The Problem Sarah Can’t Solve: Sarah Palin


She speaks with forked tongue.

And she can’t keep herself from stepping on both forks.

Consider just recently:

–her comments after Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was almost assassinated in Arizona.

–her idiotic bus tour, which culminated in her astonishingly ignorant remarks about Paul Revere.

–her insistence that she had been right about Paul Revere: yes, really, he was shooting his gun and ringing his bell to warn the British that the Americans were coming!

–her embarrassing cancellation of the rest of the bus tour.

–her insistence that she had not cancelled the bus tour.

–her cancellation of her trip to Sudan because of nonexistent “jury duty.”

–her support for the hugely embarrassing movie about herself. “The Undefeated” could be the worst movie ever made about a politician, which is fitting, because she could be the worst political figure ever to etch her way into the national consciousness. Only fitting that it was made by a guy who made his money at Goldman Sachs, ripping off real Americans while he enriched himself. And they have the gall to call themselves populists!

The list could go on, and Sarah herself will assure that it does.

It also goes way back in time. Trust me, Sarah’s history of stepping all over her forked tongue all her life is documented in THE ROGUE.

I’ll never forget the first time I heard her voice. I was considering a new book about Alaska, a sequel to GOING TO EXTREMES. I heard that Alaska had a woman governor. That intrigued me. I googled her. Then I youtubed her. Fifteen seconds after first hearing her voice, I knew she wasn’t somebody I wanted to write about.

Then McCain chose her as his running mate. Which meant that this blithering idiot came close to holding a national office that could have been the Presidency.

And so I felt I had to write about her.

I still tremble when I think about that. Do any of you realize how close we came to the destruction of the United States of America, and its replacement by the Christian States of America? For those of you who believe in him, thank God for Barack Obama. May we never have to learn what he saved us from.

Every day for the rest of our lives every one of us should let John McCain know what a traitor he was to the country he once served so bravely.

Meanwhile, Sarah lives on as a national political figure, enabled by the very mainstream media that ridicules her.

Breathlessly, the Beltway Bunch awaits her decision…

Sarah has already laughed all the way to the bank.

Now she may swoop in again and try to steal our country and present it to her cult–the Christian Dominionists, whose top priority is to destroy separation of church and state.

Sarah tried that in Wasilla. It didn’t work. That doesn’t mean she’s not planning to try it again, on a much larger scale.

With every word her forked tongue allows her to utter, she tries to play down her ties to Evangelistic Extremism, but in her heart she knows they’re right.

Actually, God is getting the last laugh here.

Because with every word she utters in live time (and this excludes her ghost-written Facebook posts), she trips all over the tongue God gave her but forgot to tell her how to use.

In THE ROGUE, I write about my visit to John Stein, the man Sarah unseated as mayor of Wasilla in 1996.
You can read about Stein’s integrity and honesty and self-effacing sense of humor in the book, but I’ll include this brief exchange with him here to give you a sense:

“My question about Sarah,” he says, “is if God wants her to be president, why didn’t God equip her with education enough to have at least basic knowledge of geography, science and social systems?”


“You mean so she wouldn’t say she could see Russia from her house?”


“She never said that,” he says, smiling. “She said she could see rush hour.”

84 Responses to “The Problem Sarah Can’t Solve: Sarah Palin”

  • laprofesora:

    I know she’s said many times that she doesn’t need a title, but “National Joke” is so well deserved.

  • Sorry Joe, but that tongue looks soo painful!

  • crystalwolfakacaligrl:

    Joe, Joe, Joe, You speak for millions of us!

    I was apolitical until I heard the screeching dog whistles at the RNC and said WTF???
    “I still tremble when I think about that. Do any of you realize how close we came to the destruction of the United States of America, and its replacement by the Christian States of America? For those of you who believe in him, thank God for Barack Obama. May we never have to learn what he saved us from.”

    You speak for all of us on that.
    Looking forward to you book. Hopefully the grifter will be a speed bump in History and your book will be the one that tells, the bullet America dodged!

  • emrysa:

    that was an entertaining read, thank you! she really is her own undoing.

