by Alex Bennet
from HUSTLER Magazine August 2010

DID SARAH PALIN GO ON THE WARPATH WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING TO SEE IF THERE WERE ANY ARROWS IN HER QUIVER?

Hell froze over a while back: Rush Limbaugh said something I agreed with. Can the apocalypse be far off?

Limbaugh was talking about Sarah Palin’s snit over a comment made privately by White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. The ever-mouthy Emanuel had said Dems who disagreed with him were “fucking retarded.” Palin, who will use anything to get publicity—including the Down’s syndrome issue from her already-overworked womb—demanded Emanuel be fired and that the word retarded be banned from usage.

Limbaugh, presumed to be in the Palin camp, took her to task with a rant about political correctness. During his tirade he used the word retard over and over again. I was astonished. Was the most hated enemy of liberals correct? Were Palin’s remarks just another instance of political correctness out of control? Of course they were! So which is worse: Emanuel’s evisceration of some Democrats or the way Palin uses that poor kid of hers? Armed with information the child would be born with Down’s syndrome, she chose to have it anyway, citing her religious beliefs. Palin did this after already giving birth to a litter of four. And despite breaking water in Texas, the “mother of the year” still got on a plane to Alaska, thereby putting the fetus in danger. (Some believe she actually wanted it to die.)

I believe the real reason Palin didn’t get an abortion was because it would look bad to her base. This outweighed the reality that the kid, who’d never have a normal life, would become the responsibility of her other children after she was gone.

As for Palin’s motherhood credentials, they’re not great. Her daughter Bristol got knocked up. Where was the birth-control discussion that should have taken place when it was apparent she was coming into sexual maturity? There was none.

Any other unwed girl her age (17) might very well have gotten an abortion, but not poor Bristol. Mommy was running for Vice President, and it just wouldn’t look good. So Bristol had the baby to keep Mom’s career intact. Then there are the rumors surrounding her son Track’s enlistment into the armed forces. Some say it was a courtordered choice in an alleged case of school vandalism. The record is muddied because, it’s believed, Palin used her position as governor to cover things up.

Meanwhile, Trig—the Down’s syndrome baby—was schlepped around the country so his mom could hold him up at every campaign stop like Simba in The Lion King. She used the kid’s handicap as a prop. This is the woman who finds Rahm Emanuel in bad taste? Somebody should call Child Protective Services.

A few weeks after her tirade against the White House staffer, Palin targeted Seth MacFarlane and his blissful creation, Family Guy. She was reacting to the episode in which the Griffins’ son Chris becomes enamored of a girl at school with Down’s syndrome.The fact that Chris loved the girl in spite of her condition was lost on Palin. She was livid because, when asked by Chris what her family did, the girl replied, “My dad is an accountant, and my mom is the former governor of Alaska.”

Surprisingly, voice actress Andrea Fay Friedman—who like the character she portrayed on Family Guy was born with Down’s syndrome— came forward to blast Palin for exploiting people with the condition. Friedman scoffed, “My mother did not carry me around under her arm like a loaf of French bread the way former Governor Palin carries her son Trig around looking for sympathy and votes.”

Even more perplexing was how Palin excused Limbaugh’s statements. She claimed they were satire. I’ve got news for you, Sarah: Rush wasn’t using satire; he was using commentary. Family Guy was using satire. I guess Palin just didn’t want to piss off the right-wing’s number-one megaphone.

So why all this political correctness over a perfectly legitimate word? Even medical dictionaries describe Down’s syndrome as “mental retardation.” Yet we’re no longer able to use the word? Now we’re supposed to say “developmentally challenged.” People are no longer “handicapped,” they’re “handicapable.” I ask you: How much of this is politically correct, and how much is pure condescension and mock sympathy?

Rahm Emanuel’s only sin was that he didn’t get the memo, and Sarah Palin’s biggest problem is that she epitomizes the C word: CRAZY!

Alex Bennett is a longtime HUSTLER contributor. The twotime Emmy winner, who broke into broadcasting as a teenager, currently calls Sirius Left 146 his radio home.

Full Debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin:

From Naomi Wolf HuffPo:

Please understand what you are looking at when you look at Sarah “Evita” Palin. You are looking at the designated muse of the coming American police state.

