Well, it’s Friday…and looking over the materials I’ve bookmarked, I can’t come up with a “central, encompassing theme.” If I focus on stimulus…I have to neglect our girl, Sarah Palin. Do an installment of “Palinwatch“…then you don’t get your weekly dose of “octomom lunacy.” And then there’s the extremist pundits…we can’t leave out the pundits!
So without further ado, here’s a collection of recent press that caught my attention, loosely grouped to give some illusion of an orderly presentation:
OCTOMOM:
- For anyone questioning either Nadya Suleman’s priorities OR her fiscal responsibility…here she is out buying video games, and getting her nails professionally done. Too bad babies can’t live on pixels and acetone.
- Remember when Nadya’s mother, the octuplets grandmother, did that Radar Online interview where she complained about having to raise Nadya’s previous six kids without any help…even any financial help? And where she questioned her daughter’s mental well-being and rationale for having so many kids when she has neither a job, a husband, or a home? Well, according to Nadya’s publicist, Joann Killeen…they’d like grandma to shut the hell up. They’ve politely suggested this to grandma by having a judge issue a gag order against her. Killeen says: “I had to put a gag on Nadya’s mother, who sold her out to RadarOnline. They paid her $40,000 to sell [Nadya] out and she can’t talk about her daughter for three months.”
- Grandma (Angela Suleman)…well, they relaxed the gag order just a bit, so she could go on “The Early Show” with Maggie Rodriguez and NOW she says, “...you can resent your daughter for just so long…I was actually very upset that my daughter had gone and done this in-vitro, but after I saw them, you know, I thought, my goodness, these are my grandchildren. They’re so tiny and fragile. I’ll have to be there for them, you know, like I was for the others.” She went on to say she now happily contributes all of her monthly retirement check to provide for her daughter’s babies. What do you think…did the gag order sway grandma’s opinion…or did they offer to cut her in on the movie and book rights?
- Oh, but that publicist, Joann Killeen? She’s gone. Apparently representing the most publicly ridiculous and irresponsible mother of the week has caused her to receive an abundance of somewhat creative death threats: “They’d put me in the wood chipper and throw me in the bottom of the ocean and hope I die…We’ve gotten her through the worst part of it and now they are putting their venom and anger toward us.” The public relations company reported to be Killeen’s replacement…has completed denied even WANTING to be involved in representing Suleman.
- Finally…Grandpa speaks! And to Oprah! Ed Doud (aka Captain Obvious) said in his interview, “Now I’m no psychiatrist, but I question her mental situation.” Way to enter the game in the fourth quarter, Ed…and with details we’d already figured out for ourselves.
- One last thing…the family is losing their house. Apparently the burden of raising all of Nadya’s brood on nothing more than federal disability, workman’s comp, retirement checks, and food stamps…has broken the grandparents’ piggy bank. Nadya’s response: “It’s not my home. I got to move. Yeah, I need a new house.” Nadya…living in her own house…with her fourteen kids…without her parents’ constant help. Yeah, that’ll end well.
ROLAND BURRIS:
- Hey, you know how we were just talking about U.S. Sen. Roland Burris the other day? The guy appointed to Obama’s Senate seat by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich? And how he submitted an affidavit to the Illinois House, indicating that he had not been entirely forthcoming when he denied talking to Blagojevich family members and staff? And he then admitted he talked to Blagojevich’s brother three times about wanting the Senate seat? Well…apparently, Burris left some MORE communication out of the affidavit, including numerous calls to John Harris, Blago’s chief of staff….where they talked about fundraising and Burris’ interest in the Senate seat. In short: he did not tell the House committee what he should have…and in the document he sent the House committee to provide them with the things he left out…he left out some more things.
SARAH PALIN:
- It’s a bit embarrassing to run around shouting “Abstinence first,” and, “Parent’s should teach their children to wait until marriage to have intercourse“…and then having your own unwed, teenage daughter get knocked up. It’s probably more than a bit embarrassing when that same unwed, teenage, dropout, daughter/mother goes on television and says that teen abstinence is “unrealistic.” Bristol goes on to say that she doesn’t regret becoming a mother and that she was well-prepared for motherhood because, “I’ve been baby-sitting my whole life.” Having read this quote, any adult who has actually raised children is either shaking their head or laughing uncontrollably.
- Apparently, returning to Alaska has not been what Sarah hoped it would be. Alaskan Democrats detest he for many of the comments she made while on the campaign trail. State legislators of both parties still neither trust nor respect her…and are afraid of her current big spending projects, which follow her pattern of “borrow big, tax little.” This policy is, of course, especially dangerous now that oil revenues are dramatically low and the state deficit is already high. Her previous overwhelmingly positive approval ratings have fallen to 60% approval…and the population is a little embarrassed about all the scandals and “family drama” that regularly makes headlines. One Alaskan GOP legislator has called her “Dan Quayle with a ponytail.” And lipstick…a ponytail and lipstick.