  • OliviaP:

    She doesn’t understand why anyone would pay attention to all the conflicting statements and lies so she just keeps doing what she has done all her life. All of it worked for so much of her life while she was just a high school bully all the way up to a 2 bit mayor. Seriously, she and her family are completely baffled that it no longer works the way it always has. Anyone who has spent their life in a small town or rural area has seen this kind of behavior over and over. I have seen this in town council members and county commissioners. If they say it, it is true. Obviously, their exalted position has given them a special permission to create their own reality. Who would dare object and point out the truth?

  • Kristen:

    That picture is so graphically disgusting that it kept me from focusing fully on what you wrote. Ugh.

  • Dicer:

    Joe,

    The first time I saw and heard Sarah Palin (McCain announcement), a shiver went down my spine.I knew something was bad.McCain told his staffers not to talk about her after he lost,he could have redeemed himself and let the truth be known.Perhaps with the Murdoch scandal,the media may emerge from their Palin stupor.We can keep holding their feet to the fire.I am glad you are blogging,bloggers have done a better job than yes, the lamestream media.Looking forward to reading “The Rogue”.

  • Joe:

    Sorry, but isn’t Sarah equally graphically disgusting?

    –Joe

  • TruGal:

    Joe…you’ll feel much better if you catch Bill Maher’s show tonight. His final comment on Palin and Bachmann is spot-on, and so fulfilling to those of us who’ve always seen Palin as a grifter and a fraud.

  • Ivyfree:

    “Every day for the rest of our lives every one of us should let John McCain know what a traitor he was to the country he once served so bravely.”

    I would question whether it was bravery or bravado. Of course he has effrontery and recklessness. That’s not courage, and his record- of multiple plane crashes- would have destroyed the career of anybody but the son of an Admiral. Not everyone who serves does so with courage and honor.

    But I agree he should be reminded daily of the danger to our country that was caused by his egotism and greed.

  • carollt:

    All kidding aside Joe, I would like to say a big old Thank You for stepping up to the plate. Hopefully you will hit a home run (that is when you knock Sarah out of the park – it is baseball season after all). You are the home team Joe and we are all rooting for you.

    Sarah Palin seems to be filled with hate for anyone who disagrees with her. I have never seen any love or even happiness in Sarah. So, the Dominionists you speak of Joe must take their cue from the Old Testament. I have never really checked them out, but they seem to be the Inquistion waiting in the wings, if you will. And I have never heard Sarah speak of Jesus, which I find interesting. Jesus, of the New Testament of course, preached love, tolerance, goodwill, understanding, etc.. Jesus was a socialist in that he said that feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, curing the sick and clothing the naked were good things to do. Say, isn’t that just what the Democrats are always preaching?

    Life is certainly ironic.

  • Kate:

    Hello everyone – C4P @IanLazaran aka @Ramansour (my opinion only) would like a little love on twitter. Thanks. Kate.

  • Tom:

    It took me a long time to pay attention to palin after the election.

    I used to post at KOS but after they tried to censor my comments I refused to agree to their “guidelines” and left.
    I was however the only person to predict palin would crash and burn in a few short weeks while the entire site was overcome with anxiety after polls showed the mccain “bounce” shortly after he announced her as his running mate.

    I even dismissed the idea that she faked her last pregnancy, at first.

    But, one day I actually read the entire palingate site.

    It convinced me this woman was the most bizarre unstable person to ever get so close to actually being vice-president of the united states!
    I could not figure out why the media would enable such a person.

    She should have been laughed off the stage with her silly remarks and pathological lying , overt sexual come-ons to men and women, writing on her hand, the list is endless.

    After 2 years of controlling everything she does and who she even speaks to she has failed to impress anyone but the loons she had from day one.
    Yet the same media continues to overlook Everything and still treat her as a serious Presidential candidate!!

    I still have no doubt this woman will never get close to real power now that the ‘insiders” have had enough time to understand what she really is.

    Her mentality and what she represents in the people that support her are offensive.

    That our standards as a society have sunk so low that the character of this woman would be tolerated is the biggest crime of all.

  • KatieAnnieOakley:

    Good grief! I think a cage would be more appropriate. The bots are way, waaay over the top today.