You have to understand how things work in a closing society in order to understand “Palin Power.” A gang or cabal seizes power, usually with an affable, weak figurehead at the fore. Then they will hold elections — but they will make sure that the election will be corrupted and that the next affable, weak figurehead is entirely in their control. Remember, Russia has Presidents; Russia holds elections. Dictators and gangs of thugs all over the world hold elections. It means nothing. When a cabal has seized power you can have elections and even presidents, but you have freedom.

I realized early on with horror what I was seeing in Governor Palin: the continuation of the Rove-Cheney cabal, but this time without restraints. I heard her echo Bush 2000 soundbites (“the heart of America is on display”) and realized Bush’s speechwriters were writing her — not McCain’s — speeches. I heard her tell George Bush’s lies — not McCain’s — to the American people, linking 9/11 to Iraq. I heard her make fun of Barack Obama for wanting to prevent the torture of prisoners — this is Rove-Cheney’s enthusiastic S and M, not McCain’s, who, though he shamefully colluded in the 2006 Military Tribunals Act, is also a former prisoner of war and wrote an eloquent Newsweek piece in 2005 opposing torture. I saw that she was even styled by the same skillful stylist (neutral lipstick, matte makeup, dark colors) who turned Katharine Harris from a mall rat into a stateswoman and who styles all the women in the Bush orbit –but who does not bother to style Cindy McCain.

Then I saw and heard more. Palin is embracing lawlessness in defying Alaskan Legislature subpoenas –this is what Rove-Cheney, and not McCain, believe in doing. She uses mafia tactics against critics, like the police commissioner who was railroaded for opposing handguns in Alaskan battered women’s shelters — Rove’s style, not McCain’s. I realized what I was seeing.

Reports confirmed my suspicions: Palin, not McCain, is the FrankenBarbie of the Rove-Cheney cabal. The strategy became clear. Time magazine reported that Rove is “dialed in” to the McCain campaign. Rove’s protégé Steve Schmidt is now campaign manager. And Politico reported that Rove was heavily involved in McCain’s vice presidential selection. Finally a new report shows that there are dozens of Bush and Rove operatives surrounding Sarah Palin and orchestrating her every move.

What’s the plan? It is this. McCain doesn’t matter. Reputable dermatologists are discussing the fact that in simply actuarial terms, John McCain has a virulent and life-threatening form of skin cancer. It is the elephant in the room, but we must discuss the health of the candidates: doctors put survival rates for someone his age at two to four years. I believe the Rove-Cheney cabal is using Sarah Palin as a stalking horse, an Evita figure, to put a popular, populist face on the coming police state and be the talk show hostess for the end of elections as we know them

Read Rest of Article

Some of the “left-wing” medias’ attacks on Sarah Palin’s speech. From the New Zealand Herald:

It wasn’t just a home run, said CNN’s Wolf Blitzer at the St Paul, Minnesota, convention – it may have been a grand slam.

“A very auspicious debut,” said NBC’s Tom Brokaw.

It was a “perfect populist pitch”, said Jeff Greenfield of CBS.

The New York Times wonders what happened to the medias’ good friend John:

When Republicans gathered at Madison Square Garden to celebrate President Bush’s second nomination four years ago, Senator John McCain gathered at a restaurant uptown with some of the biggest stars in journalism to celebrate his birthday. Among those mingling over cocktails and fine French food with Mr. McCain and his wife, Cindy, were Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Bob Schieffer, Maureen Dowd, Tim Russert — “our people,” as an old campaign hand reminisced on Wednesday…Those there that night now feel as if they are living in some sort of alternate reality in the Xcel Energy Center here, where Mr. McCain is to accept the Republican nomination on Thursday…That Mr. McCain is behind these emphatic attacks has startled many, especially those journalists who have known Mr. McCain longest. “Probably no one in American politics over the last 20 years has had a closer relationship with the national press than John McCain,” said Albert R. Hunt, the executive Washington editor for Bloomberg News. Read All

An open letter to Sarah Palin from the media. Roger Simon Kansas City Star:

On behalf of the media, I would like to say we are sorry.
On behalf of the elite media, I would like to say we are very sorry.
We have asked questions this week that we should never have asked.
We have asked pathetic questions like: Who is Sarah Palin? What is her record? Where does she stand on the issues? And is she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency?
We have asked mean questions like: How well did John McCain know her before he selected her? How well did his campaign vet her? And was she his first choice?
Bad questions. Bad media. Bad.
Sarah Palin hit the nail on the head Wednesday night (and several in the audience wish she had hit some reporters on the head instead) when she said: “I’m not a member of the permanent political establishment. And I’ve learned quickly, these past few days, that if you’re not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.”
But where did we go wrong with Sarah Palin? Let me count the ways:
First, we should have stuck to the warm, human interest stuff like how she likes mooseburgers and hit an important free throw at her high school basketball tournament even though she had a stress fracture.
Second, we should have stuck to the press release stuff like how she opposed the Bridge to Nowhere (after she supported it).Third, we should never have strayed into the other stuff. Like when The Washington Post recently wrote: “Palin is under investigation by a bipartisan state legislative body. … Palin had promised to cooperate with the legislative inquiry, but this week she hired a lawyer to fight to move the case to the jurisdiction of the state personnel board, which Palin appoints.”
Why go there? What trees does that plant?
Fourth, we should stop making with all the questions already. She gave a really good speech. And why go beyond that? As we all know, speeches cannot be written by others and rehearsed for days. They are true windows to the soul.
Unless they are delivered by Barack Obama, that is. In which case, as Palin said Wednesday, speeches are just a “cloud of rhetoric.”
Fifth, we should stop reporting on the families of the candidates. Unless the candidates want us to.
Sarah Palin wanted the media to report on her teenage son, Track, who enlisted in the Army on Sept. 11, 2007, and soon will deploy to Iraq.
Sarah Palin did not want the media to report on her teenage daughter, Bristol, who is pregnant and unmarried.
Sarah Palin thinks that one is good for her campaign and one is not, and that the media should report only on what is good for her campaign. That is our job, and that is our duty. If that is not actually in the Constitution, it should be. (And someday may be.)
The official theme of the convention’s third day was “prosperity,” but the unofficial theme was “the media are really, really awful.”
Even Mike Huckabee, who campaigned for president this year by saying “I am a conservative, but I am not mad at anybody,” discovered Wednesday night that he is mad at somebody.
“I’d like to thank the elite media for doing something,” Huckabee said, “that, quite frankly, I didn’t think could be done: unify the Republican party and all of America in support of John McCain and Sarah Palin.”
And could that be the real point of the attacks on the media? To unify the Republican Party?
No, that is simply the cynical, media view.
Though as Lily Tomlin says, “No matter how cynical I get, it’s just never enough to keep up.”
I couldn’t resist that. For which I am sorry.

From Gather Politics:

The Bush administration fired U.S. Attorneys who would not carry out their personal crusades. In turns out McCain’s VP pick has fired Alaska state employees for not doing hers. Now that she is under investigation by the Alaska State Senate, Palin’s not just lawyered up, but already refining her Bush-Cheney stonewalling chops:
The state has hired a private lawyer to represent Gov. Sarah Palin’s office in the Legislature’s investigation into the firing of former Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The lawyer already has challenged whether lawmakers even have authority to oversee the inquiry.
Shouldn’t she pay for this? Why should the state lawyer her up? This is the reformer who did not want a cook paid for the state. Lawyer paid by the state? That will be just fine.
Palin has so far ducked interview requests from the investigators, and Alaska state legislators are already talking subpoenas.
Yeah, subpoenas. Sound familiar?
How about this?
E-mails from the Palin administration are being withheld from the public and the governor is citing executive privilege.
For more on the investigation click here

Sarah Palin addressing the Alaskan Independence Party, along with clips and quotes from AKIP meetings:

From the Los Angeles Times:

Tonight, Sarah Palin will be nominated as the Republican Party’s choice for vice president of the United States.
But back home, she has cheered the work of a tiny party that long has pushed for a statewide vote on whether Alaska should secede from those same United States. And her husband, Todd, was a member of the party for seven years.
“Keep up the good work,” Sarah Palin told members of the Alaskan Independence Party in a videotaped speech to their convention six months ago in Fairbanks. She wished the party luck on what she called its “inspiring convention.”
The Alaskan Independence Party, founded in 1978, initially promoted “the Alaskan independence movement.” But now, according to its website, “its primary goal is merely a vote on secession.”
McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds said Tuesday that Palin did not support splitting Alaska off from the rest of the country. He sidestepped the question of whether she favored a statewide vote on secession.