- Way back during the campaign…there was a bit of controversy over Palin collecting a per diem based on the fact that she preferred to work from her home near Anchorage, rather than from the state capitol. Well, it get’s better. She also charged taxpayers $21,012 for her children’s travel expenses. Oh, and she charged Alaskans per diem expenses for the day because she had a FOX interview…and another for a day because she talked with Senator Elizabeth Dole on the phone. And that’s not all…these per diem expenses she collected? She somehow neglected to pay taxes on them. Ooops. If you want to read Sarah’s expense reports…chocked full of items that have absolutely nothing to do with running the State of Alaska…they can be found here.
- This falls into the category of “what did you think she would say?” It has been reported that Palin, at one point, inquired about removing certain books from the Wasilla Public Library when she was mayor. Her campaign manager saw that one of the children’s books was a fairly harmless book about having a gay parent. According to the former campaign manager: “I found it to be a sensitive book about showing love for additional family members. I took the book to show the other council members and said I felt it was inoffensive and suggested for everyone to read it, but there were not takers. I said, ‘Sarah why don’t you take it home and read it.’ I could tell by her body language she cringed at the idea. I was shocked. It blew my mind that she wouldn’t look at it.” Really? It “blew your mind” that Palin would react that way…because the rest of us saw that reaction coming from a mile away.
PUNDITS, HACKS, AND OTHER INVETERATE LIARS:
- Proving that there is no limit to the depth of his depravity, Rush Limbaugh said Thursday that trying to understand a Democrat is like trying to understand a RAPIST or a MURDERER. Rush’s own words:
RL: This is… it’s about power, it’s about control. These people genuinely look out over this country from their lofty perches. They don’t like what they see. Otherwise…
Caller: So they can go somewhere else! Like, I don’t understand, why do they have to stay here? Like, leave us alone!
RL: At this point, at this point Gretchen, I don’t care about the why. They’re not going to leave. They’re trying to control it. At this point, the only thing is they must be stopped!
Caller: I agree…
RL: Within the confines of our Constitution, and the political arena of ideas, they must be stopped. I don’t care why they see this country the way they see it. I don’t care why a murderer does it. I don’t care why a rapist does it. I don’t care why this Muslim guy offed his wife’s head. The NOW gang is out there saying ‘oh, that’s not domestic violence, that’s just, uh, that’s just…’ what do they call it? ‘Culturally honor killing. Or this woman was going to divorce him, that’s against the law. That’s his diversity.’ I don’t care, I don’t care why anymore. If I figure it out, I’ll be glad to tell you because it’s interesting to know, but it doesn’t matter in terms of defeating them.
I’m going to assume that no further comment on my part is needed regarding these remarks, or what they say about the man who made them…or what they say about the people who LISTEN TO HIM.
- FOX News has been running some promos to show off their ratings…with some of the data featuring a little asterix. Follow the asterix and it says: “This would be where CNN and MSNBC use an asterix in their ads to point out some half-baked one-time statistic to prove that somebody stumbled across their channels giving them a temporary spike in the ratings, which they would tout as unprecedented, earth-shattering and monumental. It’s actually pathetic since we all know that if they massage their statistics long enough, they can come up with anything to make their tiny lame point. But deep in their hearts, even they know that FOX NEWS IS NUMBER ONE in cable news and has been for years.” This, coming from the “news” organization that is publicly caught “massaging their statistics” and “ignoring facts” on a near-weekly basis, does not amount to either fair criticism or good humor.
STIMULUS:
- Five Republican governors have each broadcast intentions to reject their state’s portion of the stimulus. I’m sure it’s only AN AMAZING COINCIDENCE that it is the same five governors who will likely battle for the Republican nomination for President in 2012, including Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. Perhaps Jindal should be paying more attention to the plight of Louisiana Congressman Cao. He voted against the stimulus bill…and now the voters in his district want to send him packing for doing so. See, when you vote against something your constituents want, just because your political party wants to “look tough and show solidarity“…it can have consequences.
- It’s happening here in the Great State of Tennessee as well. Republican Representative Brian Kelsey has put forth a resolution that calls for Governor Bredesen to refuse the stimulus money. Here’s the amazing part: in response, Democratic House Leader Gary Odom filed a proposal…that anyone supporting Kelsey’s motion…their district should receive NO STIMULUS MONEY. I love it…it says: “If you want to grandstand and say ‘Reject The Stimulus’ just to look good to conservative voters…even though you REALLY want your district to get the money…yeah, well, we’re not going to let you do that.” It makes me think, “What if they had done this in the U.S. House and Senate?” I doubt all of the Republicans who supported the Stimulus Bill, but voted against it…would have done so if it meant no stimulus for their states…
- It’s all rather moot anyway. Turns out - if state legislators want the money…they can get it EVEN IF the governor turns it down.
- The American Issues Project has aired a brief anti-stimulus ad…that uses Jesus in its argument against the package. No really…I think they’re trying to be serious.
That’s all I have for now…have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you back here on Monday...