  • Kimberly:

    Sarah’s most recent EPIC FAILURE did not even rank important enough for BoxofficeMojo to list on their release schedule although 5 other films with 14 or less theater engagements did.
    http://boxofficemojo.com/schedule/

  • diz:

    Martin Bashir interviewed Goldie Taylor about Mrs P’s possible candidacy and she said she thought $P preferred to continue raising large sums of money for her $arahPac so she could become a ‘kingmaker’ by donating vast sums to other GOP/TP candidates. Yep, I bet those other candidates really enjoyed the $65K she doled out just before the disclosure deadline while spending $1.5 million on her own interests. I hope those donating to her slush fund are as bad at math as they are at history.

  • DKey:

    Thanks, Joe. Everything you just said is the reason I even care about this story. Somewhere, the real writers of Shakespeare are smiling. And just two months until you bring this Tragic/Comedy to the fore. Like MANY others, I can’t wait to read it!

  • ProChoiceGrandma:

    Laprofesora, that would make a terrific tweet! May I?

    http://twitter.com/#!/ProChoiceGramma/status/92096186344947712
    @SarahPalinUSA says she doesn’t need a title, but “National Joke” is so well deserved. h/t laprofesora #TheUndefeated #FOK @JoeMcGinniss

  • Wolfbitch:

    To Carollt: The Christian Dominionists are also referred to as “Old Testament Christians.”

    Jesus doesn’t really come into it at that point. Well, unless they need his name to raise money.

    They are the scariest bunch to come along since the Manson Family.

  • Nikogriego:

    Tom, you are so right. And also about Daily Kos, whose site is so full of itself, and so ready to prevent legitimate discussions about topics raised there, even when the discussions are according to “guidelines.”

    And I agree that Palin is likely the most bizarre personality to hit the national spotlight, with so many pathologies it is hard to keep track. She also is the most limited-very little worldliness, no self awareness, extremely mean spirited and ready to take revenge at the slightest of perceived wrongs done to her-I can’t remember a political figure who is this small-minded and lacking in any of the skills necessary to govern. Add to that a huge narcissistic streak, and perhaps a bi-polar disorder, compulsive lying, and a never-ending need to obtain more-more money, more fame, more adulation, more power-and you have a really sick individual. I have often thought she represents the “ugly American”, and all the things that other people of the world have come to know and dislike about American culture, with her unsophisticated, overly-simplistic, closed-minded, high-handed, American exceptionalist world-view. I have been following her since you have, and agree with you completely.

  • Raven Woman:

    I could not agree more. It is beyond sad and disbelief, that SP has gotten this far w/media. And for it to continue on with her daughter Bristol , being trumped up on televion /media is like some American Horror realty drama. The energy and focus on her and this imaginary perception of leadership, fueled by the Christian fervor/hypocrisy. With these values I am ashamed to be an American. And angry that as an Alaskan, the state I have lived my entire life has been hijacked.

  • Heidi3:

    “Every day for the rest of our lives every one of us should let John McCain know what a traitor he was to the country he once served so bravely.”

    I’m glad you said that, Joe, and we should all heed it. Since September 2008, I’ve made it a point to email John McCain every couple of months, but do you know that never once have I received a reply or an acknowledgement of my heartfelt letters? Yet, that does not deter me, so I continue letting him know what I think of his unconscionably rash ‘decision’ to pick Sarah for the ticket.

    I just went through my ‘McCain emails’ file, and lo and behold, look what I found…
    – – – – – – – – –

    To: john@johnmccain.com**

    March 25, 2010

    Honorable Senator McCain,

    May my letter be one of tens of thousands you receive on this topic. An alarming phenomenon, fueled by Sarah Palin’s hate-filled words, is happening in our country, and it’s getting worse daily. There are acts of violence being perpetrated upon elected United States officials and their families. Surely, you are painfully aware of this, so I am sounding a clarion alarm for you to take immediate action. Speak out, and denounce this kind of hateful rhetoric! Point directly at Sarah Palin, calling her out by name – you are the one who inflicted her upon us, therefore you are beholden to stop her.

    In a most horrific turn of events, Sarah Palin’s “Facebook” page shows a map of the United States, with “targeted” Democratic leaders, whom she feels need to lose in the 2010 election. Her “target” symbols are a view through a rifle gunsight! She uses the word “reload”, and other thinly-veiled weapons verbiage, and has affixed her signature to the page. We hear now that she’s revised the page, and removed the offending words, but nonetheless, thousands of us have retained a “screen shot” as proof.

