’m prepared to believe they should be eternally off-limits to drilling … provided that case is made with facts and reason," says John Hayward, puting things in perspective:

We’re reaching a major crisis point between environmentalism and industry. It’s been a long time coming. Too much of the debate is shrouded in illusions that we can’t afford any more. Too much has been declared “unthinkable” by hysterics and political opportunists like Wasserman Schultz. We need to start thinking about these issues …

That is a binary choice: if we want job growth and energy independence, we're going to have to drill in someone's "backyard."

Update: Bachmann maintains her stance (why, Michele, why?):

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

"First Responders and Clergyfolk are not very important to the powerful and the enlightened"

"Join us and thousands of patriots at the AFDI/SIOA 911 Freedom Rally at Ground Zero on the afternoon of September 11th. We will have a priest and a rabbi for the invocation as part of our program (just as we did last year). Be there," writes our sister grizzly in arms Pamela Geller from the front lines of the battle to retake the Shining City. Above, our own photo of The Divine Miss G at Joe Lieberman's victory party back in November of 2006.

"Sissy Willis, are you trying to start a revolt? :-)" twitters Elizabeth Scalia aka The Anchoress in reponse to our response to her fightin' words this evening regarding NYC Mayor Bloomberg's smug pronouncement that no first responders nor religious are welcome at the Big Apple's 10th-anniversary observance of 9/11. Quoting one of her commenters, we twittered:

I say that the people who MATTER should organize a memorial of their own. Just show up.

It turns out our old friend Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs is way ahead of the curve (see caption above). To get ourselves and our readers up to speed on the issues, a few excerpts from Scalia's transcendent must-read rant, some more telling comments from her commenters and finally our own take. Here's Elizabeth:

First Responders and Clergyfolk are not very important to the powerful and the enlightened. They only protect us, rescue us, resuscitate us, console us, pray with us, bless us and bury us. And when they die doing it, well, one does feel terrible about it for a whole news cycle or two. And then one takes a private jet somewhere, and tries to forget …

I don’t know why I should be surprised. Priests and First Responders are, like our troops, front-line folk. They’re like heroes in the cowboy flicks; they ride in, shoulder the burden, help put things to rights, and then — while the elite get on with assuming their power and asserting their primacy — they recede into the background. Only the very few stick around to say ‘thank you’ and wave them off. Sometimes children ask them to come back, or to stay.

This from Dave in the comments got our tea-party juices flowing:

Hmmm; a public event that is not public? I submit a “what if?” question … What if off-duty FDNY and NYPD show up, in uniform? Or, further suppose that priests, members of religious orders and the faithful also show up? Let us even invite the religiously inclined of all faiths. What if the ironworkers, laborers, and those who provided volunteer services for weeks and months to the site workers came without the “proper” invitation? All of those would be hard to ignore. Even though I am a former firefighter, I am part of larger community of persons sustained by ritual, tradition and faith. I cannot imagine that persons of power, wealth and inflated egos could wish to exclude those who gave so much for all of us.

Then this from Mark L:

Well. You can tell it has been ten years, can’t you.

Reminds me of an old piece of doggerel about sailors and soldiers (who are much like first responders):

The sailor/soldier and God alike are adored
When danger’s at hand, and not before.
Once danger has passed both alike are requited:
God is forgotten and the sailor/soldier is slighted.

"Just show up. Be there. Americans have the freedom of assembly," wrote commenter Lee:

Assemble at Ground Zero: NYC first responders, first responders from elsewhere who came to help, people who were there and remember, people who lost a loved one, people who have not forgotten what happened. And clergy: ministers, priest, rabbis, etc.

Start the REAL memorial commemoration: not this idiot thing organized by people who work for the idiot Bloomberg. And make the REAL memorial the one that MATTERS. A grass roots effort to commemorate an important moment in our country’s recent history.

Reminds us of Rick Santelli's "Rant for the Ages" from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade back in February of 2009, a truth-to-power call for a new "Tea Party" in response to President Obama's redistributionist mortgage-bailout plan. For us the great awakening had begun with Sarah Palin's emergence onto the national stage in August of 2008, when we fell head over heels for the mama grizzly's fierce determination and authentic American voice long before the "lamestream media" moved in for the kill. We got our activist feet wet in the Tea Party gatherings of spring 2009, then earned our wings helping Scott Brown dislodge the democrat establishment from the "Kennedy Seat" in January of 2010. November 2010, now November 2012. It's not just the democrats. It's the Ruling Class of both parties, and we're learning how to fight like a girl!

Update: Instalanche! Thank you, Professor Reynolds.

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

Through a glass brightly

 

Little Kitteh! Little Kitteh! burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye, could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Was it the will of the Master of the Universe alone that gave life to man? Or did Adam — in the manner of LK above, gazing with longing through the seemingly impenetrable window that separated them — reach out to slip the surly bonds of earth to put out his hand/paw and touch the face of God/Tuck?

Update: Wordplay in the comments:

Chickelit: Heh. I am FeMale (iron man).

