Just like Jesus!

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — who has gone to great lengths to hype the supposed dangers of a big government takeover of American health care — admitted over the weekend that she used to get her treatment in Canada’s single-payer system.

“We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada,” Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. “And I think now, isn’t that ironic?”

The irony, one guesses, is that Palin now views Canada’s health care system as revolting: with its government-run administration and ‘death-panel’-like rationing. Clearly, however, she and her family once found it more alluring than, at the very least, the coverage available in rural Alaska. Up to the age of six, Palin lived in a remote town near the closest Canadian city, Whitehorse.

Officials at several hospitals in that area declined to give out information on patient visits.

via Palin Crossed Border For Canadian Health Care.

Just like Jesus!

When the media first challenged her on the need to write her core beliefs on her hand to remember them, “I didn’t really had a good answer, as so often — is me,” Palin quipped at an Ohio Right to Life fundraiser Friday. “But then somebody sent me the other day, Isaiah 49:16, and you need to go home and look it up. Before you look it up, I’ll tell you what it says though. It says, hey, if it was good enough for God, scribbling on the palm of his hand, it’s good enough for me, for us. He says, in that passage, ‘I wrote your name on the palm of my hand to remember you,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m in good company.’”

The Bible doesn’t mention permanent marker, of course; the line Palin referred to, “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands,” features “writing” that is significantly more permanent.

Before invoking God, Palin tried to explain away the hand notes by calling them “a poor man’s teleprompter.” Earlier in her speech before Ohio Right to Life, she claimed that she really got the idea from her schoolteacher father, who she said would “read the palm of his hand to see what, you know, was on tap first for the curriculum the next day.”

Palin repeated the God story in Calgary on Saturday, after Canadian Sen. Pamela Wallin joked about her hand notes during a question-and-answer session. According to the National Post, one audience member yelled out, “Atta girl!”

In the Post’s telling, Palin’s Calgary speech sounded a lot like self-parody, though she might just be taking her stand-up in a new direction:

She complained about the “establishment,” this woman who once ran to be second-in-command of the largest establishment in the world; she mocked the press, speaking as a correspondent to America’s biggest news network; she chastised critics who dwelt on her children’s lives, after introducing to the audience her daughter, Piper, who spent the duration of the speech fidgeting near the stage. And the politician who championed the average working man and woman spent an hour before her appearance locked away in a private VIP reception posing for photos with guests who had paid hundreds of dollars for the privilege; after her speech, she was hustled by handlers out a back door. If these were contradictions, they were forgiven readily. As is surely the case with so many of her audiences, Ms. Palin’s unpretentiousness and charm, and her deeply held conservatism, counted far more.
Alberta, she believed, was a place where people were very much like her. “We have that independent, pioneering spirit, still, just coursing through the veins of the people who choose to live here, and who choose to live in Alaska.” There were, by appearances, not many lumber-splitting mountain men or moose-hunting mothers in the crowd — or even many average wage earners, like Stephanie, who saved their paycheques just to share oxygen with the dynamic, everywoman from Wasilla. And yet, somehow, as she said it, everyone in the room seemed to believe it too.

Immediately after comparing herself to God on Friday, Palin said the note currently on her hand reminded her to talk about money.

more   …

Sarah Palin: God Wrote Notes On His Hand, Too.

Stephanopoulos asked O’Reilly if, like Evan Bayh, he believes there’s room for “someone to come up the middle” in 2012.

“It depends how articulate they are and how they’re gonna handle all the slime factor,” O’Reilly said. “You get into this game now, they’re gonna tear you to pieces on both sides. Do you have the stomach for it? You wanna put your family through that? That’s what scares them away. The press is so vicious now with a capital ‘V.’”

Would O’Reilly be interested in running? He says no.

“I have more power doing what I’m doing than getting involved with the political process,” he told Stephanopoulos. “Plus you have to kiss butt to get money.”

As for frequent “O’Reilly Factor” guest Sarah Palin, O’Reilly says she absolutely wants to run but has to weigh whether she wants to put her family through the process. And, he added, she needs to study up.