    This is SEDITION. The woman whom you so weakly vetted to be your running mate is a Domestic Terrorist. She is inciting the idiotic “tea-baggers”, inflaming them, whipping their hatred into a frenzy, and fanning the flames of TREASON. It is 100% in your hands how you plan to deal with this.
    – – – – – – – – – – – – –
    ** (note: this is the most current address I have, and my emails have never bounced back)

    I then went on to suggest that he disassociate himself from Palin during his 2010 senate re-election campaign, which he did NOT do – I drove from California to the Tucson rally, and was lucky I didn’t get arrested. Notice, too, that I sent this long before the horrific Giffords incident.

    I have many more similar letters in my file, as it has been my abiding goal to bombard McCain with my thoughts on a regular basis. He needs to PAY, by being ridiculed and shamed at the very least, for what he did to our country. I was literally sick when he won re-election, but I will never stop (courteously) reminding him what a pariah he’s become to the thinking, caring citizens of our country.

    Please excuse the length of my comment – I’m in furious disbelief that Palin is still part of the conversation. The faked pregnancy, at the very least, should have done her in 3 years ago. I can’t even fathom that we’re still discussing an uneducated, mentally unbalanced, gum-smacking, trailer trash, red-shoed trollopy tramp housewife from Wasilla. I’m hoping that Joe’s book puts an end to the madness.

  • Heidi3:

    Oops…sure wish we could edit. When I said “I was lucky I didn’t get arrested”, I meant only that I was carrying a poster that might have drawn attention, questioning Sarah’s preposterous “wild ride” story.

  • AKRNHSNC:

    In Game Change, when McCain is deciding whether or not to offer Palin the position, one of his staffers and an old friend who apparently knew him well said in reference to Palin, “high risk, high reward”. McCain was actually swayed by that because he said to him, “You know I’m a risk taker. Let’s go for it.” Thanks, McCain, you put the entire country at risk because you’re a gambling fool, risking the very future of our country by putting a woman who you didn’t vet up for nomination as your V.P. He also chose her after spending two hours with her yet spent FOUR WEEKS vetting Tim Pawlenty!! I found more dirt on her in 20 minutes after the RNC speech than I care to even think about. I knew then she was going to be a problem but not in a million years did I think she was as egotistical and manipulative, yet also as stupid, as she turned out to be.

  • Heidi3:

    One last thing… I received an immediate response from Annsley Rosner, Joe’s publicity director at Random House, when I requested a signed bookplate for “The Rogue”. Too bad they haven’t scheduled Joe for any book signings, but this is still a very nice gesture on their part. Simply send her an email, with your name and home address, and she’ll make sure you get one, no charge.
    arosner@randomhouse.com

  • Bretta:

    Laprofessora, that was really funny!

  • MrsTarquinBiscuitbarrel:

    Heidi3, thanks SO MUCH for tipping us off for the easy–and free!–signed bookplates for Joe’s THE ROGUE. Another author I love does this, and it certainly is an inexpensive and easy way to satisfy Joe’s fans.

    I’ll be writing Crown today. Again, many thanks from MrsTBB!

  • BlueberryT:

    Have you taken the poll, “Is Sarah Palin mentally unstable?” at PoliticalGates? http://politicalgates.com (upper right of the screen)

  • BlueberryT:

    Great post, Joe!

  • lilybart:

    I have also noticed that she never mentions Jesus. He told her if she did, she would be struck by lightning.

  • mea:

    what scares me as much as SPAK herself, is the adulation of the people, who see her with stars in their eyes, and call her The Answer to their Prayers. Back in 2008, i was shocked by her, perhaps appalled, but her worshippers filled me with dread. What would happen to us if such people ruled us, even a little bit?

    When SPAK.SPAZ is gone, just a memory, that mass of people will still be out there, wanting us to follow the rules they set for us. we must remain vigilant.

    meanwhile, thanks in part to Joe, SPAZ will not have a chance at being anything but a goofball and a sad joke.
    (i still cannot believe the face she used telling us about Paul Revere…….i mean, honestly!! Gagagaga)

  • ProChoiceGrandma:

    Carollt,, before the 2008 campaign, I had never heard of “Political Dominionists” or their Seven Mountains doctrine. Then I saw the video of Sarah Palin with the witch hunter Pastor Thomas Muthee. That raised the hackles on the back of my neck and I began researching my fingers to the bone. These radical fundamentalists have been infiltrating our PTA’s, city, county and state commissions and boards for years!

