Another Update (See Far Below): DU Says: "Now We Move on to the Daughter"

A wisp of a leaf of a twig of a pixie, I tells ya.

Another obviously photoshopped picture of Gov. Palin wearing her tin-foil fat suit here.

This picture shows that Governor Palin is about to give birth to six pounds and eight ounces of right-wing Xtianist hatred.

These people ought to be ashamed. But they haven't any.

Thanks to Brett. Brett Weir! more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:53 PM | Comments (165)
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USA Today headlines that Palin supported the bridge to nowhere, suggesting that she lied in her first public speech as VP candidate.

While running for governor in 2006, though, Palin backed federal funding for the infamous bridge, which McCain helped make it a symbol of pork barrel excess.

There doesn't appear to be any "there" there, however:

Asked why she supported the bridge, Palin's communications director Bill McAlister said, "It was never at the top of her priority list, and in fact the project isn't necessarily dead Â… there's still the potential for improved ferry service or even a bridge of a less costly design."

She changed her mind, he said, when "she saw that Alaska was being perceived as taking from the country and not giving, and that impression bothered her and she wants to change it. Â… I think that Sarah Palin is someone who has the courage to reevaluate situations as they developed."

The headline will frame the issue however, describing Palin as just another hypocrite sucking up earmarks.

Are McCain and Palin savvy enough to predict and counter these sorts of leftist spin tactics from the mouthpiece of the DNC? It is an effective strategy to offer your opponent an arm, then when they overextend, give them a nudge into a tumble. If McCain's strategists have grokked that this is not the Media they thought they knew, they can use this particular bit of campaign judo again and again.

UPDATE: DrewM notes that according to this article, the 400 million was not actually diverted from Alaska at all. Rather, Congress killed the earmark, but allowed Alaska to keep the money to be used in other transportation spending.

Congresses head-fake on the issue in my mind reflects more poorly on them than on Palin, but keeping the money does seem to water-down her reformer credentials, and as Drew says, wouldn't have been nearly the applause line as "We told them no thanks, we'll do it ourself."
more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 08:31 PM | Comments (65)
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However, Obama's back where he was: Up by three.

Posted by: Ace at 07:49 PM | Comments (39)
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I've written a bunch of the heavy hitters in the right-leaning respectable blogosphere to suggest a full boycott of linking Sullivan, forever.

Yes, I wrote, if you need to refute "Milky Loads Power Glute's" daily dose of dementia, do so; quote and critique with attribution. But don't link. Let anyone compelled to go to his site type in the URL and find the post themselves.

This miserable Taker of Milky Loads screamed bloody murder when his own privacy was invaded; note how the Queen of Hypocrisy turns on a dime when he has the chance to probe someone else's Power Glutes of Load-Taking.

There is a limit, and our addled attention-whore of perpetual drama went beyond that a while ago. Now he's way beyond it. He is not a serious commentator; he is a vicious bridge-troll of a propagandist, a nasty little rotten-hearted bitch who gets his jollies assailing a sixteen year old girls because her mom threatens his wannabe boyfriend's chances of being elected.

He seems to have suffered the onset of full-on mental dementia. Since we're airing "uncomfortable theories" of a medical type here which need to be explored, I doubt there is anyone on the blogosphere who hasn't wondered -- frequently -- if Sullivan is suffering from AIDS-related dementia.

Ugly, yes, but we're all thinking the same thing; and as we're now apparently free to speculate about such ugly things, I see no reason why Sullivan should be further shielded.

He's gone fucking bananas, due to AIDS or steroids or other reasons, and if we're not observing a minimum level of politeness and civility anymore -- if innocent 16 year old girls are now valid targets -- I see no reason to continue extending the courtesy of polite silence to Sullivan.

True, he writes like a 16-year-old girl, only without as much emotional control and even-keeled restraint; but he is, supposedly, an adult man. If a child is to be subjected to this by Sullivan, then Sullivan can hardly cry foul.

(Oh, but he will, of course! And that's the sickest thing about this. Our Queen of Perpetual Narcissistic Self-Fascination will whine like a bitch about this post, and castigate others for linking me. Because I wrote stuff about Sullivan one-half as nasty as he's writing about a 16 year old girl. )

Let's see a brain scan, buddy. Let's get some answers to these questions. Medical fucking answers.

