Rules Are For the Little People

UK:

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office apologized to Queen Elizabeth on Friday after it emerged that staff had partied late into the night in Downing Street on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral, at a time when mixing indoors was banned.

Queen Elizabeth was sitting by herself during the funeral service for her late husband while Boris Johnson was partying. Britons had their gatherings broken up by the police and people fined. But Johnson wasn't.

US:

Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, has continued to dine out at New York City restaurants despite testing positive for Covid-19.

The ex-Alaska governor, who is not vaccinated, was spotted on Wednesday eating outdoors at the upper east side restaurant Elio’s after testing positive for the illness, according to photos published by Mediaite. Palin had dined at the same restaurant on Saturday night, where she was seen eating indoors in violation of city rules requiring proof of vaccination for indoor dining.

Average New Yorkers can't eat inside restaurants or go into a lot of other places without proof of vaccination, but Ol' Caribou Barbie can waltz into a restaurant without being vaccinated and not long after testing positive for Covid because she feels OK?

Well, she thinks she's something special, an elite, like Fat Boris, and the rules don't apply to them.

Look Who's Back in the News!

Former [half-term] Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she tested positive for COVID-19 and is urging people to take steps to guard against the coronavirus, such as wearing masks in public.

There's amuch more in this story, which has quotes from Palin's Patented Word-Salad Generator.

Color me "skeptical". The Wasilla-Whackjob was one of the Covid-deniers. So now she's had her "foxhole conversion"? Spare me.

Lies of Omission; Jerod Ed.And Other Trumpist Stupidity And Palin

Two senators sent Mr Kushner a letter demanding additional documents as part of an ongoing investigation into Russia's alleged election meddling.

The lawmakers said they became aware of the documents through other witnesses.

A lawyer for Mr Kushner, Donald Trump's son-in-law, said he was "open to responding to any additional requests".
Senate Judiciary committee chairman Senator Charles Grassley, a Republican, and Senator Diane Feinstein, top Democrat on the panel, wrote that the emails were omitted from documents Mr Kushner was asked to turn over last month.

One has to wonder about when the Bureau of Prisons is going to repaint Kushner's father's old prison cell and ready it for Jerod.

Meanwhile, the Trump-appointed head of community outreach at DHS resigned after his history of making batshit-crazy racial comments came to light:

The Rev. Jamie Johnson, director of the Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), resigned Thursday night after a CNN report revealed racially disparaging remarks he made during past talk radio appearances.

In a statement from acting DHS press secretary Tyler Houlton, the agency confirmed that acting Secretary Elaine Duke had accepted Johnson's resignation and condemned his past remarks.

Houlton made his comments over several years. But in his "I'm outta here" statement, he pretty much said that he's changed his mind, now that he has had an opportunity to meet black people and Muslims. If that's true, then I applaud his change of beliefs.

Elsewhere, Trump and his kids never questioned why a salesman was able to sell Trump condos in Panama for three times the market rate. Seems that as long as the checks cleared, they looked the other way.

Changing gears, Sarah Palin had some words to say about sexual harassment:

I give her props for quickly realizing that going off on a partisan rant would have not been appropriate. She was clearly about to, then thought better of it.

Palin's Grift Peters Out, Sort Of

It was all about the grift for Palin.

Palin has officially shut down Sarah PAC as of the end of 2016. ... In the 2016 election cycle, Palin's Sarah PAC spent $830,000 on consultants and just $82,500 in donations to other candidates — a.k.a its ostensible purpose. Not only that but Sarah PAC spent $168,000 on travel and lodging expenses during the 2016 election — double what it donated to candidates, which is its ostensible … well you get the idea.

This was not an isolated incident. In the 2010 election cycle — when Sarah PAC was functioning on all cylinders — it raised $5.6 million and spent $4.3 million. Just $509,000 of that total — less than 12 percent of total expenditures — went to either candidates or political/party committees.

Palin's PAC has been more of a grifitng operation than the Wounded Warrior Project. And that says something.

Left-Right Tab Clearing

I watched, as much as I could, the Caribou Barbie endorsement of The Donald. As Palin ranted in her trademarked stream-of-consciousness speaking style, the expression on Trump's face became more and more of the "pasted on" variety. You could almost see that he was thinking: "Holy shit, why am I standing next to this crazy person and when can I get out of here?" In a different reality, Palin would have been wielding a squeegee at a city intersection.

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AG Lynch says that the President's executive orders on gun matters are lawful.

That doesn't even come close to passing the "so, what test" for me. That any given AG is going to say "yeah, what The Boss wants is legal" is no real shocker. Exhibit 1: Alberto Gonzalez.

The Latest Palindrone

So Palin's kid got drunk, punched out his girlfriend, waved around an AR-15 and has been charged with domestic assault, among other things.