    I can thank Sarah Palin for one thing – shocking my previously apathetic view of politics into taking a much more active role!

    Here is a basic explanation of the Seven Mountains Doctrine:
    http://www.politicususa.com/en/7-mountains-mandate

    Here is a much more disturbing video:

    “Since the 2012 GOPER presidential hopeful is relying so much on spiritual guidance and depends on people like Muthee to open doors for her is she also supporting the killing of children in Africa?
    Muthee is part of a cult sweeping Africa and they are child killers. The Guardian Films report below: CAUTION DISTURBING IMAGES”

    http://www.zimbio.com/Thomas+Muthee/articles/5/Sarah+Palin+Supports+Killing+Torturing+Witch

  • Ann:

    I was aghast when I heard her speak for the first time at the Republican National Convention. Her snotty comment about Obama’s years as a community organizer made me instantly dislike her. As I learned more about her–and as she incited crowds at her rallies (and relished doing so), I became more frightened at the prospect of her being anywhere near the White House. I stepped up my giving to the Democratic Party (even though we’re middle class and could have used that money elsewhere). Whenever I heard her speak during the 2008 campaign (and I tried to limit my exposure), I’d turn to my husband, “you know what I’ve got to do?” He’d just nod and I’d go online and send out yet another donation to the Obama campaign.

  • lilly lily:

    There is a vast difference before staking your big bucks on a roll of the dice.

    Luck be a lady tonight was running through McCains head. Doesn’t he have a gambling addiction?

    He risked his own life. Somehow I am convinced he would not have survived this long if he and Sarah had made it. God helped us there, if God as people think of that entity, indeed has something to do with it.

    Sarah Palins god wasn’t helping her. She serves a different master.

  • Tewise:

    Wow we got in a fight one night and the guy hit the ground face first and split his tongue just like that, he said it hurt pretty bad.

    McCain needs to be made to live with his decision everyday of his life for the rest of his life, for creating that monster and releasing it. Somebody should put up a billboard with McCain’s picture and Palin’s just to remind him what burdens he bears.

    I will be glad when your book does come out, you are a bad tease. Have a good day.

  • grammy97:

    Lilybart, CarollT and others who have also noticed this enormous discrepancy. I found one explanation in the Bible. 1 John 4:2 “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:” and 1 John 4:3 “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of anti-christ, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” That verse #3 might be why some outspoken people have called $arah the anti-christ. I don’t believe she has the necessary intelligence to be the anti-christ. But she most certainly is not speaking by the Spirit of God.

  • CDNpotpourri:

    Excellent post Joe. You got a giggle on the “Beltway Bunch” reference – an instant vision of a gang of mavericky extremists as scary a thought as that might be. Although I have no voice in your political landscape, as a Canadian, I realize the US can have its influences on our social, political, and economic evolution. As a lifelong neighbour peering over the top of the fence, you couldn’t be more accurate when stating:

    “Do any of you realize how close we came to the destruction of the United States of America, and its replacement by the Christian States of America? For those of you who believe in him, thank God for Barack Obama. May we never have to learn what he saved us from.”

    I trust many will take heed.

  • CDNpotpourri:

    Hats off to you for your relentless efforts in getting your voice out there!

  • CDNpotpourri:

    Hats off to you for your relentless efforts to get your voice out there.

  • Diane:

    I would have had a lot more respect for McCain if he had said, “I made a huge mistake!”

    But he wasn’t man enough to do it and he paid the price.

  • Diane:

    So Joe, is your next book going to be about michelle bachman?
    She scares me even more then palin because of her pathological religiosity and her craziness.

    I can’t even imagine what she would do to this country if she won.

  • CougInPortland:

    Joe, I know you said that once THE ROGUE is released that you’re taking a well-deserved time out on things Palin. I hope you don’t end this blog…you’re an intellegent voice that we need on any number of subject matters.

  • Joe:

    Thank you. I think the blog will evolve and move on to other areas of interest, as I do.

    –Joe

  • Joe:

    No, no Bachmann for me, thanks. I’ve had my fill of right-wing religious fruitcakes.

