Archive for April 2011
Refreshing Rationality from New Yorker’s Amy Davidson
April 24, 2011
Finally, someone who personally believes that Sarah Palin gave birth to Trig respects the right of
Andrew Sullivan and others to ask legitimate questions. Amy Davidson, a senior editor at The New Yorker posts on her Close Read blog.
This is like a breath of pure oxygen after choking on the aggressive contempt spewed by Salon, HuffPo, etc. over the past few days.
I can understand skepticism. But what’s fueling the anger of MSM toward those like Andrew Sullivan, who simply keep asking questions because no one is giving answers? You would think journalists would applaud Sullivan for doing his job. Instead, so many try to marginalize and demean him. I would expect this from hack polemicists like Breitbart, but I’d really like to know what’s behind the defensiveness at MSM sites such as Salon, Slate, and HuffPo. They laugh at and scorn Sarah for everything else she says, but on this one issue she’s declared beyond reproach and taken at her word? And the thoughtful and diligent Sullivan is ridiculed for saying it does matter if Sarah’s whole bit of performance art with Trig was only that?
What could matter more? This woman almost became vice president of the United States, and still harbors hopes (because God will open the doors for her) of becoming president.
I suspect, and certainly hope, that we’ve not heard the last from Andrew Sullivan on this question. I know we haven’t heard the last from me.
Posted in 2012, Andrew Sullivan, Joe McGinniss, mainstream media, Palin children, Sarah Palin, The Rogue, Trig Palin | 
Tags: amy davidson, Andrew Sullivan, huffington post, joe mcginniss, MSM, salon, Sarah Palin, slate, the new yorker, the rogue, Trig Palin | 
29 Comments »
How About a Big Hand for the Easter Funny Bunny…
April 23, 2011
Really, during this slow political season, who has done more to inject fun and games into our lives than Donald Trump?
Who knew he had a sense of humor?
But he’s carried it off with élan and aplomb: to the extent where people who make their living by being serious
seriously think he’s running for president. Or at least say they do so they have something to say.
My only question is whether he’s going to reveal the hoax first to Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.
Just when we thought we’d never see anyone more ludicrous than Sarah, along comes the Donny Boy, hair aflame.
Do you know why I believe in God? Because only He could have created Republicans for us to laugh at.
Village Voice Weighs In about Trig//UPDATE
April 22, 2011
I guess this removes the last of the doubts.
If The Village Voice declares case closed, it must be.
What’s remarkable about this issue is how absolutely convinced so many people on both sides are that their opinion is not merely their opinion, but verifiable fact, and that anyone who feels differently is a dunce or a shill. I find the degree of certitude remarkable in regard to a story in which so much has been claimed, but so little verified.
And what a pleasant Easter Surprise for Sarah: elite eastern liberal bloggers tripping all over each other to rush to her defense against the vile cretins who don’t simply accept her at her word.
Now we can go back to asking whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
UPDATE:
In which we hear from Andrew Sullivan
with a promise of more to come.
Salon, etc. Trash Trig Truthers/UPDATE
April 22, 2011
Salon launched a two-fisted attack today on those who are not yet convinced that Sarah Palin gave birth to Trig. Justin Elliott’s “definitive debunker” is supported by former Anchorage Daily News reporter Wesley Loy’s recollection that–contrary to what he wrote at the time–Sarah actually did look pregnant in March, 2008.
That’s more than enough evidence for Jonathan Chait at The New Republic, whose blog post is headed, “Yes, Sarah Palin Is Trig’s Mom.”
The sudden wave of mainstream ridicule has not shaken the conviction of Jesse Griffin at The Immoral Minority, who says he’ll match his sources against Justin Elliott’s “any day of the week.”
All this comes at the end of a week that saw Huffington Post refuse to post Geoffrey Dunn’s article about the controversy, citing their “stated policy of not publishing conspiracy theory posts.” That’s a “policy,” by the way, that apparently does not apply to Donald Trump’s allegations that President Obama was not born in the United States. Business Insider was quick to step in, featuring Dunn’s post prominently.
For the moment, all I’ll say is that during my research for The Rogue, I spoke to an extremely knowledgeable source who had never before been willing to discuss the question of Trig’s birth. But my lips are sealed until September.
UPDATE:
Not only did Huffington Post refuse to publish Dunn’s fair-minded and carefully-reasoned analysis (and he’d been a regular contributor there for the past couple of years) but today they feature this Jason Linkins jeremiad.
Is it purely coincidence that so many are suddenly so intent on insisting that there are no legitimate questions to be asked?
From Chicago, on the road: Happy Birthday!
