MSNBC presents the 9 most Sarah Palin being Sarah Palin moments.

MSNBC's Anna Brand has compiled a list of incidents in 2014 of Sarah Palin essentially being the most Sarah Palin.

And they are as follows:  

1. The time she decided Putin wrestles bears and Obama wears mom jeans. 

Sound bite: “People are looking at Putin as one who wrestles bears and drills for oil. They look at our president as one who wears mom jeans,” Palin said “Anyone who carries the commonsense gene would know that Putin doesn’t change his stripes,” she said. “He wants to exert huge power and dominance, so he has to get to those border areas and he has to capture them.”


2. The time she sort of quoted Dr. Seuss.

This of course was several months after Ted Cruz read from "Green Eggs and Ham" during his ridiculous and self serving filibuster.  In March Palin did the same in front of CPAC:  

Sound bite: “I do not like this Uncle Sam. I do not like his health care scam. I do not like these dirty crooks, or how they lie and cook the books. I do not like when Congress steals, I do not like their crony deals,” she continued. “I do not like this spying man. I do not like ‘oh yes we can.’ I do not like this spending spree. We’re smart, we know there’s nothing free. I do not like reporters’ smug replies when I complain about their lies. I do not like this kind of hope, and we won’t take it, nope, nope, nope.”

3. The time she said being a grandma might turn Hillary Clinton conservative. 

Sound bite: “I think anyone who is a grandparent really starts looking further down the road. We start thinking about things like $17 trillion dollar debt that our nation is under and what we’re going to hand that to our grandkids for them to pay off,” she said. “That’s not fair to our grandkids. Hopefully, she’ll start thinking along those terms, too.” 

4. The time she thought drinking Diet Dr. Pepper was the Ice Bucket Challenge. 

Sound bite: “C’mon, at this stage of my life, in my career, aren’t I a little too prim and proper for all that ice bucket water dumping?”

"Prim and proper?" Hardly.

5. The time she said let’s all bless the haters.

Sound bite: “Hey, the more they’re pouring it on, the more I’m going to bug the crap out of them by being out there, with a voice, with the message, Hopefully running for office in the future too … Bless their hearts, those haters out there. They don’t understand that it invigorates me. It wants me to get out there and defend the innocent,” she said. “It makes me want to work so hard for justice in this country!” 

6. The time her family got into a bloody, shirtless drunken brawl. 

Sound bite: No sound bite. No one reportedly listened to her when she tried to intervene in Bristol’s defense and was sitting safely inside her white stretch limo when police arrived, according to the report. 

Okay well clearly this Anna Brand did not do her research. Because as all of us already know, and the link above proves, Palin was not only NOT in the stretch Hummer, she was a full participant in the brawl itself.

The bloody shirtless part is right however.

7. The time she was stopped for speeding, which she called “qualifying.” 

Sound bite: “I wasn’t speeding, I was qualifying.” 

8. The time she declared that gun-free zones are ‘stupid on steroids.’

Sound bite: “Maybe our kids could be defended against criminals on the spot if more Mama Grizzlies carried [guns]. And [the] Obama administration wants you ID’d for that? Well, then go ahead and carry a sign too. A sign that says ‘Yeah, I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.’” 

9. The time she launched a digital channel dedicated to herself. 

Sound bite: “Are you tired of the media filters? Well, I am! I always have been. So we’re going to do something about it. Together, we’ll go beyond the sound bites and cut through the media’s politically correct filter.”

Boy can you believe all of that happened in only one year?

Well I still think my favorite moment of Palin being Palin (And her family doing the same.), was the Throwdown at the Hoedown.

I mean if anything defines this lunatic and her inbred Wasillabilly family that was it. Cussing, fighting, attempting to hijack the media, it was all there for everybody to see, and hear, for themselves.

Gee, I can only imagine what next year will bring.

Instead of accepting defeat after the 2014 drubbing at the polls, President Obama has decided to come out swinging.

"So you're saying I can just kick ass, and not bother to take names?"

Courtesy of Politico: 

Obama’s turnaround in recent weeks – he’s seized the offensive with a series of controversial executive actions and challenges to leaders in his own party on the budget — can be attributed to a fundamental change in his political mindset, according to current and former aides. He’s gone from thinking of himself as a sitting (lame) duck, they tell me, to a president diving headlong into what amounts to a final campaign – this one to preserve his legacy, add policy points to the scoreboard, and – last but definitely not least – to inflict the same kind of punishment on his newly empowered Republican enemies, who delighted in tormenting him when he was on top. 

“'Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose' — Barack and Bobby McGee,” says former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry. “President Obama is free to take the risks and use executive authority that will either make him a much more popular president with rising approval rates or get him impeached by a Republican Congress that won’t be able to control itself. We can contemplate the possibility of each result while smoking a Cuban cigar.” 

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says Obama’s newly aggressive stance – exemplified by his unilateral moves on immigration and Cuba – poses an early challenge to new Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and to House Speaker John Boehner, who are trying to re-shape the GOP into a party that can actually run a government. “Mitch and Boehner have to deal with the fact that Obama is becoming bolder and more radical,” Gingrich told me a few days before Obama announced his move to normalize relations with Cuba. 

I don't know about everybody else but I REALLY like the change in our President and I hope he only gets more confident and aggressive as the last of his final term plays itself out.