Connecticut Yankee: Actually, cats are a compound of iron, lithium, and neon: FeLiNe. (They're strong, they're great mood stabilizers, and they certainly light up our lives!)

Fight like a girl because you're not "just" a girl

Lively debate in the radio studio with Peter Ingemi (above) of DaTechGuyblog yesterday morning, then on to a "salon" at Borders Grille in Leominster with lotsa good food and drink and talk with local listeners, bloggers, radio talkers and writers.

"Mummy wanted a girl. At least one woman who didn't want a boy," we wrote our imail correspondent in high dudgeon in response to this bit of conventional wisdom that stuck in our craw this afternoon:

She: YET...for whatever reason, everbody wants a BOY!

We: In some cultures like Chinese, it apparently has to do with money ... inheritance and such ... course where does that come from? And where does it lead? [Not enough women for the men, not enough offspring to replace the old folks. Can you say Eurabia?]

She: Dowry is BIG, but … I feel blessed to have sons. I never had to go shopping at the MALL!!!

Peter invited Tuck into the studio, where he turned out to be a natural talker. Fun stuff. Then on to Borders for what our twitter friend Ginny aka ginthegin calls "Nip &Tuck."

We were discussing, of course, the latest bit of news from our friends on the genome side of the aisle about a new, relatively inexpensive lab test that tells you the sex of your prospective offspring before the life force ever has a chance to breathe free. There is something so wrong about playing God with that information, in our view. You're a married couple wanting a child, and you bypass nature's way to use modrin science to choose? So many unsavory things come tumbling out. The eternal sadness thinking about the little girl that might have been the light of your life. The way things turned out with the little boy who maybe didn't fulfill your dreams of him. Whatever. For us Thoreau's timeless words ring true:

The most alive is the wildest. Not yet tamed by man, it refreshes him.

Arrggghhh! We say that as the one-year-younger sister of a totally awesome older brother, best buddies when we were Joe and Mike having kicka fights in the early years, but then went our separate ways for years in the wake of this mentality:

We: I want to do it too. How come he can and I can't?

Mummy: Because you're a girl.

Don't remember the issue, but "because you're a girl" was seared, seared in our memory. We were a Sarah Palin "fight like a girl" gal from day one and never bought in to the boys-are-better narrative. When the Gramscian march through the institutions hijacked the feminist project with the postmodern woman-as-victim narrative, we were horrified. That's probably why we tossed our hat to the sky and shouted for joy: It's a girl? when Sarah Palin sprung onto the national stage three years back.

Update: Bill Quick of Daily Pundit links.

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

Dear John Podhoretz: I love you, but

John Podhoretz's twitter avatar (above) is one of our favorites, beaming father with enchanting daughter. Hard not to love the guy, and we do, but hey. This is politics!

"So unless I agree with every word you say I'm not with 'we the people'? Elitist!" tweets the divine John Podhoretz, playing with our own tweet:

You aren't one of dem fuddy-duddy Codevilla rul'g class types, are you? I always thought you were on the side of "We the people."

We were responding to Podhoretz's own provocative tweet:

If Sarah Palin runs, Mitt Romney does the Snoopy dance of joy.

Arrggghhhh! No one is cleverer and cuddlier than Podhoretz, but does he realize how condescending such tweets are to grassroots tea partiers like us, for whom Romneycare has always been a craw sticker and Palin always an authentic voice in the wilderness who speaks to us with a servant's heart?

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

Whither goest thou? "Only a living thing can go against the stream"

 "Against the Tide" by Rob Colvin.

"Shorter NYT: Tea party is out of the mainstream because members are white, religious and socially conservative," twitter buddy Hale Razor writes re Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell's inadvertently self-revelatory New York Times op ed, "Crashing the Tea Party," a fact-challenged, politically correct dismissal of us and our fellow constitutional conservatives as "less popular than much maligned groups like 'atheists' and 'Muslims.'" A couple of paragraphs, and then some analysis:

GIVEN how much sway the Tea Party has among Republicans in Congress and those seeking the Republican presidential nomination, one might think the Tea Party is redefining mainstream American politics.

But in fact the Tea Party is increasingly swimming against the tide of public opinion: among most Americans, even before the furor over the debt limit, its brand was becoming toxic … Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right. 

Swimming against the tide, indeed. Redefining mainstream American politics is what the tea party has always been about, gentlemen, notwithstanding the last-gasp efforts of the powers that be like you and your fellow travelers in Sarah Palin's "lamestream media" to demonize us into oblivion. Can you say Tea Party terrorists? The Anchoress explains in her must-read review of Mark Steyn's After America: 

But Steyn is not writing solely about the social unrest and the hooliganism that so often comes with economic distress. After America warns that an over-regulated, bureaucracy-laden society, dissuaded from conceiving and achieving great things because too much has come between an idea and its execution, is a society dumbing down and numbing-up, growing not just stagnant, but inert, like Chesterton’s “dead thing” that “can go with the stream,” while “only a living thing can go against it.”