“Sarah Palin needs to go to college,” O’Reilly said. “Political college, world affairs college, and she is. She’s hired a bunch of advisers and they’re giving her a whole bunch of tracks to learn, because it is a sophisticated deal.”

via Bill O’Reilly: ‘Sarah Palin Needs To Go To College’ (VIDEO).

Sarah Palin

From crusading against Rahm Emanuel’s use of the term “retarded” to criticizing the Fox cartoon Family Guy for depicting a character with Down syndrome whose mother is “governor of Alaska,” Sarah Palin has positioned herself in recent weeks as a national spokesperson on disability issues. Yet leading disability-rights organizations in Alaska, Washington, D.C., and across the country tell The Daily Beast they view Palin’s increasing outspokenness on the issue with skepticism, noting that on most of their policy priorities—from health-care reform to increased federal funding for community services—Palin is either out of step with many national disability-advocacy groups or has yet to articulate a clear position.

“I think having a celebrity as an advocate is a very good idea,” says Bruce Fletcher. “But I don’t think she’s the right person to do that given that there’s a cloud over her in terms of her credibility.”

During her vice-presidential nomination speech at the Republican National Convention in 2008, Palin—whose 22-month-old son, Trig, has Down syndrome—vowed that “special-needs” families would “have a friend and advocate in the White House” if John McCain were elected. In May 2009, the Long Island-based Independent Group Home Living Association, which works with developmentally disabled individuals in New York state, named Palin its “Honoree of the Year.” During a trip to New York, Palin spoke at a benefit dinner for the group, and later attended an Autism Speaks fundraising walk in Westchester County. But on the policy level, Palin has a mixed and murky record on disability organizations’ priorities.

“Since the end of the presidential election, we haven’t heard Sarah Palin articulate any specific policy proposals [on disability],” said Peter Berns, CEO of The Arc, a Beltway lobbying group representing people with intellectual disabilities. Like nine other national disability-rights leaders The Daily Beast spoke to, Berns pointed to Palin’s excusing of Rush Limbaugh’s use of the word “retarded”—even as she hammered Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff, for the same sin—as evidence of her lack of seriousness. “It has unfortunately politicized the issue in ways that are not productive, and it has converted what really are bipartisan issues into partisan ones,” Berns said.

Indeed, though the Democratic Party has historically been more enthusiastic about funding health-care and education programs that serve disabled people, the key pieces of legislation addressing disability rights, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1975, passed with bipartisan support. Bob Dole, Orin Hatch, Sam Brownback, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers are among the Republican politicians who have prioritized disability policy issues.

more ate the Daily Beast……

Palin’s Disabled Cred – Page 1 – The Daily Beast.

Even Cheney thinks Sarah is an idiot

Former Vice President Dick Cheney took issue on Sunday with Sarah Palin’s recent suggestion that President Obama could win re-election by starting a war with Iran.

In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” Cheney said that Palin’s argument that Obama might have a clearer path to a second term if he “played the war card” was faulty.

“I don’t think a president can make a judgment like that on the basis of politics,” Cheney said. “The stakes are too high, the consequences too significant to be treating those as simple political calculations.”

Dick Cheney On Sarah Palin: Wrong About Iran, Won’t Declare Support For Potential 2012 Bid.

Sister Sarah

During her speech at a logging conference in Redding, Calif., on Monday, Sarah Palin criticized California’s environmental regulations, pointed to her polar-bear-related lawsuit against the federal government, and compared certain global warming research to “snake oil science.”

San Jose Mercury News:

She criticized what she said were heavy-handed environmental laws. As Alaska governor, for example, she said she sued the federal government to overturn the listing of polar bears as a threatened species.

As Alaska North Slope wells dry up, the state is examining offshore drilling for oil and natural gas reserves. Protections for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act could thwart those explorations, according to Palin and her successor, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, who has picked up the cause.

Palin told the audience that filled the 2,000-seat Redding Convention Center that she disagreed with the science the government used to support the listing.