Hell he may actually finally achieve that fundamental change in American that Sarah Palin is always warning us about. And it will most likely be a good fundamental change that history will forever attribute to the hard work and tenacity of the 44th President.

Sarah Palin once again under the delusion that she speaks for America, and seems to forget that newly elected members of Congress are not yet on the job.

Courtesy of Not the Voice of America's Facebook page:

Grant me this use of America's voice: When you cut through all the “inside baseball” stuff in this Omnibus Spending Bill that's in front of Congress, you're left with two cold hard facts: this bill doesn't defund Obama's amnesty (so he gets to reward lawbreakers with your tax dollars) and it adds to our dangerous, unsustainable debt. It also breaks campaign promises made by quite a few of our incumbent politicians on both sides of the aisle. Hey, if you thought we wanted more of the same as we worked our butts off to get good folks elected in November, then why did we vote to oust liberals who got America into this mess in the first place? Guess what, GOP: our victory party is over and voters are wide awake and trusting you to keep your promises to America. Get a handle on your debt. Stop Obama's amnesty to illegal aliens. Support our military. Bottom line: we elected you to stop Obama's “fundamental transformation of America.” Do it – especially you Republicans who promised to do it. Or face America's wrath next go 'round because an elephant never forgets. 

"Grant me the use of America's voice." Does that remind anybody else of Palin writing that letter she wrote in God's voice about her easy pregnancy over a week before Trig was actually born?

For the record she does NOT speak in America's voice.

And also for the record the newly elected 2014 House members are not yet able to vote on this bill, and some of the members who are still there she actively tried to get replaced, so who the hell is she talking to?

However I am thrilled that she now refers to herself as an "elephant," because I have been looking for a new nickname. 

Not to shock you or anything but I do almost agree with Palin on this, only not for the same reasons of course.

This Omnibus bill actually does suck and there are legitimate reasons to be against it.

Here are a few: 

Congressional appropriators ordered four more F-35 joint strike fighters at a cost of $479 million dollars, even though the Pentagon didn’t ask for them. 

Since those shiny new F-35s aren’t going to pay for themselves, Congress did manage to trim a few areas of the budget. For example, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, commonly referred to as WIC, was on the receiving end of a $93 million budget cut. 

The 2014 Midterms saw voters in Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, D.C. vote to legalize Marijuana for recreational use. Unlike in Alaska and Oregon, however, the D.C. ballot measure is subject to congressional approval. So, despite the fact that the actual citizens of Washington, D.C. voted for legalization by a margin of more than 2 to 1, anti-legalization advocates in Congress attached a rider that completely undoes the voter-backed change and keeps Marijuana illegal. 

The current budget deal includes a repeal of the Dodd-Frank derivatives rule that was literally written by big bank lobbyists — A leaked document obtained by the New York Times revealed that 70 of the 85 lines of derivatives language reflect recommendations made in a piece of model legislation drafted by lobbyists for Citigroup, another bank that played a major role in the 2008 crisis and also received billions of federal stimulus dollars. 

If all of this sounds familiar, it’s because the House passed the exact same CitiGroup-written law last year, but it died after resistance from the Senate and Treasury Department. Now, Wall Street’s allies in Congress have effectively copy-pasted the CitiGroup-approved language out of the old bill and into the current budget deal, which is much less susceptible to a veto threat since a veto would shut down the government. In a provision conveniently located on page 1,599 of a 1,603 page document, 

Congress lays out donation rules that would allow individuals to give more than $300,000 directly to political parties every year. According to the Washington Post’s Matea Gold, under the new rules, one couple could legally funnel nearly $1.3 million to a party’s various account. 

So yes there are real reasons to be frustrated by this bill, however they are certainly not the ones pissing off the Wasilla Wendigo.

By the way this is the picture that Palin used for her Facebook post on this.

That's Sarah Palin in a nutshell.

Claiming to speak for American while wrapping her feet in it's flag.

Democrats lose their final Senate race in Louisiana last night. And you know who gets the credit right?

Courtesy of the AP: 

Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy has denied Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana a fourth term, calling his Senate victory "the exclamation point" on midterm elections that put Republicans in charge on Capitol Hill for President Barack Obama's last two years in office. 

With nearly all votes counted, unofficial returns showed Cassidy with a commanding victory in Saturday's runoff as he ousted the last of the Senate's Deep South Democrats. In the South, Democrats will be left without a single U.S. senator or governor across nine states stretching from the Carolinas to Texas.

Of course this is just the latest win in a string of victories for the Republicans who essentially ran the board this election cycle.

The Republicans were able to convince the barely attentive voters that President Obama was an abject failure and slime any Democrat who had dared work with him to pass legislation. Resulting of course in the loss of several Senate and Congressional seats.

Landrieu was doomed from the very start.

However that is the factual explanation for what happened.

In Sarah Palin's world she done did it.

Yeah of course she was trying like crazy to get Bill Cassidy's conservative opponent Rob Maness elected up until the official November, at times even seeming to be blissfully unaware that he had no shot, but she showed up in that airport hangar for Cassidy (She even got all dressed up.), and  that is all she wants people to remember.

When the chips were down and her candidate was crushed like a ball of soggy wet tissue paper, she suddenly decided that Bill Cassidy was her guy all along and she went to work for him. Which in her case meant a Facebook post or two, and showing up in an airport hangar in her "trolling for men in bars" outfit.