Oh, the irony that Harvard's Robert Putnam, author of the iconic "Bowling Alone," trapped in his tribal Pauline Kael bubble, is blind to what's right there before his eyes. As Hale Razor twittered:

Putnam sees social isolationism and decreasing church attendance, yet can't spot a nexus, while ripping social conservatives.

Putnam's "groundbreaking book based on vast data," published just over a decade ago before blogs and twitter and facebook and other social media reshaped and re-energized the public square, seems sadly set in amber today:

Putnam warns that our stock of social capital – the very fabric of our connections with each other, has plummeted, impoverishing our lives and communities.

Putnam draws on evidence including nearly 500,000 interviews over the last quarter century to show that we sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often. 

Signing fewer petitions and belonging to fewer organizations? That is so yesterday, Mr. Putnam. You and your co-author need to get out more. You shoulda interviewed people like ourselves before writing that New York Times relic. Tea Partay!

Update: Doug Ross of Larwyn's Linx links.

Update II: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link (to our crosspost at Dan's).

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

James Pethokoukis: "Perhaps a storm is about to sweep down from the Far North"

EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska. The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, shines above Bear Lake here January 18, 2005. The lights are the result of solar particles colliding with gases in Earth's atmosphere. Early Eskimos and Indians believed different legends about the Northern Lights, such as they were the souls of animals dancing in the sky or the souls of fallen enemies trying to rise again.

"Perhaps a storm is about to sweep down from the Far North!" twitters the divine Jimmy P, aka James Pethokoukis, in response to this tweet of ours:

This too will pass? The drought will continue?

We were responding to Jimmy's original tweet, "Like a Texas summer storm, Perry sweeps over Iowa Straw Poll," linking to his latest must-read post:

Congratulations to Michele Bachmann, but the big political winner Saturday wasn’t in Ames, Iowa. That politician was half a country away in South Carolina, completely scrambling the Republican presidential race.

1) Online betting markets have already decided that Texas Gov. Rick Perry is no flash in the Panhandle — another Fred Thompson or Wesley Clark who sparks a flurry of interest but quickly fades. To bettors, it’s a two-horse race and a dead heat between Perry and Mitt Romney. But anyone listening to Perry’s well delivered, muscular, high-energy speech in Charleston, S.C., would probably draw the same political conclusion. He hit tea party-friendly themes and hit them well.

Neither Romney nor Perry will likely hesitate in, shall we say, contrasting their records. Romney will play up his business career as a successful private equity investor and venture capitalist and slam Perry as a “career politician” and "crony capitalist.“ And Perry will counter with attacks on Romney’s Obamacare-esque healthcare plan in Massachusetts, as well as stressing his own inspirational life story (son of tenant farmers to presidential candidate).

Jimmie left his readers hanging with this:

Assuming no other heavy hitters join the race. Perry-Romney is shaping up to be an epic brawl between two aggressive candidates with impressive resumes, both able to raise boat loads of campaign cash. Let the Austin-Boston battle begin.

"Assuming no other heavy hitters join the race"? We refer you once again to Jimmie's taunting tweet above:

Perhaps a storm is about to sweep down from the Far North!

Hmmm. We were just thinking the very thing ourselves.

Update: Rand Simberg of Transterrestrial Musings links:

It’s going to be a very interesting race for the Republican nomination, and I suspect that whoever emerges from it will be the stronger for it, and ready to send the president back to academia.

Crossposted at Riehl World View. 

King or kingmaker, Sarah Palin's heart and mind will energize seekers of wisdom and truth

Sarah Palin and Herman Cain embrace at Iowa State Fair. "Have heard Herman Cain is warm and energizing in person. I fell for him way back when, used a quote in Tea Party sign," we twittered Ginny aka ginthegin this afternoon, quoting the man with a plan: "Stay inspired: We the people are still in charge." 

"King or kingmaker, her heart and mind will energize seekers of wisdom and truth," we twittered libertarian twitter friend Doug Mataconis this afternoon in response to his smiley-snarky challenge to our abiding faith in the Mama Grizzly who beckons us to "woman up" and "fight like a girl":

If you think Palin has any chance in a General Election, I want some of whatever drug you're trippin' on :)."

Even as Texas Governor Rick Perry upstaged the usual Iowa Straw Poll suspects with a rousing call to arms this afternoon — throwing his hat in the ring at the Red State Gathering of bloggers [!] in South Carolina and putting the democrat smear-mongers on high alert — Sarah Palin was playing hard to get. But not to worry. She's biding her time, disintermediating the powers that be with her usual flair, shooting to where it's going, not to where it's been. We loved this after-the-break teaser from CNN's Candy Crowley this evening in the aftermath of Michele Bachmann's winning the straw poll and write-in candidate Perry's outpolling Mitt, Newt, Jon and Thaddeus:

So what's Palin's goal? Why's she getting all the attention?

Dan Riehl explains:

Put aside the purely Republican primary politics of it for a moment. Also, I'm not endorsing her, or anyone at this point. But what happened in Iowa yesterday was electric, not just for any Palin faithful, but for many Conservatives and especially the media. For better, or worse, Sarah Palin has star power — whatever that is.