    –Joe

  • jcinco:

    Ann, I felt exactly the same way after hearing palin the first time. It didn’t take long for me to realize she was a threat to our country and to the rights my daughter has as a woman. palin wants to erase years of fighting by my generation and the generation before mine for the rights of women. I’ll be damned if my daughter will be sexually harrassed at work as I was or that she will bleed to death from a back alley abortion the way friends of mother’s did. I will do anything in my power to make sure this self-absorbed psychopath never holds elected office again. I will fight as hard to see her fail as I did to see our current president succeed. I am not alone in this fight, there are plenty of sisters, daughters, mothers that feel the same way and we won’t take this lying down. Be warned palin, you will not prevail.

  • Ottoline:

    I agree — Joe, I hope you continue this blog during and through the launch of your book in case there’s anything we can do to help it take hold. I confess to being worried that — like all other revelations so far — it won’t be enough. We are here to help, but I’m scared.

    I AM relieved to hear Joe take Palin’s potential past election so seriously, as I do. However, I am worried that your book won’t be enough to shake this Palin phenomenon off the front page, out of our national dialogue. We have been hopeful and certain in the past that some specific thing would open the floodgates, but so far — not enough to be rid of her. Of course, it’s her enablers (high, low, and MSM [which is just a variant on the high-up enablers, I have come to think]) that are our concern. And the plans of those enablers for us. We see those plans unfolding. If our good President loses on this debt/deficit debacle, I think we are cooked.

    So Joe — it’s not just that I want your book to be excellent, a blockbuster, a great read, a huge success, and a huge money-maker for you (which I most certainly DO!). It’s also that you book has a job to do, a job that concerns each one of us. I hope it will do that job, and I hope you will come around to using the Palin Baby Hoax as well and all the rest of it, to put the Dominionists and Right-wing Fat Cats back where they belong, in the margins of our society, not near the center.

    Say it’s so, Joe. Please: tell us your book will do it.

  • Ottoline:

    By the way, I am in agreement with your publishers about doing the national-media sort of marketing and skipping the slog of bookstore signings. One good interview or review of the book is how I get all my leads for reading. I have never been to a book signing, and I am a voracious reader. I don’t understand the thrill of a signed copy, only the thrill of what the book says. Nor do I understand the thrill of that brief personal signing moment. (Although I would have been delighted to come for pizza after the AZ movie for a chat!) However, an —> **interview on PBS** <— or a review in NYRevOfBooks or the NYT or VF or even Vogue! That's where I go to look for good reads. The MANY video interviews of Caroline Kennedy pushing her last book of poems were a real delight (did you see the long Letterman video? Just a huge treat); a signing would not interest me.

    The courtesy of the bookplate and Ms Rossner's prompt response are lovely and say worlds about your being in good hands. Bravo!

  • truthrocks:

    McCain will go to his death defending Palin.

  • Marie:

    I also received a very prompt response which shows the professional organization that Joe is working with.

  • gypsyrose:

    I have often wondered why it is that the “religious” among us feel such a compelling need to impose their beliefs upon the rest of us? I mean, just today, enjoying a beautiful day at home and the doorbell rings. Open the door only to find a group of people on the porch wanting to talk about jesus and god and accepting jesus christ as the savior. Really? When did it become acceptable to go door to door and foist your belief system upon people in their homes on a saturday? Do atheists, agnostics or buddhists go door to door and preach their faith or lack of? no. Over the years i have had only a few friends of extreme religious beliefs but felt that we had a common interest in goodness,not godliness, but overall goodness and kindness of spirit. Compassion expressed towards each other and the world.

    Then the presidential election of 2008 happened and fortunately or unfortunately the differences between us became much greater than the similarities. The obvious desire to hijack the government to use as a springboard for a theocracy narrowly defined by a small fringe of zealots became glaringly obvious. the incredible “blind faith” to the cause and to those leaders that appeared to want the same goal was so apparent that there was no longer a means by which to see the commonality we had shared.

    sarah palin, michelle bachmann and all the rest of the false idols erected by a sea of jaded, cynical, and fatalistic cult members are so dangerous to anyone that truly believes in the democracy that is america that
    to maintain even a small degree of civility towards those once considered to be friends has now become unacceptable and impossible. When everything is couched in ” we love you and want to save you” there is nowhere for me to go in the conversation with them.