I mean if she had not shown up to support Cassidy who knows whether he could have pulled off this victory or not? (Spoiler alert:  He would have.)

The duplicity of Lisa Murkowski, and why moderates should wash their hands of her.

This editorial was written by Fairbanks resident and political activist Sean McGuire. And it comes to us courtesy of the Fairbanks Newsminer:  

Let’s go back four years to August 2010. In what many view as the biggest upset in Alaska political history, Sen. Murkowski was defeated in the primary by the far-right candidate, Joe Miller. She was beaten fair and square. 

What did she do? She spent the next two-plus months running around Alaska pleading with Native Alaskans and moderate Democrats to save her political life with a write-in campaign. She promised she would represent those moderate voters’ interests. Sen. Mark Begich didn’t attempt to interfere; he let Alaskans decide who they wanted. In the end, Natives and Democrats did indeed save her. 

During the next six years, Alaska’s two senators apparently worked well together, collaborating on many issues and voting the same way more than any other split-party senators in the nation. 

Fast forward four years to this election. Sen. Begich, the champion of the Natives — overwhelmingly endorsed by AFN, and a true moderate — was fighting for his political life. 

What did Sen. Murkowski do? When Begich was most vulnerable, she stuck a knife in his back, going on TV and saying she didn’t have a good partner in the Senate. And just as dishonorably, she betrayed all those moderate Democrats who had come to her rescue when her political life was hanging by a thread. 

Politics is a nasty business. But in my opinion, the dishonor Sen. Murkowski displayed is several levels deep. It’s not only that she betrayed those who saved her. There’s a longstanding tradition in the U.S. Senate: you don’t turn on your colleague in an election.

There's more but I think that this really captures the meat of Mr. McGuire's point.

And it is quite a valid point.

Murkowski has demonstrated herself to be a cagey political operative, who quickly calculates where she needs to position herself in order to retain her Senate seat and garner support for the future.

When she needed moderates, she was moderate. And when she believes she needs conservatives, well...she IS still daddy's little girl.

Clearly she recognized that the Republicans would most likely capture the Senate in this elections cycle, and positioned herself accordingly. I am sure in her mind Begich's lost Senate seat is simply an acceptable casualty in her strategy to gain more power.

And she has indeed gained that power.

She will now be given the chairmanship of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which will allow her to once again campaign for the opening of ANWR, even as we are faced with information about climate change which should dissuade any reasonable person from even entertaining such an idea. (To be fair Mark Begich also promoted the opening of ANWR. You really cannot get elected up here if you are against it.)

The President will of course veto the proposal and it will never happen, but it is once again a move that puts her in alignment with the Republican platform.

And there she will remain right up until it works against her in retaining her seat, and then my friends we will see the Murkowski's political chameleon act once again.

We deserve better that is for sure, however I reiterate once again that Murkowski will undoubtedly hold onto her seat right up until she no longer wants it, or until some unforeseen scandal knocks her out of the running. 

Because that's just the way things work in Alaska.

It was not only Democrats who lost big in the 2014 election, it was also women and their right to control their own bodies.

Courtesy of Politico:  

The big Republican gains in the November elections strengthened and enlarged the anti-abortion forces in the House and the Senate. But it’s the GOP victories in the statehouses and governor’s mansions that are priming the ground for another round of legal restrictions on abortion. 

Arkansas, for instance, already has strict anti-abortion laws. But with a Republican governor succeeding a Democrat who had vetoed two measures that would have banned most abortions beyond a certain stage of pregnancy, lawmakers plan to seek more restrictions — such as barring doctors from administering abortion drugs through telemedicine. Republican gains in the West Virginia Legislature will redouble pressure on Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to accept a ban on most abortions after 20 weeks, which he has previously deemed unconstitutional. And Tennessee voters approved a ballot initiative that removes a 15-year barrier to legislation limiting abortion legislation in that deeply conservative state.  

Abortion rights advocates have had setbacks in the states for several years, with a surge of legislative activity since 2011. Women seeking abortions may face mandatory waiting periods or ultrasound requirements. Clinics may face stricter building codes or hospital admitting privilege rules they can’t satisfy. Dozens of clinics have shut down in multiple states. Texas, for instance, has fewer than 10 abortion clinics now. A year ago, it had 40. 

Republicans now hold two-thirds of the state legislative bodies, after winning control of 11 more chambers. They completely control the legislature in more than half the states, adding Nevada, New Hampshire and West Virginia to that list earlier this month. And they gained two more governor’s seats, so they will hold 31 next year. 

You know a couple of years ago I used to scoff at the idea that the Republicans could find some way to  overturn Roe vs Wade. Well I am no longer scoffing.

In effect in many places around the country on the state level the conservatives have either made it impossible to get an abortion, or extremely difficult. And they are forcing women to travel longer distances and jump through more hoops than ever before.

And the sad thing is that in their furor to stop all abortion in this country, they are increasing the need for them by closing down clinics which helped women get birth control, sex education, and prenatal care.

Of course they care little about that. After all as we have discussed before they only use abortion as their rallying cry. What they really want is to control women's bodies and return them to their rightful place as breeding stock completely subservient to men.

Mark Begich concedes.