“We knew the bottom line … was ultimately to shut down a lot of our development,” she said during her 40-minute speech, which was followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer session.

“And it didn’t make any sense because it was based on these global warming studies that now we’re seeing (is) a bunch of snake oil science.”

Read more

Bomb Iran?

Citing a column by Pat Buchanan that clearly argues against conflict with Iran, Sarah Palin on Sunday suggested that a war with Iran would be good policy and a boon for President Obama’s 2012 reelection hopes.

Buchanan’s column, “Will Obama Play The War Card?” was a rebuttal of Daniel Pipes call last week for Obama to bomb Iran to save his presidency. “Will Obama cynically yield to temptation, play the war card and make ‘conservatives swoon,’ in Pipes’ phrase, to save himself and his party?” Buchanan writes.

Buchanan, a longtime anti-interventionist, comes out against more sanctions, arguing that “the families of the sick, the old, the weak, the women and the children who die are unlikely to feel gratitude toward those who killed them.” He says the prospects of Iran developing a nuclear bomb are much overstated.

But during an interview with Fox’s Chris Wallace in which she cited the Buchanan column, Palin spoke approvingly of the “bomb Iran” idea. Check out the key exchange (emphasis ours)

more with video:

Palin Advocates War With Iran After Apparently Misunderstanding Buchanan Column (VIDEO) | TPM LiveWire.

She could not remember 5 fucking points?

As ThinkProgress reported on Saturday night, paid Fox News contributor Sarah Palin was caught using “hand”-written notes during a Q & A session at the National Tea Party Convention this weekend. Ironically, during the appearance, Palin also criticized President Obama for using a teleprompter during speeches.

On Fox & Friends this morning, the hosts defended their colleague’s Telepalmer notes. Carlson suggested that it was a brilliantly clever plot to draw attention to Obama’s use of a teleprompter:

CARLSON: I think she did it on purpose. I think she did it on purpose, yeah. Because it’s an exact opposite of reading off the teleprompter with a script written for you with every word in a sentence and here’s she’s just taking crib notes on her hand. It makes her look like she can just talk off the cuff and she just jotted down a few couple notes before she went out to give a big long speech.

DOOCY: I think she did it because she probably does it a lot. I do that all the time. [...]

KILMEADE: But to sit there and look at, and do the interview and look down at her hand, I think that is — like you said before, Gretchen — folksy, absolutely, down-to-earth, I can identify. But if you’re going to write on your hand, why not just say, ’staffer, hand me a card.’ And then it would be okay.

CARLSON: Nah, like I said, I think it was on purpose. But anyway, we we may never know.

Watch the video:

Think Progress » Fox News: Palin’s ‘Telepalmer’ Notes Were A Clever Plot To Call Attention To Obama’s Teleprompter.

She could not remember 5 fucking points?

Crib Notes? This potential presidential candidate and “movement” leader was using crib notes to answer basic questions?

This would mean:

A) That she knew the questions beforehand and the whole thing was a farce. (Likely.)

and

B) That she still couldn’t answer the previously agreed-upon questions without a little extra help.

If true, this is supremely rich coming immediately after a speech in which Palin took a shot at President Obama for using a teleprompter to read his prepared speeches.

You can bet that the President wasn’t reading scribbles off his extremities while he sparred with Republicans and Democrats in an unscripted format in his recent Q&As.

Palin, on the other hand, seems to need a cheat-sheet just to get through a contrived lovefest with a smitten interviewer and an adoring audience.

I’m no fan of the Tea Party movement – if it can be called such – but if this is their leader I actually sympathize with them.

more pics and video:

via Stefan Sirucek: EXCLUSIVE (Update): Palin’s Tea Party Crib Notes.

Right before she looked at the notes on her hand

As Sarah Palin left the stage at the inaugural National Tea Party Convention here Saturday night, the crowd erupted into chants of “Run Sarah Run!”

“I think you like her!” said Judson Phillips, the chief organizer of the convention, when the ovation finally stopped and people had stepped down from the chairs where they had been standing and waving flags.