He is now simply regurgitating the most vicious smears he dredges up from Democratic Underground and Kos.

There's a point at which people have to say "Enough." For Sullivan, we're well past that time. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

It's with a heavy heart I personally cast out this "brave" "conservative" "thinker," but what are you going to do. A brain-addled conspiracy crank unable to observe the minimum levels of respectability and human decency is simply not fit for polite company.

And neither, quite frankly, are his (innocent) cobloggers at The Atlantic. They're innocent in this, of course -- Jefferey Goldberg took Sullivan to task for his increasing comfort with open Jew-baiting (as opposed to the closeted Jew-baiting he used to indulge in), and Ross Douthat lit him up for sheer hypocritical ridiculousness, and I doubt Megan McArddle is exactly proud to share a masthead with this piece of shit -- and yet nevertheless they need to be boycotted, too, until the Atlantic fires him.

He should be blogging at the Daily Kos. That's where he belongs, and it's about time respectable magazines stopped treating him as anything more than a particularly nasty, particularly excitable, and likely brain-damaged Kos diarist.

Email of the Day: Hey, if the narcissist Sullivan can post emails praising himself all day, why not me?

The Rev. E. Buzz Miller parodies Sullivan's (most likely self-penned) praising emails here. I defy you to distinguish between this and Sullivan's typical "emails of the day."

This, sir, was a post that was a Grand Slam in Oakeshottian, Burkean terms, sir, total unequivocal, irrefutable, unassailable, incontrovertible, impeccable Grand Slam of a post.

What a marvelous, excellent post, I haven't ever seen a post like this that flows and has such emotional power that I am just left speechless at how, just how, actually, really good it is.

BTW: Not only are there pictures which show Palin appearing quite pregnant (or at least having gained about 40 "Mystery Pounds" for no good reason), but apparently there are also bloggers writing about meeting Palin in person back in April, reporting her as "pregnant."

I guess they just wrote that stuff in anticipation of the left's upcoming attack.

Oh -- and of course Palin was wearing a fat-suit.

Duh.

Obviously Un-Pregnant!

I don't expect Milky Loads to have much discernment about the female form.

Remember, this was the guy who freaked out at the thought of using red ink as fake "menstrual blood" to get terrorists to talk. He'd never heard of something so terrifyingly awful.

Althouse: "Stop prying into other people's vaginas, even if you oppose them politically."

Oppose the people, or oppose the vaginas? I guess with Sullivan it is, as they say, "overdetermined." (Fake menstrual blood -- aiiieeee!)

See-Dub's on Board: Michelle Malkin's coblogger won't link Drama Queen.

As regards to a couple of people I wrote: They wrote back, basically, "Dude, that's been my policy for, like, forever."

NSFW: Is trolling for "Milky Loads" from anonymous sex partners really the best medical practice?

The people have the right to know what sorts of shady sexual shit supposedly "respectable" "conservative" "analysts" are into. How can we trust the judgment of someone who wants to take Milky Loads in his Power Glutes?

We can't.

It's about time we aired this important issue.

It's about the hypocrisy and judgment, you understand.

Not merely cheap smears. No way.

Thanks to, um, Masturbatin' Pete.

Sullivan Makin' Friends All Over: A rep from the gay community checks in:

No condemnation from the gay community necessary. The Gay Left abhors him (still) for his former conservatism and endless moralizing about gay male behavior (until, that is, he was caught milking anything encountered in an alley). Gay conservatives can't stand him because, well, look at him.

One imagines the only gay person who approves of Sullivan would be whomever he's sitting on just at the moment, and even then the opinion is likely to be middling (and not necessarily from his own husband).

Remember when Sullivan wrote about how gay men would stray during marriage and that that was perfectly a-ok?

I think it requires some "airing of the questions" now that he's legally wed. You know, word vs. practice and all that. For the sake of the issues, you understand.

I really dislike McCain and was not going to vote for him. With the entrance of Palin to the race, I officially went back on the fence. Sullivan just tipped me over the to the Republican ticket. Fuck him.

Okay, that's misleading, that's Robbie from the Malcontent, who hates Sullivan almost as much as I do. So, honestly, I have to say his opinion doesn't really count as "new hatred."

But seriously, Milky Loads is a fucking bitch.

Incidentally, Robbie had me on his podcast one time to discuss our mutual Sullivan-hatred, but he, um, forgot to record it.