Courtesy of Alaska Dispatch:  

After holding on to dwindling hope for days, Sen. Mark Begich on Monday conceded he had lost his U.S. Senate race to Republican Dan Sullivan. 

With the concession coming nearly two weeks after the Nov. 4 general election and with few votes left to count, the statement was largely a formality.

As you know I already called this race the day after the election.

The reason I did that is because even though I may be an optimist, I am still a realist and I knew the numbers simply did not add up.

However I would be lying if I did not admit that a part of me secretly hoped that I was wrong and would have to eat crow. Crow would taste so much better than bitter defeat.

Mark was a good guy, and a hard worker for Alaska, who actually understands the people and lives they live up here in the Last Frontier.

Sure many of Mark's votes were in line with President Obama, but much of those votes were ultimately beneficial to the people of our state.

Sullivan does not work for us, and his votes in the Senate will be guided by outside forces. And trust me, few of those will ultimate be of benefit to Alaskans.

The Canadians think us mad.

The Republican agenda revealed. Pretty much what you might expect.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

Reading between the lines, I gather that Republicans are starting to coalesce around a legislative agenda to celebrate their recent midterm victory: 

• Ban abortions after 20 weeks. 
• Wipe out all of Obama's new and pending EPA regulations. 
• Repeal Obamacare bit by bit. 
• Figure out a way to obstruct Loretta Lynch's nomination as Attorney General. 

Oh, there's still some desultory happy talk about tax reform and fast-track trade authority and other "areas of agreement," but that seems to be fading out. Poking a stick in President Obama's eye is very quickly becoming the order of the day.

I would like to forgive those who stayed home during this midterm election and refused to participate.

But I can't, for you have truly fucked us good.

P.S. Just for fun let's look back at when the Republicans had a reasonable agenda.

What ever happened to those guys?

Hell I would vote for those guys.

President Obama takes on the blame for the midterm shellacking. "The buck stops right here."

Courtesy of Politico:  

President Barack Obama is taking blame for the Democratic drubbing in last week’s midterm elections, saying “the buck stops right here at my desk.” 

“Whenever, as the head of the party, it doesn’t do well, I’ve got to take responsibility for it,” the president said in a wide-ranging interview aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation."

Obama also said one lesson from the midterms was that his party has to do a better job selling its policies. 

“We’ve got to reach out to the other side and, where possible, persuade,” he told host Bob Schieffer in the interview taped Friday at the White House before he left on a week-long trip to Asia. “I think there are times, there’s no doubt about it, where, you know, I think we have not been successful in going out there and letting people know what it is that we’re trying to do and why this is the right direction.” 

I think this is bullshit.

I think the President is being very magnanimous by taking on the blame for something that ultimately is the fault of timidity by the Democrats and candidates who believed that if they hid from their progressive ideas, and the successes of this President, that it would make them more attractive to the voters.

I think if Democrats would have walked out among their  constituents with their chests puffed out with pride over what they had accomplished and sold it with the same fervor that Republicans used to sell us the Iraq war, many of them could have emerged victorious.

And at least if they lost they could still look at themselves in the mirror and say that they stayed true to themselves, true to the President, and true to their party.

As I said before perhaps the most vicious battle will not be between the Republicans and Obama, but rather between the Republicans and the Republicans.

Courtesy of The New York Times:

 As most Republicans were taking a victory lap the morning after the elections, a group of conservatives huddled anxiously in a conference room not far from Capitol Hill and agreed that now is the time for confrontation, not compromise and conciliation. 

Despite Republicans’ ascension to Senate control and an expanded House majority, many conservatives from the party’s activist wing fear that congressional leaders are already being too timid with President Obama. 

They do not want to hear that government shutdowns are off the table or that repealing the Affordable Care Act is impossible — two things Republican leaders have said in recent days. 

“If the new Republican leadership in the Senate is only talking about what they can’t do, that’s going to be very demoralizing,” said Thomas J. Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, a conservative advocacy group that convenes a regular gathering called Groundswell. Any sense of triumph at its meeting last week was fleeting. 

“I think the members of the leadership need to decide what they’re willing to shut down the government over,” Mr. Fitton said.

The positive thing to take away form this is that the GOP may be so distracted by infighting that they are unable to get anything done. And they will certainly have a difficult time getting the votes together in order to pass legislation.

However on the negative side this means that establishment Republicans will be wary of making any deals which  might indicate weakness in the eyes of the rabid Right Wing and ensure primary challengers when they come up for reelection.

Ultimately this stand off may simply indicate that even with significantly higher numbers, and the Senate on their side, that the conservatives will be just as ineffectual at leading as they have been in the four years since John Boehner first picked up the Speaker's gavel.

David Brooks discusses the "Palin spasm" and the return of the Republicans as a "governing party."

Courtesy of The New York Times:  

Every party in opposition goes a little crazy. For Republicans in the early Obama era, insanity took the form of the Sarah Palin spasm. Veteran politicos took the former Alaska governor seriously as a national figure. Republican primary voters nominated the likes of Todd Akin, Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle. Glenn Beck seemed important enough to hold a big rally at the Lincoln Memorial. 

Fortunately, serious parties eventually pull back from the fever swamps. That’s what’s happening to the Republican Party. It has re-established itself as the nation’s dominant governing party. Republicans now control 69 of 99 state legislative bodies. Republicans hold 31 governorships to Democrats’ 18.