Ms. Palin gave the Tea Party crowd exactly what they wanted to hear, declaring the primacy of the Tenth Amendment in limiting government powers, complaining about the bailouts and the “generational theft” of rising deficits, and urging the audience to back conservative challengers in contested primaries.

“America is ready for another revolution!” she told the crowd, prompting the first of several standing ovations.

The speech was closely watched as a potential signal of Ms. Palin’s political future and the extent to which the convention would embrace her. But Ms. Palin, while aligning herself firmly with the Tea Party, nevertheless urged the 1,100 delegates who had gathered in a hotel ballroom not to let the movement be defined by any one leader.

“This is about the people, and it’s bigger than any one king or queen of a tea party, and it’s a lot bigger than any charismatic guy with a teleprompter,” she said.

That was just one of several digs at President Obama. “How’s that hopey-changey thing workin’ out for you?” she asked at one point. She blasted him for rising deficits, “apologizing for America” in speeches in other countries, and for allowing the so-called Christmas bomber to board a plane headed for the United States, saying he was weak on the war on terrorism.

“To win that war, we need a commander in chief, not a professor of law,” she declared.

Ms. Palin gave little hint to her political plans when Mr. Phillips, the organizer, prodded her in a brief question-and-answer period after her 40-minute speech. She said she would support those candidates who “understand free market principles” and “personal responsibility.”

Without saying which candidates she would support, she said she would campaign for conservative challengers in some Republican primaries.

“This is how we’re going to find the cream of the crop to face a challenger in the general,” she said. “Let’s not be afraid of contested primaries.”

When he asked her about the “two words that scare liberals: President Palin,” she demurred, smiling and looking to the side of the stage where she said her youngest daughter, Piper, was watching.

And pressed about the relationship between the Republican Party and the Tea Party movement, and whether the latter should become a third party, Ms. Palin suggested the two should be compatible.

“The Republican Party would be really smart to start trying to absorb as much of the Tea Party movement as possible,” she said. “This is a beautiful movement because it is shaping the way politics are conducted. You’ve got both party machines running scared.”

The convention had gathered here to try to turn the activism of the Tea Party rallies over the last year into actual political power. Her speech was the keynote event of the convention, and the big draw for many of the 600 people who had paid $549 to attend – another 500, organizers said, paid $349 just to see for her speech alone.

The convention had been a pretty sedate affair until the Palin speech, with delegates sitting through panel discussions about how to effect changes in primary elections and how to use new technology to Tea Party advantage. But by the time she took the stage after the closing dinner Saturday night, convention-goers were hungry for the red meat.

They had begun lining up outside the ballroom three hours before the speech, breaking out at one point into “God Bless America.” As Judson Phillips, the chief convention organizer, warmed up the crowd for her speech, it erupted in chants of “USA! USA!” They raised a toast to Ronald Reagan, whose 99th birthday would have been Saturday. (“To Ronnie,” said one woman wearing sequins at the back of the room.)

When Andrew Breitbart, the founder of BigGovernment.com, introduced Ms. Palin by describing her as “the first person to tell us about the death panel,” the crowd cheered.

Ms. Palin’s fee for speaking was reported to be $100,000, and she was criticized by some Tea Party activists for taking a fee, much as the convention itself was criticized for charging a ticket price that is too high for tea partiers who consider themselves fiscal conservatives. But Mr. Phillips, the founder of Tea Party Nation, the social networking site that sponsored the convention, refused to talk about how much she was paid.

“I’ll simply say this: when you get a speaker of the caliber of Governor Palin, it’s not done on the basis of a handshake,” he said. He added that there had been a confidentiality clause in the contract organizers signed with Ms. Palin. “Contractually I’m not allowed to talk about it,” he said. “I promised I wouldn’t do it.”

And Ms. Palin said she would make no apologies for taking money and turning it back, she said, to conservative causes, though she has not specified which ones she will donate to.

“I will live, I will die for the people of America,” she said. “This party that we call the Tea Party, this movement, as I say, is the future of politics in America.”

From the times … more….

Palin Assails Obama at Tea Party Meeting – NYTimes.com.