Palin has two critical qualities, unique in that they combine in her. Beholden to no one, without fear, or restraint, Palin articulates today's conservatism in a prudent, positive and cogent manner. More than that, the media, while much of it both loves and hates her, conveys her message to an audience far more broadly than they do for any other contemporary politician. 

It's the electricity, stupid? As we twittered Mary Katherine Ham this afternoon in response to her praise of Rick Perry's storytelling skills:

We need storytellers to tell our side of the story, capture the mushy middle's imagination with powerful memes and narratives.

Enter, stage right, Sarah Palin. King or kingmaker? Just like the Tea Party itself, she is recasting the terms of the debate. Will inattentive citizens finally notice the disconnect between the Palin-is-stupid narrative and what they can see with their own eyes? 

Update: Linked at Conservatives4Palin in the comments to a related post citing our buddy Smitty of The Other McCain, who writes:

I agree with Dan’s whole post, but a third point (maybe a variation on the first point) is that she has already borne the brunt of an unbridled propaganda assault without crumbling. The more the minions of the Progressive Cthulhu strike at her, the stronger she becomes, and the more openly craven and stupid they appear. She rises like a phoenix from their ashes.

Why the continued hesitation, then? She has more to gain by not explicitely declaring.

Update II: Doug Ross's Larwyn's Linx links.

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

John Kerry vs Tea Party: It's the Rubber Duckie, stupid

"I have to tell ya. I say this to you politely," John Kerry said impolitely to MSNBC's Morning Joe audience the other day, parrotting the Journolist talking-points meme of the day, Tea Party as illegitimate "hostage taker" of the nation's political debate over the debt deal. "Balanced approach" and "compromise" were the plebe-polled words of choice, but a number of the Tea Party freshmen weren't buying. "It doesn't deserve the same credit as a legitimate idea about what you do," pontificated the "seared, seared" Senator Kerry. We guess it depends upon what your definition of "legitimate" is.

So much blog fodder, so little time. Two items. First, this from our reality-challenged friends on the left side of the twittersphere:

The only thing keeping the GOP in charge of this country is the corrupted media. Take that away, and these jerks are done.

Who knew the GOP — with the White House and half the Congress held by the opposition and the MSM in their pocket — was in charge? Must be those terrorist Tea Party types holding John Kerry & Company hostage. 'Course we couldn't agree more about "the corrupted media," but just who are "these jerks" they refer to? In our parallel universe it's always been the media's fellow travelers on the left side of the aisle that weight the scales in favor of the progressive narrative. Which leads us to our second item, an eureka moment of what is wrong with the Gramscian project. See below.

This idea isn’t going to make a big splash with Rubber Duckie," notes Your Daddy's Politics:

An online campaign to pressure the producers of “Sesame Street” into having lovable roommates Bert and Ernie (above) get married is gathering steam. Getting hitched would change things for Ernie, who has long sang about how his bath toy, Rubber Duckie, “was the one.”

That was when the lightbulb went off. Imagine yourself as a child. Bro & sis, mom and dad. Bert and Ernie a couple of goofy guys on one of your favorite shows. They're going to get married? Can you say cognitive dissonance? Mainly, though, it would be terrifying and so wrong, destroying a kid's safe haven of the way the world is. Not unlike the violation visited on the bodies of the innocent by a child molester, these we-know-what's-best-for-you elitists would violate the heart and soul of the innocent:

More than 700 people have signed on to the petition, posted at change.org.  “We are not asking that Sesame Street do anything crude or disrespectful,” reads the petition for the muppet merger. “It can be done in a tasteful way. Let us teach tolerance of those that are different.”

You want tolerance of "those that are different"? Look to the animals, especially the "rare baby Sand Cat" born at Israel's Safari Zoo recently:

Once a common cat in the dunes of Israel, the cat has become basically extinct in the region. The newborn has given hope to conservationalists who hope one day to reintroduce the Sand Cat to the wild.

Update: Snippets from an imail conversation:

She: Am SICK about what they are attempting to do with Bert and Ernie. It would be like if Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis got married. It DESTROYS the concept of true friendship. Goofy Guy/Straight Man are no longer funny, once they become a married couple.

We: The Odd Couple comes to mind.

Update II: "IT'S FLOPPY LIKE A GARDEN HOSE":

Clinching proof that Bert and Ernie are gay.

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

From violent, racist "teabaggers" to debate changers with a seat at the table

"If a good political compromise is one that has something for everyone to hate, then last night's bipartisan debt-ceiling deal is a triumph," says the WSJ this morning: "The big picture is that the deal is a victory for the cause of smaller government, arguably the biggest since welfare reform in 1996." Enough of a "balanced approach" for you, Mr. President? It's the momentum, stupid (see below). Above, image of Kitty Hawk Class aircraft carrier.

"I'm with you on this," twitters Mary Katharine Ham as others out here in the twittersphere and blogosphere with whom we usually agree are scoffing at debt-ceiling-deal headlines this morning like the Wall Street Journal's "A Tea Party Triumph" or Mark Thiessen's piece in the WaPo, "How the Tea Party 'hobbits' won the debt fight." Here's MK:

Is it a giant victory for American people? No, but by pathetic Congressional measures, it's a step forward.