Seriously. I talked to this fucking numbnuts for an hour about Andrew Sullivan and he hadn't pushed the record button. Just kind of spaced on the whole "recording" part of the plan.

Nothing lost. It's not like my views on Power Glutes Andy haven't been publicized.

Posted by: Ace at 05:44 PM | Comments (268)
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One thing those beatin' on Palin ought to keep in mind: John McCain doesn't get a vice president if he doesn't get elected president in the first place.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 05:39 PM | Comments (31)
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Sure, sure. And I'm sure Michael Moore was being equally facetious and satirical when he said the same thing. And James Wolcott, too, a few years back, cheering on hurricanes as Gaia's vengeance against the virus mankind.

Everything's cool, yo:

"One doesn't anticipate that one's private conversation will be surreptitiously taped by some right-wing nutcase," said Fowler. "But that's the nature of what we're dealing with."

Fowler, a superdelegate who endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2007, was caught on tape saying: "The hurricaneÂ’s going to hit New Orleans about the time they start. The timing is -- at least it appears now that itÂ’ll be there Monday. That just demonstrates that GodÂ’s on our side. [Laughter] EverythingÂ’s cool."

Who's the nutcase?

Via Hot Air, where, in case you didn't see it, it's noted that Alan Colmes is attempting to get Trig Trutherism off the ground a bit, by pushing a let's-ask-some-questions angle (gee, shoudn't Sarah Palin have immediately have gotten antibiotics when her water broke instead of boarding a plane to have her own doctor deliver the baby, hmmm, hmmm? (wink wink)).

And on Trig Trutherism: Here's the very obviously not-pregnant Palin in March.

You know the next step, right?

Pictures of pregancy/fat suits and comparisons to Palin's shape. With lots of detailed analysis, demonstrating that Palin must have been wearing this or that particular fat suit for a couple of months.

Posted by: Ace at 03:06 PM | Comments (77)
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Knocking down unfair criticisms and acknowledging fair ones.

ZOMG She Wore a Funny T-Shirt in College!!1!!11! The left hasn't jumped on this... yet.

More pics at the NY Daily News. Family shots and etc. No Sarah Palin binkin photos, alas.

Oh, and as other bloggers can attest, a search getting a lot of work these days is Is Sarah Palin a jew zionist and variations thereupon.

Thanks to Slublog.

Posted by: Ace at 02:51 PM | Comments (85)
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Apropos, given the current contretemps.

Paglia--

“We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling,” said Camille Paglia, the cultural critic. “That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.”

And see Andy McCarthy's criticism of Brookheiser; and Brookheiser reformulating his nasty put-down into a more productive critique of Palin, and most of it, really.

Actually, for all the anger directed at The Corner, I've just been reading it, and I'm finding it pretty pro-Palin. There are reservations expressed, yes, and Brookheiser is aggressively antipathetic, but mostly... I guess I just don't know what all the fuss is. It's a reasonable debate.

I say again: Anyone who's claiming they have no concerns about Sarah Palin's ability to handle foreign policy questions and answer the Readiness to Take Charge question is, well, either fooling themselves or trying to fool others. I love 'er, but the fact is I have concerns. I want -- more than want, really -- her to answer these questions decisively. I have a sneaking, hopeful idea she will. (She is furiously aggressive and talented; she is not going to be snoozing on this stuff.)

But these questions are on people's minds, and it serves no purpose whatsoever to pretend they don't exist or are illegitimate or obviously ill-founded. Or offered in bad faith.

On the left, hell, bad faith is their stock in trade. After arguing that the Senator from Community Activism was obviously qualified to be President because he's, um, well, something or other, it's pretty bad faith to now deride a serving governor as unqualified.

But those on the right have been stressing the importance of obvious, clear experience and readiness -- so it's not bad faith at all for some on he right to continue insisting on this as the most important qualification of all.

Caribou Pic:

Thanks to Mister Brickhouse, who notes the LA Times ran the photo "to scare the metrosexuals."

Posted by: Ace at 12:31 PM | Comments (153)
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Rick Davis is speaking now. Tomorrow's events will only be a brief business meeting. No speeches, etc.

The RNC says they are going to fly Gulf Coast delegates home (or as close as they can get, I guess) and will decide day by day on how much of a program they will have. It will all depend upon events down south.