When the next Congress convenes in January, Republicans will have their largest majority in the House of Representatives since 1931; they will have a majority in the Senate, dominate gubernatorial power in the Midwest, and have more legislative power nationwide than anytime over the past century. 

Republicans didn’t establish this dominant position because they are unrepresentative outsiders. They did it because they have deep roots in four of the dominant institutions of American society: the business community, the military, the church and civic organizations. 

Brooks goes on to make the case that the Republicans elected in this cycle are more representative of the types of Republicans that came before the"Palin spasm."

In the end it sums it up thusly: 

During the Palin spasm, Republicans seemed to detest the craft of governing. Hothouse flowers like Senator Ted Cruz preferred telegenic confrontation to compromise and legislation. 

But current party leaders are talking about incremental progress, finding areas where they can get bipartisan support: on trade, corporate taxes, the XL oil pipeline, the medical devices tax, patent reform, maybe even tax reform generally.

I have to admit that I am not nearly as convinced that the Republicans are really prepared to put partisan differences aside to get some things accomplished for the good of the country, but I certainly do agree that the "Palin spasm" does appear to be over.

Of course the viral infection that caused the spasms is not yet convinced that her poison is no longer coursing through the veins of the body politic, and it may take another cycle or two for her to realize that her time is done and for her to fade completely from public awareness.

But that time is certainly coming. That much is for sure.

Was the 2014 loss due voter apathy on the side of progressives, or was there something else at play?

Courtesy of The Intercept:  

On Tuesday, older, white voters — who traditionally support Republicans — went to the polls in droves, while turnout among traditionally Democratic groups — the young, the minoritized, and women — was down. Indeed, overall turnout declined to an estimated 36.6% of eligible voters, the lowest rate of participation since the 1940s, despite the $3 billion spent by candidates, political parties, and super PACs. 

Yes, President Barack Obama’s poor performance and approval rating undoubtedly played a role in the lower turnout. But the evidence is piling up that systematic voter suppression, including voter ID laws and dubious vote-fraud prevention software, played a significant part in keeping people from casting ballots, as well.

The Intercept goes on to point out irregularities in both Texas and Georgia.  

Georgia, it must also be noted, is one of 27 states using the controversial software Crosscheck to weed out supposed voter fraud. Al Jazeera, which recently finished a months-long investigation of the program, found an astonishing 7 million Americans suspected of voter fraud on the Crosscheck lists. That despite the fact that voter fraud is almost unbelievably rare. One dogged investigator, a professor focused on election administration at Loyola University Law School, found just 31 credible incidents between 2000 and mid 2014, nationwide. 

Crosscheck scours the names of voters who live in the 27 states, and if a first and last name matches in two states both persons are flagged and purged. The surnames most likely to be flagged? “The lists are heavily weighted with names such as Jackson, Garcia, Patel and Kim — ones common among minorities”, Al Jazeera reported. “List matching is an inaccurate science that burdens, disproportionately, minority voters”, said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. Weiser also claimed that voter complaints to her group’s hotline were higher this year than ever before.

I think most of us have known that our voting rights have been under attack since as least 2000, and  it seems that as time goes on the Republican's ability to rob us of our fundamental right to vote is getting more sophisticated and harder to track.

If we are going to have any hope of electing a representative government in this country we are going to have to do something very serious about reforming our voting structure.

Sean Hannity invites Sarah Palin on to do her victory dance and then shuts her down by asking if she wants a job in politics.

I have to admit that I did not even know that Palin was on Fox last night, I was too busy ignoring my TV and enjoying life.

However our friend GinaM sent me this link so let's see what craziness awaits us this morning.

Hannity leads off by framing the midterm defeat of Democrats as a harbinger of troubles to come for a Hillary Clinton presidential bid in 2016. (Nice try no-neck.)

After teeing it up, Hannity then asks Palin if Hillary is "as big a loser as the President."

"Oh it was the whole ball of wax wasn't it the other night? All the Democrats felled policies, and felled candidates, and felled surrogates. Well that was just..uh..made manifest by  the American people when we all said no to that, and to stop that, and Hillary of course was a part of that. Of course though the Left, Sean will..um..buck up and they will do all that they can to protect Hillary and try to change the narrative, as you already heard I'm sure. Try to make it sound like, well she was the winner in all of this. That she had chosen the right ones, and the right policies to support. Obviously the facts don't support that...but they will...they will support her anyway and prop her up because they participate in this phony and felled war on women, so to compensate for what it is that they accuse the Republicans of engaging in, they make an extra effort to coddle women and to make them fill that they can't independently, and with their own capabilities, rise to the top. That government and politicians have to do things for them. They will do for Hillary to continue to prop her up."

Wait, Hillary Clinton needs to be propped up by the Democrats? Boy does Palin not know Hillary Clinton!

That is one of the worst cases of projection that I have ever seen.

Hannity then makes the case that in order to run successfully in 2016 that Hillary will have to distance herself from the policies of President Obama, and asks Palin if she can do that.

"No, Barack Obama of course has had his boot on the neck of the American economy, and anyone who has participated in shining that boot, that being the people who he surrounds himself with, and helped call the shots for the nation over these past six years of a lot of failures, anybody who shined those boots? No the American public, you can't underestimate the wisdom of, and will be saying no to anyone who participated. Good point too about Mark Begich, Mary Landrieu, all these folks who they supported Barack Obama, and would continue to, of course, when they got back in there 97, 98, 99% of the time. How stupid did they think American voters were?"