We agree. As we twittered back to our protesting friends:

Metaphor that works for me: Changing direction of aircraft carrier. Slow it down, keeps going in same direction awhile.

Consider, too, turnaround of Tea Party in MSM narrative. From violent, racist "teabaggers" to debate changers with a seat at the table.

Not to mention the lame Tea Partier as terrorist meme the President and his crew were desperately trying to sell the American public last week. Their attempts at demonizing us are being overtaken by events. We were delighted to see our friend Peter Ingemi of DaTechGuyblog had already "read/skimmed" the 74-page budget bill and sees it as we do as a course correction:

After reading the bill, if it was up to me, I’d be a yes vote, This bill is not an example of steaming in the right direction, it is an example of completing the turn of the ship so it is facing in the right direction but you have to turn the ship before you change directions. This is the turn.

As the WSJ editors note: "The tea partiers pride themselves on adhering to the Constitution, which was intended to make political change difficult.

Yet in this deal they've forced both parties to make the biggest spending cuts in 15 years, with more cuts likely next year. The U.S. is engaged in an epic debate over the size and scope of government that will play out over several years, and the most important battle comes in the election of 2012.

Update: Michelle Malking Buzzworthy link!

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Dear Thad McCotter: Did you say that?

"Did you say that?" we twittered Illinois Michigan Congressman and transcendent presidential candidate Thad McCotter (above) a moment ago, wounded that our constitutional-conservative hero — he of the Red Eye, Seize Freedom silver tongue — had reportedly said something so profoundly shtupid:

"We cannot unite America if we divide the movement," McCotter warned. "Consequently, the time has come for the Tea party to grow up and the Republican Party to wake up and come together to serve and save this great nation."

Time to grow up? From our venerable roost here on the Medicare side of the henhouse we lashed out with wounded pride:

Many teapartiers, long in the tooth of life are spring chickens in the world of politics. Please don't ask us to "grow up." Thank you.

Thank you, Congressman McCotter, for getting it:

When Col. West is called a RINO, politically they must mature or all is lost; and GOP must wake up & realize validity of Tea Party concerns.

YAH. As we twittered back:

I totally adore Col. West. He is a shining star in the firmament on high.

We're pretty sure it's going to be okay. Our sis says we have a heart too soon made glad. But isn't that the essence of the American Dream?

Update: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update II: We loved this from Frank in the comments at The Hill:

It's the tea party that is causing the republican party to grow up and revitalize.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Land that I love

RIPD ( Rest in Peace Department) is the name of the Men-in-Black type movie that's coming out about a year and a half from now. A cutie-pie crew of scouts were out in our yard yesterday (above) taking shots of our own house to use as the out-the-window views of the main house, the decreptit home of our old pal Eddie across the lawn now shuttered and robbed of its copper piping. That's the kind of place we call home. They're going to reconstruct an interior for most of the action in Readville near Dedham, a few miles west of Boston.

What a revelation. Driving to the super this morning for the weekly restocking of the larder, we tuned in to NPR to find the usual suspects beside themselves with shock and awe at how the land of the free and the home of the brave was shocking, shocking our civilized counterparts across the sea.

How dare we dither and deliberate our differences according to the dictates of the Constitution of the United States when Europe and the rest of the world were waiting, with bated breath, for us to save their souls — and their pocketbooks — NOW? It was at that moment that we fell in love once more with our own messy and sometimes soul-depleting democratic process. As we twittered:

I felt protective of our idiotic #debtlimit side show when I heard pompous NPR radio types tearing hair out that "the world" is horrified.

A republic, madam, if you can keep it. God bless America.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

The course of true love never did run smooth

"Heh. Is that Earl Grey and Little Kitteh?" twittered Stout Cat this afternoon re Simon's Cat's latest comic strip, excerpts below:

"The course of true love never did run smooth." Click here for full strip.

"Funny you asked. They just had their first nose-to-nose this very morning. She chirped and he responded with friendly body language," we twittered back. In fact, she ran right up to Tiny's one true love, intoxicated with his alpha-male pheromones [?] and planted a series of exploratory kisses on his beautiful mug.

Earl seemed intrigued. Does he remember his own true love, our angel baby? He still stops by most days and hangs around a bit, sometimes but not always taking a nip of the weed.

This was the first day he's come by when Little Kitteh was running free outside. Will she comfort his aching heart as she has ours?

When words fail

Little Kitteh's camouflage fits naturally into her surroundings, Persian rug to the left, Tuck's Dunham work boot to the right.

"LOVE the post, LOVE the Van Goghian Paintings Graphics, BUT..." writes our imail correspondent re our previous post:

She: I worry so much about losing our skills. Going to the Internet for all the answers is pretty dicey.

We: Oh. Not to worry. I find that I hone my skills. When I can't remember something, finding it out there reinforces my memory for lost details. But definitely a legitimate concern. Especially for people who never knew anything to start with, such as today's brainwashed students.