Of course, Caribou Barbie blamed Obama. Because everything bad that happens to Palin or her clan is Obama's fault.

You just can't make this shit up, Gentle Reader. Nobody would believe if this was fictional.

Unclear on the Concept; Caribou Barbie Edition

Sarah Palin seems to be a little unclear as to what is the name of her native language:

It is to John McCain's eternal damnation that he wanted to put her a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.

Comedians Around the Nation Are Lifting Their Arms to the Sky and Proclaiming: "Thank You, Jesus!"

For they have been given the gift of comedy gold.

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin told The Washington Post in an interview Friday that she is “seriously interested” in running for the White House in 2016.

“You can absolutely say that I am seriously interested,” Palin said, when asked to clarify her thinking about a possible presidential bid.

Right. The pol who couldn't handle the pressure of being the governor of the least-densely populated state in the country (and third least populous) and who had to quit half-way through her first term thinks that she can handle a job which rapidly ages people?

Warm up the Official GOP Campaign Vehicle.

An Oldie

But still funny.

One Republican's Idea For Creating Jobs

It is, and I shit you not: Bring back dwarf-tossing.

Indeed. The Leave No Dwarf Untossed Act. That'll cure the nation's unemployment problem, all right.

In other news, comedians across the country are mourning that Sarah Palin has decided to quit early and not to run for the Presidency. Probably because it would take too much of her time to read all of the newspapers every day.

Bus for Sale:

No reasonable offer refused.

Contact BibleSpicePac for details

The Palin Moratorium

I am late to this, but sure, I'll join in. Unless the Icebound Idiot shoots someone, I'll leave her out of this blog for the duration.

The analogy to Ann Coulter in that both are bombastic firebrands that nobody should take seriously is spot-on; except for the fact that while Coulter may be an outrageous media whore who loves controversy because it sells books for her and gets her well-paid speaking gigs, nobody has, to my knowledge, attacked Coulter for being an ignoramus.*

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* Quitter Spice, on the other hand, is aggressively proud of her ignorance.

Why Palin Could Win

Morbid Curiosity Leading Many Voters To Support Palin

On a more serious note, TPM is defending itself from the charge of some of its readers that they give too much oxygen to Palin. While I do agree with TPM's point that Palin will not go away if we stop paying attention to her, I do think that both TPM and HuffPo can stop with the 500 pixel wide photos of Bible Spice.

I'm Not the One Who First Said This

"Those on the Right who say that they should not be tarred with the violent acts of another person should tell it to the Muslims."

I don't know who first said it, but it is true.

Snowflake Snookie said that acts like the shootings in Arizona “begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state.”

So, are Limbaugh, Gingrich, Beck and Palin now going to say it's OK to replace an old Burlington Coat Factory building with a mosque?

Nah, I didn't think so.

Palin, Seriously, Go Fuck Yourself

She is accusing critics of "manufacturing a blood libel" over the Tucson shootings.

Does she even know that that means? I very much doubt it.

A "blood libel" is when someone accuses members of a minority group, whether ethnic or religious, of using the blood of children in ceremonies or rituals. The classic blood libel has been spread by antisemites for centuries, who have spread the rumor that Jews use the blood of Christians for making matzoh for Passover. There is no telling how many Jews have been raped, driven into exile, or killed over this lie, but it would be well into the thousands, if not millions. For Palin to cloak herself in the outrageous claim to be a victim of a blood libel is offensive, to say the least, to every member of any group that has been smeared with a real blood libel.{1}

Of course, Palin is not content with merely alleging that, she also is seeking to rewrite a little bit of recent history:

"Recall how the events of 9-11 challenged our values and we had to fight the tendency to trade our freedoms for perceived security. And so it is today."

Really. Can you name five prominent Republicans who spoke out against the trashing of the Constitution by the Bush Administration? Can you name Republicans who spoke out against the widespread abuse of the "material witness" statute as a tool to detain people without cause or judicial review? Can you name Republicans who spoke out when the Bush Administration first proposed instituting a Star Chamber system of trials at Guantanamo? Can you name any prominent Republicans who objected to the NSA's interception of all telecommunications in this country? Can you name any prominent Republicans who fought the use of "national security letters" as a form of judge-free secret subpoenas? Can you name any Republican politicians who were outraged when the Bush Administration claimed the right to arrest anyone in the world and hold them incommunicado forever if a flunky from the Department of Justice muttered the magic words "supporter of terrorism"? Can you name any senior Republican politician who spoke out against the use of torture?

Can you? C'mon, give me the names of five active Republicans who spoke out on any of those issues. Or better yet, provide the clips of any of the on-air conservative personalities on Fox News who spoke out against the Bush Administration on any one of those issues.{2}

I think you can't. The Republicans have been more than willing to throw away eight of the ten amendments in the Bill of Rights, at least when a Republican is in the White House.{3} They have proven that by their conduct. Palin doesn't get to rewrite history on this one.