Well smart enough to have rejected you and Grandpa Grumpy-Pants back in 2008.

Hannity then asks if Palin has any advice for the newly elected, or newly reelected Republicans going to Washington, and she rattles off a bunch of her usual talking points about stopping Obama, giving us our freedom, and playing hardball.

Hannity then asks if there isn't an "unspoken expectation" that the Republicans will actually work to solve some of the problems facing the country and not just focus on defeating Obama? Which is actually a surprisingly reasonable question coming from Hannity.

Let's see how Palin handles a real question.

"Right, first and foremost is stop Obama and his felled policies, his lawlessness, but also yes that inspiration that we can gain from the GOP, and what it is that we sent them to do there in Washington is to fulfill their campaign promises and stand strong on the planks of the Republican platform. And they can get specific from there. Lower the corporate tax rate, and quit shoving jobs overseas..um..allow competition in the health care system once you repill Obamacare, as you promised to do GOP. And...uh...allow employers to hire more people. Full time jobs, not part time jobs. What's going on right now Sean is the decimation of the middle class because of these high costs of health care, because of these prohibitions just placed upon employers where they're not able to hire people. Open borders of course is another step toward decimation of the middle class because we'll have a flood of illegal immigrants coming in to compete with American jobs. All of that leads to just this atrophying of a foundation of our country which is the middle class, and that is on the Democrat's shoulder."

Holy shit! What the hell is she saying?

So I think the answer is no, that Republicans do not have an "unspoken expectation" to do anything except attack Obama and give lip service to problem solving while doing nothing.

This is where Hannity decides to ambush Palin by asking her if she is thinking at all about getting back into politics.

And this is the look on her face the moment he asks it at the 6:15 mark.

Deer, meet headlights.

Her response?

"I would love to."

Then Hannity follows up, by asking her "what job?"

She looks completely lost, before shaking her head and saying, "I don't know which job, but of course, and in the meantime, I'm out and about doing what I can to support good candidates."

Palin then breathlessly tattles off a bunch of upcoming appearances. Ultimately making it clear that she does NOT really want a job where she cannot do what she wants, when she wants.

Most of this interview was the same old word salad, peppered with Palin brand moosenuggets. But that last question, that one actually seemed to have drawn blood.

Here is a little news that might lift a few spirits.

Courtesy of our friends over at News Corpse:  

But the real story underlying this election is one that the media will almost certainly fail to address. Despite the election returns, America hates the Republican Party and its policies. The turnout is estimated to be about 38%. That means that the GOP victory was achieved with a majority of a little more than one-third of the electorate, or about 20%. That is not exactly a ringing endorsement of the Republican agenda. 

The demographic makeup of the voters this year was decidedly older and whiter. It was also more concentrated in the South which accounted for 34% of all votes. The rest of the country came in a substantial nine to twelve points lower. 

Just two years ago President Obama was resoundingly reelected along with increasing the number of Democrats in both houses of Congress. The turnout then was 58%, or 53% higher than 2014. Exit polls show that both parties are underwater in voter approval, but Democrats are still favored over Republicans 44% to 40%. Exit polling also gives Obama a 41% approval rating, compared to just 13% for Congress. 

On the basis of this fractured and biased sliver of the electorate, Chris Wallace of Fox News declared this morning that “The Democratic Party brand is damaged.” But further examination of the exit polls says that isn’t true. On virtually every policy question, voters sided with the Democrats. That includes ObamaCare, immigration reform, increasing the minimum wage, same-sex marriage, legalizing marijuana, abortion, and climate change. And when asked about preferences for president in 2016, Hillary Clinton is leading every GOP opponent (Clinton 42%, Jeb Bush 29%, Rand Paul 26%, Chris Christie 24%, and Rick Perry 24%). 

2016 holds more bad news for Republicans and their new senate majority. The GOP will be defending 24 seats, as compared to only 10 for the Democrats. Nine of the those GOP seats are in states won by Obama in 2012. So are all of the Democratic seats. With a larger and more representative electorate it is almost a certainty that the senate will flip back to the Democrats. And with a popular and history-making candidate like Clinton that outcome is even more likely.

Of course all of that is true, and I have been kind of telling myself some version of this since yesterday, but it is still upsetting when you lose like this and have to imagine just how badly the Republicans can damage the country before the Democrats can wrest it out of their hands again. 

I mean let's face it Obama is STILL trying to put the pieces back together after George W. Bush not only left the country in shambles but left political IEDs all over the damn place to constantly blow up in the President's face as he tries to clean up the mess.

At this time I can only imagine what sort of booby traps the Republicans will leave for Hillary before they are eventually chased out of office.

The mind reels.

In my opinion 2016 cannot come fast enough.

Colorado just elected an exorcist to their House of Representatives. And here you thought YOUR state had gone off the deep end.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

The radical anti-LGBT religious activist Gordon “Dr. Chaps” Klingenschmitt won a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives with almost 70 percent of the vote, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports. 

The former Navy chaplain’s victory was not surprising, as Republicans outnumber Democrats by a 2-to-1 margin in the El Paso County district Klingenschmitt now represents. 