Our new Annin American flag from the totally awesome Accent Banner in Medford — found out about it online, drove over there and got a heart-warming personal tour of the factory plus lots of good advice about the proper fittings for remounting our flag — hung between the central columns of our Greek Revival manse. Complete with new swiveling pulleys from Westerbeke Marine across the Creek in East Boston.

"If the internet died tomorrow, due to Global Warming [Yuk, yuk] ....you and I might remember where to go for information, but the kids taday won't have a CLUE":

She: I APPLAUD the Internet … have had so much fun with typing in, "whatever," and there it is, BUT… if the Internet goes down, you are left with a couple of generations who go "DOH."

We: They would anyway thanks to the Gramscian march through the institutions.

In the ongoing project of sprucing up the terrace the other day, we were about to trash a dead leaf still clinging to our Super Mammoth Elephant Ears when we happened to turn it upside down to discover a precious moth revving up in there, about to take flight for the adventure of its lepidopteran life. Talk about camouflage! Update: We've put in an ID request to the folks at the totally awesome Butterflies and Moths of North America. Update: It's Halysidota tessellaris: Banded Tussock Moth or Pale Tiger Moth, accepted and now listed in the BMNA database! They're so cute — and fuzzy! — when they're little.

"The Internet is a very valuable tool," she continues:

She: ...it should NOT supplant knowing how to look up a word in a dictionary, find a geometric proof on one's own. If we had had the Internet in MY day, I would have ACED both geometry and chemistry.

We: LOL. Maybe, maybe not. Today, as I understand it, there's so much teacher-enabled cheating out there that everyone's a winner. Not. 

Like Andrew Breitbart only more so

"She just paints whoever inspires her," twitters Mandy Nagy — aka Liberty Chick — whose mother's deep, dark and delicious portrait of Andrew Breitbart (detail above) caught our eye in the thrust and parry of the social media matrix yesterday. Breitbart's using the image as his new Twitter avatar. "Your face was a good one to paint (while listening to "Burning Down the House)," quipped artist Nagy. "Like Andrew Breitbart only more so," we chimed in. (View Nagy Gallery here)

"Why bother to remember when you can just use Google?" runs the ars technica headline teasing the latest scientific findings of where our social-networking heads are at:

The potential to find almost any piece of information in seconds is beneficial, but is this ability actually negatively impacting our memory? The authors of a paper that is being released by Science Express describe four experiments testing this. Based on their results, people are recalling information less, and instead can remember where to find the information they have forgotten.

Like any set of entrails, these have got some of our fellow opinionators tearing their hair out over the end of civilization as we know it, but we're kinda thrilled. It's totally Darwinian, our homo sapient survival instincts kicking in to adapt us to a changing environment. As a brand manager might put it, It's the "transactive memory," stupid.

"Transactive memory suggests an analysis not only of how couples and families in close relationships coordinate memory and tasks in the home, but how larger groups and organizations come to develop "group minds,' memory systems that are more complex and potentially more effective than those of any of the individuals that comprise them," explains Daniel M. Wegner, John Lindsley Professor in Memory of Williams James (a co-author of the paper described above) of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. Can you say Adam Smith's Invisible Hand? Above, flocks of birds "wheel and swoop in unison," not unlike twitterers and other social network denizens," as we blogged a couple of years back. Totally awesome must-watch video here.

"Researchers found that people are more likely to remember information if they believe they won't be able to access it in the future, and that they are more likely to remember how they found the information than the information itself." Works for us. Choose your battles. Keep your ammo close to the chest. Go for the jugular. "Shoot to where it's going, not to where it's been." "Don't retreat, reload. "Fight like a girl!  As Ben Franklin said, "A republic, madam, if you can keep it." 

Clicking over to the Nagy online studio, we were smitten with the artist's wild and whacky portrait of take-no-prisoners Red Eye force of nature Greg Gutfeld (detail above). We agree with Chris Barnhart that Red Eye has "the potential to be the 'gateway drug' of a whole new generation of conservatives and independents."

"The Internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves," write the authors in their abstract of the study. Enter, stage right, Google+. Again the social network is aflutter over what it all might mean for the future of our species, and again, it's Darwinian, in the Thomas Sowell/Geerat Vermeij sense:

It's starting to appear that Google actually does have the chops, and obviously the financial backing, to put out a social product sweet enough to lure people, who tend to be creatures of habit, to spend less time with their traditional network and cultivate a new one.

Andrew Breitbart. Greg Gutfeld. Looks like NagyArt is on a roll. Could Jonah Goldberg's Twitter avi (above) be next on her palette of immortals who will keep the (incandescent) lights burning in the Shining City?

It's the market forces, stupid.