Worse than that: Palin is not the victim here, even though she seems more than eager to climb up on her personal cross.

The real victims are either lying in caskets or are in hospital beds in Tuscon.
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{1} I write this as one who is both old enough to remember when it was an Eastertime ritual for Catholic kids to beat up Jewish kids "because you killed our Lord." I write this as one whose ancestors fled their old countries to escape the recurring pogroms.
{2} Except for their token liberal(s), of course. That would be the exception that proves the rule.
{3} The Second Amendment is obvious. The other one is probably the Third Amendment.

When Surveying Transit-Levels Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Surveying Transit-Levels

A aide to Snowflake "They Canceled My Show" Snookie has proclaimed that the crosshairs on Palin's graphic were surveying marks.

Good luck finding too many people with above-room-temperature IQs to buy that load of offal, Bucko. Shit like that, like the rhetoric of violence that Palin loves, has consequences.

The Tea-Partiers spent most of 2009 and 2010 babbling about "watering the tree of liberty"

and proclaiming their willingness to resort to violence if they didn't get their way

and parading around with weapons

and now they are shocked that somebody actually took them up on their language.

The Tea Party owns this one, as well.

Bible Spice Goes Reindeer Hunting

I have a few observations on Bible Spice's hunting trip.

First off, caribou are also known as "reindeer", so if we can get "Sarah Palin Shot a Reindeer" going as a meme this holiday season....

Second, Palin was concerned that a .223 rifle would kick a bit. Which tells me that she has very little experience with rifles. If you can't handle the kick of the weapon you are shooting, then you shouldn't be shooting, period.

Third, reindeer run 150lbs and up. A .223 seems like not enough gun for the job. .223s are widely regarded as varmint guns and "poodle shooters." An expert shot can kill a deer with a .223, but doing so is not advisable for hunters who are not expert shots. There is a reason why a lot of hunters regard a .243 Winchester as a minimum rifle caliber for deer.

Fourth, the photos I saw of her hunting trip show that she was dressing for fashion. When there are people hunting with guns, blaze orange articles of clothing should be worn.

Fifth, nobody on her trip seemed to know that when you drop a scope-sighted rifle, the very next thing you do is sight the damn thing in again.

Sixth, Palin doesn't know enough to keep her goddamned booger-hook off of the bang-switch until the rifle is on target and she's decided to shoot (see this older photo for an example). In other words, she knows fuck-all about firearms safety and probably has never heard of the Four Rules. If there is any politician who is more dangerous to other members of a hunting party than Dick Cheney, it would be the former half-term governor of Alaska.

Seventh: Looking in the opposite direction of a rising sun and saying that is "the east" is, well, need I say more?

Eighth: That reindeer had to be stone deaf, drugged-up or dumber than the average Dittohead. Whitetail deer are smart enough to take off running when someone shoots at them and misses, but Frozen-Snookie shot at it several times and that beast is just trotting along a ridgeline, not reacting as a rifle blasts at it and supersonic bullets go cracking by.

Ninth: Did anyone in that hunting party know what was on the other side of that ridge? Did they care where the missed rounds were flying?

Tenth: In this clip, it seems that Palin has no idea how to handle a rifle and that she has a bad case of newbie fever. "Instructions are flying atcha" is one of her complaints; if she had a frakking clue as to what she was supposed to be doing, why did she need so much coaching? I am now wondering if she has ever held a rifle in her life other than for a political photo-op.

Conclusion: Palin is a phony outdoorswoman. Sort of like our last preznit.

But hey, you can bet that the very same conservatives who were all over John Kerry's case when he went goose hunting will have Palin's back on this.

Here's the Alaska Question

Now that she has won re-election by a write-in campaign and defeated the darling of Palin and the Teabaggers, will Lisa Murkowski be less willing to toe the Confederate party line than she has been in the past?

Don't You Love the Smell of Corruption in the Morning?

Sarah Palin has been using her political action committee to buy up thousands of copies of her book, "Going Rogue," in order to mail copies of the memoir to her donors, newly filed campaign records show.

Here is the question: Assuming that her PAC is paying the full price of $28.99 per copy, then it is a fair question as to whether Palin's publisher is paying Palin royalties on those book purchases made by Palin's PAC. If so, she has a nice little method for washing some of the PAC money right into her own pockets.

The Liar of the Year

Sarah Palin wins the dubious honor of being the liar of the year, for her whopper of a lie about the "death panels".

The silver and bronze medals for lying went to Glenn Beck and Orly Taitz.

Shatner

Reads from Levi Johnson's tweets:



and Sarah Palin's:



I don't think Palin's were as good.