The notoriously anti-LGBT Klingenschmitt came to national attention last year, when he attempted to exorcise a “demonic spirit” from President Barack Obama. 

“We pray against the domestic enemies of the Constitution,” Klingenschmitt said, his eyes tightly closed, “against this demon of tyranny who is using the White House occupant. That demonic spirit is oppressing us.”

Here is the video of Klingenschmitt "exorcising" the demonic spirit from the White House.

As you can see it was clearly not a REAL exorcism (There was not green puke or anything), and if it was it was the laziest one that I have ever witnessed, and I have actually seen a fair number.

Here is more from Think Progress:

Here is a collection of choice Klingenschmitt quotes: 

1. “Almighty God, today we pray imprecatory prayers from Psalm 109 against the enemies of religious liberty…who recently issued a press release attacking me personally… Let their days be few, and replace them with godly people. Plunder their fields and seize their assets. Cut off their descendants. And remember their sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.” 

2. “She gave her life to Jesus. She welcomed the Holy Spirit. And I looked into her eyes as she began to weep and I said, “You foul spirit of lesbianism, this woman has renounced you, come out of her in Jesus’ name,’ and she began to wrestle with that and suddenly her eyes began to bug out and then she began to weep, and weep, and weep as the Holy Spirit forgave her sins… She was baptized the next day and then she became one of the best evangelists in our church, started carrying around her Bible telling all of her friends about Jesus and she started dating boys.” 

3. “Almighty God, please bless Lowes Home Improvement stores for their wise decision to stop advertising for the TV show All-American Muslim, which is nothing but Islamic propaganda designed to whitewash the fact that practitioners of militant Islam not only slaughtered over 3000 American civilians, but routinely kill millions of Christians worldwide.” 

4. “Sen. Franken recently released a video in which he blames the high rate of suicide among homosexual teens on school bullying, by abusing these sad tragedies as his own propaganda tool. By spreading even more lies to more teens, Franken is ultimately causing more suicides. Teen suicide is tragic enough without Senator Franken recruiting more kids into homosexuality, which causes depression, self-hatred, self-rejection and self-murder.” 

5. “Sexual harrassment [sic] is banned in the military, unless you’re a homosexual abusing a Christian, then it’s openly encouraged.” 

6. “Federal bureaucrats will enforce Obamacare to exterminate the elderly, systematically. We must take a stand.” 

7. “Picture this: four NFL players coming out as gay, and then this whole youth movement of coaches recruiting children into the homosexual lifestyle and punishing Christians because they voice an opposition to that sort of thing in the locker room… that is a demonic use of the sporting industry.” 

8. “Is bestiality now a perceived sexual orientation? Well since it’s not defined in the ENDA bill, yes it is!” 

9. “An atheist chaplain would be the perfect vehicle for convincing wounded warriors that they should end their lives because there’s nothing in the future and there’s nothing now, so why not just save money and kill themselves.” 

10. “In other words, it doesn’t matter what your skin color is, it matters what’s inside of your heart. And if your heart is full of corruption or sin or immorality — in this case, homosexuality — then you should be discriminated against.” (There are more of these over at Think Progress.)


Holy cow this guy makes Ted Cruz and Louie Gohmert seem rational.

What the hell Colorado? Did nobody check this guy's biography, or do some Coloradans like their wing nutty politicians with extra nuts?

I swear if we do not do something to keep these superstitious idiots out of office, our country is doomed.

I mean what's next, a President who bases his decisions on advice from an Astrologer?

Oh wait.......

Well there is one group who will relish the election of Joni Ernst to the Senate, comedians.

Courtesy of Ria Novosti:  

The winner of Tuesday’s Iowa Senate Race, Republican Joni Ernst will be featured regularly in political comedy shows because of her extreme beliefs, a political strategist told RIA Novosti on Wednesday. 

“Joni Ernst has said some things that are on the fringe of American politics - which the press hasn’t covered very well. She referred to [US President Barack] Obama as a dictator. Not to mention she’s into all kinds of weird conspiracy theories. She’ll definitely make good fodder for Jon Stewart for the next six years,” Iowa-based political consultant Pete D'Alessandro said. 

D'Alessandro, who has also worked on a number of election campaigns, also pointed to some alarming statements Ernst made regarding gun ownership, including the one in which she stated that she would need a gun to defend herself against the government. 

“I would say she’s a less intelligent Sarah Palin [Former Alaska Governor]. Sarah Palin is actually smarter, politically,” the strategist claimed.

Wow, dumber than Sarah Palin. Is there any worse allegation than that for a politician?

I agree that Ernst is going to attract a lot of attention from comedians and satirists.

I can already visualize the SNL skit based on her acceptance speech, where she brayed like a donkey the entire time.

As for being dumber than Palin, I will have to see a little more evidence before I am willing to hand the Queen of Stupidity crown over to Ernst. Maybe if her family got shitfaced and attacked an innocent homeowner I might consider it.

President assures nation that despite loss of Senate Obamacare will not be repealed.

Courtesy of TPM:  

"If in fact one of the item on (the Republican) agenda is to make responsible changes to the ACA to make it work better," he told reporters during a press conference, "I'm going to be very open and receptive to hearing those ideas." 

But some obvious things would not be open for discussion, Obama said, predictable things like full repeal of the law or repeal of the individual mandate. 