Apparently according to the party's rules and charter they have to meet to basically keep the party in business as an organization, so they will do the minimum required to meet their legal obligations.

Before Davis spoke Sen. McCain spoke about the general tone of the upcoming convention.

“We must redirect our efforts from the really celebratory event of the nomination of president and vice president of our party to acting as all
Americans. WeÂ’ll change our program and IÂ’ll be announcing details of it in
the next few hours. But thereÂ’s very little doubt that we have to go from
a party event to a call to the nation for action, action to help our fellow
citizens in this time of tragedy and disaster, action in the form of
volunteering, donations, reaching out our hands and our hearts and our
wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great
natural disaster. I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary,
throughout our convention if necessary, to act as Americans not
Republians, because America needs us now no matter whether we are
Republican or Democrat.Â’Â’

I'm not saying that McCain looks at this as an advantage but it definitely plays in to his 'Country First' theme. What's the result of having a truncated national convention? No one knows. We'll find out over the course of the next few days.

Just for the sake of comparison, here's former DNC head Don Fowler talking with a sitting Democratic Congressman about the Gustav/RNC convergence.

That video was swiped from last night's post by Dave in Texas.

Posted by: DrewM at 12:10 PM | Comments (41)
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I spent some time this morning (all of 10 seconds on Google) hunting down Brendan Loy’s blog regarding this storm. You may recall that he had some excellent and comprehensive coverage during Katrina three years ago (and even got a little famous from it) on his blog “Irish Trojan.” That blog no longer exists, but he’s split it up into two separate ones.

The one weÂ’re concerned with for this post is called Weather Nerd. HeÂ’s got a fairly comprehensive set of links there along with a couple of updates which seem a little more hopeful concerning NOLAÂ’s impending doom.

IÂ’m trying to track down my other favorite blog from Katrina which was done by the head of security of an ISP in downtown NOLA, in a high-rise bulding, during the worst of the storm and its aftermath. If anyone can remember the name of that firm, whether they still even exist and are doing the same thing this time, please stick it in the comments so I can update this. That blog read like a thriller at the time.

Mr. Loy’s other, more general blog is called Ash Blog Durbatuluk, subtitled “One Blog to Rule Them All.” He’s an attorney, so maybe that’ll keep Gabe busy for a while. If you decide to visit, try not to act like the baboons you usually are and shit all over the furniture.

Update #1 In the comments, Brass has been following Bayou Renaissance Man which looks like another good link. Keep posting them and I'll add to the list as they come in.

Update #2 Here's some more good links:

Dr. Jeff Master's WunderBlog at Weather Underground. Thanks to MesaBlue (WU is generally my go-to site for all things weather related)

NOLA.com which also did a killer job of reporting during Katrina. Thanks to SlaveDog (I didn't know Laura's pets were allowed to comment...go figure).

John Doh reminds me that the ISP firm that did the hairy-ass liveblogging during Katrina was "Interdictor" (which is also a class of Sith Cruisers from Star Wars...who knew?) It doesn't appear they're liveblogging this time. They might still have the old archives from Katrina on their site which is here. Good reading.

Update #3 More more more!

National Hurricane Center's site (NOAA) courtesy of Dave (but not the one who seems to be cursed to live in Texas)

Ridin' Gustav which appears to be a live barblog from NOLA. You can also chat with him on Yahoo if you're so inclined. Thanks to Arthur .

And from tmi3rd, a retired shrimp boat deckhand (I love the old coot), comes some local live teevee coverage in the form of WWLTV and KPCLTV. Thanks, tmi...you stay safe ol' timer!

Flashback: As I'm watching (well, sort of ignoring) current coverage on FNC, I see that Shepard Smith is currently stationed in NOLA, ready to take action again. Can Shep rise to the occasion again, along with his fellow soldiers Coop and Scar? Or have we asked too much of them? Is it fair to ask them to put their outrage on the line again, after so little time? Only three years have passed and I question whether or not the mental scars have healed, but again, they've been called to serve, uh...something.

I ask you to revisit the story of these brave men as documented by Howard Kurtz a mere three years ago.

May God help them in their trials and tribulations to come over the next few days. None of us, sitting in the comforts of our homes tonight, can possibly understand the depth of feelings and outrage and lack of make-up departments they are about to go through on these unforgiving assignments.

Posted by: Open Blog at 11:56 AM | Comments (46)
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