Update from the Liberty Chick herself:

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this post! Creative :)

Update II: The conversation continues.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Jack Dorsey's Twitter Town Hall: By Obama, for Obama

"The first-ever presidential forum on Twitter was undercut by the commander-in-chief himself, as President Obama answered questions from average Americans with a tide of talking points that went uninterrupted and unchallenged, short-circuiting the event’s populist potential," summarizes the Boston Herald's Jessica Van Sack, who watched Twitter Founder Jack Dorsey's "Twitter Town Hall" so we didn't have to. Above, a comely attendee lifts her iPad beside the East Room door at what one critic who blogs at Harvard Business Review is calling "a Meaningless Marketing Stunt." (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) 

"How can we make Twitter Town Halls better in the future? And not just for the US government, but any government," twittered Twitter co-founder and enthusiastic Obama supporter Jack Dorsey following yesterday's predictably stilted, "first-ever presidential forum on Twitter," unwittingly revealing a fundamental misunderstanding of American Exceptionalism and the Shining City.

"The big winner of today’s White House Twitter Townhall (besides Twitter)?" asked Bag News Notes: "Well, where do I get my own White House-edition MacBook? Then, regarding the double logo, talk about leveraging your brand." Final stats via Mass Relevance: 169,395 #AskObama Tweets. Hot topics: Jobs (32%) Budget (18%) Taxes (18%) & Education (11%).

How to make future Twitter Town Halls better? As we twittered in response,

Try to remember that here in the USA town halls are not for the GOVT but for the PEOPLE.

Beyond that, we salute Mr. Dorsey for a technological knockout, but is his creation, as he asserts, "a great first step for future Town Halls"? What about all those disintermediating, grassroots, Twitter-enabled Town Halls of two years back that gave voice to the Tea Party movement? We do applaud Dorsey's "curatorship" model, where a panel of journalists and bloggers from across the country were invited to join the President and Dorsey in the East Room to help select the 18 (too few) out of nearly 170,000 (good show!) questions submitted with the #AskObama hashtag by our fellow Americans. A couple of quotable quotes from that Boston Herald article referenced above:

“Amazing how Obama can give such a long answer to such short questions,” tweeted Drew Cline, editorial page editor of the Union Leader of New Hampshire, who was chosen by the social media site as one of eight so-called “curators” to help select questions for the forum.

“BO’s verbosity was a huge problem. An actual moderator could have made space for 100% more questions,” replied another curator, political blogger Will Wilkinson.

That was the consensus in the blogosphere and Twitterverse yesterday after Obama answered just 18 questions out of the 160,000 submissions during his live Webcast of the Twitter Town Hall. Hosted by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, the hourlong forum devolved into a typical, meandering town hall stump-athon that was a mockery of the Web site’s famous 140-character limit.

"Roughly half the questions were softballs, which [curator Drew] Cline attributed to low participation among conservatives who felt they wouldn’t get a fair shake," but a subset of questions we all knew would never make the final cut kept the twittersphere afflutter with RT's and lol's. Note: Fans of Jonah Goldberg's 140-or-fewer-character zingers may use Snap Bird to read all of his AskObama tweets using the following terms: Search: Someone's timeline, WHO? JonahNRO, FOR: #AskObama.

The last word goes to Benjamin Howe on Twitter:

Idea @RepPaulRyan: Hold a town hall, use the same tweets obama did, and answer them with the facts that @BarackObama is ignoring. #AskObama

Update: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update II: Jonah Goldberg tosses us a link from The Corner!

Update III: Doug Ross of Larwyn's Linx links.

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

"Where losing sight of land we shall find the stars"

"For the beauty of the earth, For the Glory of the skies…" Grapefruit and lilacs for breakfast Down East early morning.

On this Fourth of July a republication of our timeless May 25, 2008 post "Because we sailed too close to the shore": 

"I'm savoring the revealing contrast between Drake's seafaring 'reach for the stars' vision and Michelle Obama's landlocked 'audacity of whining' (Powerline's expression)," we wrote in the comments of Bird Dog's totally awesome "Annual re-post: Sir Francis Drake's Prayer (1577) at Maggie's Farm.

Sir Francis:

Disturb us Lord, when
We are too pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore…

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

What we said two Mem Days back still applies, big time: "Sunrise this morning over Eastern Point across the river from Goomp's, headquarters for the family's Memorial Day salute to the awesomely brave and good and true fellow Americans who give their all so we might enjoy such natural wonders. We think you know who you are, our beloved fellow bloggers and readers who serve and love those who serve. We cannot thank you enough. God bless."

Michelle Obama:

You start working hard and sacrificing, and you think you’re getting closer to the bar, you’re working and you’re struggling, you get right to that bar, you’re reaching out for the bar, and then what happens?

They raise the bar. Raise the bar. Shift it to the side. Keep it just out of reach.

"Let us not wallow in the valley of despair," Martin Luther King famously said:

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.

Is Michelle Obama "too pleased with herself," venturing on Francis Drake's "wilder seas" even as she urges her listeners to instead "dream too little" and sail "too close to the shore"? The soft bigotry of low expectations?