April 20, 2011
Conservatives4Palin wishes Trig a happy third birthday. As do I, and as I’m sure all of us do.
I’ll be back with you on Friday.
Thought this was a good week to take care of some personal stuff.
Wrong again.
“Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.”
Posted in Joe McGinniss, mainstream media, Palin children, Sarah Palin, Todd Palin, Trig Palin | Tags: conservatives4palin, wishful thinking | 9 Comments »
I’m Traveling This Week
April 18, 2011
Probably no new posts until Friday. Thanks for all the comments.
–Joe
Fight Like a Girl
April 18, 2011
At the anti-labor Tea Party rally in Madison yesterday, Sarah said, “The 2012 elections begin here.”
The words of a non-candidate? Washington Times doesn’t think so.
They say her “rip-roaring…pep talk reminds why she would be a formidable candidate,” and that her
“charisma, authentic ‘woman of the people’ quality and common-sense, family-oriented conservatism”
could carry her “a lot of the way” to the White House.
All who have contempt for her can sit around the campfire and deride her.
But there is another America out there, thrilled and energized by what the Washington Times
calls her “weekend tour de force” in Wisconsin.
And then there is Sarah herself. No accident that she used the phrase, “Fight like a girl.”
It’s a Bomshel song that says:
“Hold your head high.
Don’t ever let them define
The light in your eyes.
Love yourself, give ’em Hell.
You can take on this world.
You just stand and be strong
And then fight
Like a girl.“Oh, with style and grace
Kick ass and take names…”
Not all of us would agree that Sarah is doing it with “style and grace,” but it would be naive
to think that she doesn’t still intend to “kick ass and take names.”
She’s already taken mine. I wonder if she knows how to spell it.
Posted in 2012, Sarah Palin, Tea Party | Tags: 2012 campaign, bomshell, fight like a girl, Sarah, Tea Party, washington times | 49 Comments »
Sarah Slides Further down Soap Opera Chute
April 17, 2011
A presidential candidate she might not be, but this week Sarah achieves an apotheosis of sorts by becoming a “True Hollywood Story” on E!
The show will air at 10 p.m. EDT this Thursday. Among the featured interviewees will be Alaskans Lyda Green, Anne Kilkenny and Shannyn Moore.
Like water, Sarah is constantly seeking her own level and it looks like this time she’s found it, given that recent episodes have featured Charlie Sheen and Sarah’s old camping buddy, Kate Gosselin.
Personally, I try to avoid TV shows–not to mention networks–that have exclamation points in their title.
Anybody want to watch for me so I don’t have to?
Posted in Sarah Palin | Tags: charlie sheen, E!, kate gosselin, Sarah Palin, soap opera, true hollywood story | 23 Comments »
Ain’t Gonna Work on Sarah’s Farm No More
April 17, 2011
In Madison, Wisconsin today–and not for the first time–Sarah tried to identify herself with organized labor.
She said, “I’m here as a patriot, as a taxpayer, and as a former union member.”
I said, “Huh?” Lord, lordy, in all my research I somehow must have missed Sarah’s blue collar union days. But at least there’s still time to write about them in my last chapter, due June 4. So I checked.
Turns out that Vince Beltrami, president of Alaska AFL-CIO, already wrote about those glory days–on Feb. 19,in the Anchorage Daily News.
Beltrami was irked by the “utter hypocrisy” of Sarah urging (via Facebook) her “union brothers and sisters” to oppose
the protests against Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s signing into law a bill that stripped public employees of union rights.
He wrote, “She belonged to my union, the IBEW, for about a minute, over twenty years ago, one summer, in a temporary position.”
Now, again, she claims a link with organized labor by saying she’s “a former union member?”
Who does she think she’s kidding?
She’s not even Maggie in Bob Dylan’s Maggie’s Farm, she’s Maggie’s ma.
I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s ma no more
No, I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s ma no more
Well, she talks to all the servants
About man and God and law…
She’s sixty-eight, but she says she’s twenty-four
I ain’t gonna work for Maggie’s ma no more
Posted in Fox, Joe McGinniss, Palin children, Todd Palin | Tags: beltrami, bob dylan, IBEW, organized labor, Sarah, wisconsin | 36 Comments »
Dunn Writing Commentary on Scharlott Paper
April 15, 2011
My friend Geoffrey Dunn–whose book, The Lies of Sarah Palin, will be published next month–is working on a piece for Huffington Post about the Brad Scharlott Trig Hoax paper and various responses to it. Don’t know yet when HuffPo will post it.
Posted in Geoffrey Dunn, Sarah Palin, Trig Palin | Tags: Geoffrey Dunn, lies of sarah palin, Scharlott, Trig hoax | 43 Comments »