"In some cases, recommendations that Republicans have for changes would undermine the structure of the law," he said. "I'll be very honest with them about that, 'The law doesn't work if you pull out that piece or that piece.'"

That seems to fall in line with what Mitch McConnell visualizes as well in an interview given before the election to Time Magazine:  

Asked to imagine it was Wednesday morning and he wakes up majority leader—a position he’s aspired to, he says, since the 5th grade—McConnell strikes a conciliatory tone, saying he hopes to work with President Obama and Senate Democrats. He said there would be no shutdowns on his watch, despite the fact that he plans to use funding bills to force changes in Obama’s policies. 

Notably, a full repeal of Obamacare was not on his mind, but rather a partial repeal through the appropriations process. Finally, he named his new top priority: keeping the Senate in 2016 (though winning the White House is also “not unimportant”).

McConnell saying that there would be no government shutdown on his watch makes sense if his goal is to hang onto the Senate in 2016.

I actually do not have a great deal of confidence in the President and McConnell seeing eye to eye on much, and that includes which portions of the Affordable Care Act should be changed.

And that does not take into account the "Cruz effect: 

"Cruz also would like the Senate to be as aggressive in trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act as the House, which has voted more than 50 times to get rid of the law. 

Republicans should “pursue every means possible to repeal Obamacare,” Cruz said, including forcing a vote through parliamentary procedures that would get around a possible filibuster by Democrats. If that leads to a veto by Obama, Cruz said, Republicans should then vote on provisions of the health law “one at a time.” 

And when asked whether he would back Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for Republican leader, Cruz would not pledge his support — an indication that there are limits to how much of a partner he’s willing to be.

There is some possibility that the biggest battles coming out of Washington will NOT be between the Republicans and the President, but rather between the Republican establishment and the Tea Party folks who simply cannot abide government working at all. much less in a bipartisan manner.

Sarah Palin on Fox Business this morning talking about the Democrats. "They got mauled."

I apologize that I am not providing a transcript, but folks I just don;t have it in me today.

So here are a few of the lowlights.

On the Democrats use of the war on Women: "That was the stupidest thing I've seen in politics in quite some time."

On the possibility of the President to compromise with Republicans:  "He's going to go balls to the wall opposite of what the American people want."

On the Republicans: "It's the GOP's turn to show us what they got. These establishment type especially."

On impeachment: "We need to get in there and start those investigations."

On what about her appearances on Fox make headlines: "Well I have the guts to call it like I see it. And a connectiveness to the American people I think, average hard working, patriotic Americans who just want the best for our country, and are very concerned for our children and our grand-children's future."

(That last is around the 4:30 mark and you can visibly see Palin burping on camera. The grimace following is really quite scrotum shriveling.)

On whether the Republican victory encourages her to consider running in 2016 (Actually I could answer this one. NO!): "Ah it was such a great night last night, and it's going to be a great two years if the GOP does what it's supposed to do. It encourages me in the sense that  the wisdom of the people was made manifest in the vote so that tells you that we will have a very wise electorate in 2016 also. It's not about me though!" 

Palin vomits forth several more bowls of word salad, but essentially she says what I said she would say, only without ever really having the guts to say it.

I think that right before the 2016 elections I will play this clip of Palin feeling quite pleased with herself and the Republican party, because you know THAT might be what it takes to anger the Democrats enough to get them off their asses and into the voting booths where they belong.

In fact that should be a bumper sticker "Want to piss off Sarah Palin? Vote Democrat!"

At this point I'll try just about anything.

And as one, all eyes turn.

First there's this as reported by Politico:

As Democrats wake up this morning reeling from an electoral spanking, the 2016 presidential race will unofficially begin — with the main focus on the woman who is all but certain to seek her party’s nomination a second time. 

 Then this courtesy of CNN:  

Hillary Clinton has spent the final moments of the midterm campaign season publicly deflecting the flurry of questions about her likely run for president. 

But behind the scenes, her campaign machine is quietly whirring to life. 

Clinton insiders have begun to approach Washington-based Democratic operatives who may play a role in a potential campaign and are soliciting their recommendations on other possible staffers, according to Democrats familiar with the conversations. 

A number Clinton associates are compiling staffing lists, according to multiple Democratic sources. Michael Whouley and Minyon Moore of the Democratic communications and consulting firm Dewey Square Group are one conduit to Clinton's inner circle and among the primary compilers of the campaign universe that will surround Clinton, should she run.

I said earlier, and I stand by it, that much of what the new Republican Senate, and their friends in Congress and the Right Wing media, will be focused on is undermining Clinton in the hopes of damaging her credibility before 2016.

Sure they will also try to destroy Obama's legacy as well, but the main focus will have to be the juggernaut facing off against them in the next election.

Towards that end I expect to hear a whole lot about Benghazi, and Russia, and the current conflicts in the Middle East. Because you know clearly those are all her fault.

We will also hear way more than we want to about Bill and his indiscretions, along with a whole slew of misogynistic comments and attacks from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and the overgrown frat boys at Fox News. In short it might just make the rampant racism that bubbled to the surface after the election of President Obama pale by comparison.

Personally I think she should announce today, just to take the wind out of the Republican sails, and to get the country focused on the election where the Republicans will finally have their asses handed to them on a platter.

Just a thought.