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Nature red in tooth and jaws

Little Kitteh had us in the emergency room over a little misunderstanding on Sunday. She was trying to clear the property of "vermin" — the concept, Tuck explains, that our feline companions use to categorize birds, small mammals, insects, spiders, slugs and other cats — with the exception of Earl Grey, of course — who would invade their territory. Lover of all things bright and beautiful that we are, we were trying to rescue a precious baby Gray Catbird from the jaws. But our timing and hand-eye coordination were off. In a violent face-off complicated by the dense undergrowth of the lilac out front, we lost the fledgling — or was it a pre-fledgling that had fallen from the nest? — and a lot of our own blood: Final score: LK=2, Sissy=0.

The parents were frantic. Their calls and fruitless attempts to misdirect Little Kitteh's attention away from their helpless offspring will haunt our dreams. We can't hear them now without remembering the horror. Puncture wounds on back of right hand and left thumb. Profuse bleeding. Chelsea Mass General emergency room across town delivered. We accepted a tetanus shot but asked for no antibiotics if not absolutely necessary, remembering the havoc they can wreak on the digestive system when they kill your body's beneficial micro-organisms together with the bad stuff. Next morning we regretted not having gone with the antibiotics, though: Angry red, painful and swollen hand and thumb made it almost impossible to surf the internet, let alone blog or tweet! It's those darned germs in cats' mouths and the deadly delivery system of their canines:

A cat has small sharp teeth, so when it bites the puncture wound can be quite deep. There are some infections a person may get as a result of bacteria commonly found in a cat's mouth, like pasteurella. Then there are other diseases that come from a cat's being infected by other pests, such as fleas.

Little Kitteh didn't hold our attempt to thwart fulfillment of her turf-defending duties against us, and how could we be angry with her for following her nature? On the good side, the antibiotics are doing their work — swelling and pain subsiding by the day — plus the doc turned us on to a "wonder drug" we'd never heard of: Probiotics. With "20 billion active cultures per capsule" (according to the package description), they help "maintain and modulate your body's natural microflora."

Palin Undefeated: "A story of empowerment for modern women and their daughters"

Stephen K. Bannon, Director of the epic Palin documentary "The Undefeated" — "a story of empowerment for modern women and their daughters" — talked with Stacy McCain about "the gap between the reality of Sarah Palin and the perception created by the media" at the Right Online conference in Minneapolis last weekend, where the film was previewed before what Bannon calls "the vanguard of this revolution, the bloggers."

"Sarah Palin Reportedly Quits Bus Tour Halfway Through," snarked the headline at Talking Points Memo this morning, seamlessly spinning a speculative Real Clear Politics story about "one of the most unpredictable political figures in America" into their Palin's-a-Quitter narrative of choice:

Former half-term Gov. Sarah Palin has reportedly packed in her bus tour… halfway through.

Oh, and lest we forget how stupid she is, a bit of shopworn, gratuitous boilerplate thrown in to keep the natives happy:

The bus tour was launched over Memorial Day weekend, and was particularly scrutinized after one event in Boston where Palin badly flubbed the story behind Paul Revere's ride.

The card-carrying commenters piled on with glee, signalling their membership in the tribe. Our favorite:

"the quitta from wasilla" or the "Iquitarod queen" which discribes [sic] Palin the best?

We couldn't resist and posted a guest comment of our own with links vindicating Palin — The Boston Herald's recent "Old North Church vicar defends Palin on Revere" and John Fund's July 2009 WSJ column "Why Palin Quit: Death by a Thousand FOIAs." It was too much for TPM, who promptly removed our comment without ceremony, but not before a rabid pack of regulars — irregulars? — had had a chance to pile on:

Get lost troll. Go collect your money for posting here at TPM.

Great sources. hahahaha!!!!!! America is such a great country, everyone is free to choose from which direction they take a spin [Oh, the irony!]

Two papers owned by Rupert Murdoch,* who just happens to be Palin's employer?* Is that your idea of objectivity? *I wouldn't be surprised if he was yours as well.

If only. But moving along, as we mentioned in a follow-up comment, had TPM been doing their homework, they would have discovered this bit of inconvenient truth from a June 1 ABC News report:

Palin confirmed that she's going to Boston after New York and that after the northeast, she'll go back to Alaska before re-launching the tour - called the "One Nation Tour," after all - on the West Coast.

"Sigh. Reports of Tour Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated," the deftly disintermediating Palin twittered, not without a bit of snark of her own:

I wouldn’t think it to be such a slow news day that, what with numerous wars and serious economic woes concerning Americans, a bus is driving news stories today. The next leg of the tour continues when the time comes. In the meantime, no one should jump to conclusions – certainly not the media with their long track record of getting things wrong or just making things up.

As Big Hollywood editor John Nolte twittered in awe at this latest Facebook coup:

"Sarah Palin lets the MSM climb way out on a limb before sawing it off. It's called fighting like a girl.

*Update: Twitter buddy irishspy explains:

They invoke the name [Murdoch] to banish the hated facts. :)

Update II: Michelle Malkin Buzzworthy link!

Update III: Victory Film Group links with "Sissy Willis Goes Into The Bowels Of TPM To Defend Palin:

Yes, it's messy there. Go read the whole thing.

Crossposted at Riehl World View, Cloven Not Crested and Liberty Pundits.

On the road again

Being Little Kitteh