    I believe in our freedoms, including freedom of religion but when does it cross the line into “protected violence”? When someone is actually killed because of a belief and is tried and convicted in a court of law they are condemned yes?
    Yet those who promote war and poverty and sickness and disaster and become orgasmic at the thought of world destruction because it means to them that the second coming of christ is imminent—- this is accepted and not cause for examination and certainly not cause for a trial. the idea that they will be rewarded by being raptured into heaven and everyone else will be punished with hell is okey dokey right? The idea that our destruction is sought, prayed for, wished for is not considered to be criminal behavior even though they keep moving our society and government further and further to the right?

    well, this little grain of sand that is me, adrift in a universe of awe and mystery, will keep hangin a left and trust that living a loving and compassionate life will be enough to appease any and all higher beings.
    I will continue to fight for all of our freedoms even when i know that many will use those freedoms to try to destroy things that i love. I will do my best to allow for each person to have and express their own beliefs regardless of how horrific i may find them to be. I will however speak loudly and calmly and intelligently against those that will ignorantly spew forth ugliness, violence, bigotry, racism, sexism,vengefulness and overall hatefulness towards all of us who are not like them. I will happily “risk my immortal soul” in the name of fairness and compassion and love.

    For myself, personally, after living with and loving our four legged furry friends for a lifetime i tend to believe they operate on a much higher plane than we do and wouldn’t it be the best cosmic joke of all to find out that they are the gods and goddesses? I can live with that…………….can’t you?

    peace

  • Anne:

    I hope you all go see the Undefeated,you’re all in you know at the beginning.The spewers of hate and intollerance you seem to think you don’t pocess.It’s an ugliness that goes to your very souls.To Joe,you’ve got a nice bunch of followers.As they say keep telling them what to think and who to hate it serves you well.Each of you should look at yourselves,you obviously perfect people.This is not the world God intended,but it continues to head down a nasty path.God bless you all and may your hate one day wane,although somehow I doubt that.

  • Tammy Terrell:

    Looks to me like you guys have a Palin complex. It shows you are really terrified of her possible election. Yes, Obama was a community organizer. That much we know. We know NOTHING else about him. His birth, his social security number from CT, though we don’t know the number. Nothing of his college transcripts. I think if we knew, we would find out he’s not near as smart as he claims. He is our manchurian candidate and HE is the issue in this election cycle.

  • Samantha:

    Me too….

  • Samantha:

    Good post, Tom, and I agree. I had heard about her election as governor briefly at the time, and I could tell this was someone the party was grooming. The very next time I gave her a thought was when McCain nominated her. My feelings changed over time. Initially, it was of concern, then hatred, then shock at her ignorance, and finally deep surprise at her mental illness. After she quit governing, and launched her new celebrity, fake-politician career, she formed a strange symbiotic relationship with the msm. They both ridiculed the other, yet needed each other as desperately as romeo and juliet. it’s sick and pathetic, and sad.

  • Samantha:

    Tammy, are you one of those “community mobilizers” who are being solicited by the Undefeated people??? Are you a grey wolf or a killer whale? Inquiring minds want to know.

  • Samantha:

    If you want to read some hate, pick up a copy of Not afraid of Life. And as far of what road we’re going down, apparently by your example we’re going down the road to missing punctuation. What is this world coming to, I don’t know.

  • Samantha:

    They want to recruit. It’s not enough that you’re another human being worthy of having a conversation with. You’re nothing, you’re a tadpole. I was standing in line at a store, and a nice young man struck up a conversation with an older woman behind him. They were both in front of me. I thought, how nice. Then he started talking about his church and invited her, and she politely declined saying she was jewish. He turned right back around and completely ignored her the remainder of the time we were in line. I thought, wow….that’s evil.

  • jcinco:

    I got to “pocess” and didn’t waste any more of my time.

  • jcinco:

    You sound like a typical unhinged, rabid palin-worshipping rube. We’re mostly terrified her idiocy is contagious hon…now why don’t you run along and collect your check little trollie.

  • Just a beautifully written post and touching final comment. I so agree.

  • So funny! Me too.

  • The things you say we do not know are ALL available. Read much?
    I frequently wonder why those of you who are so filled with lies and hate are not afraid of burning in the hell you so deeply believe in.

  • Samantha:

    That’s hilarious. Yeah, sarah being a “kingmaker” was one of the ruses the msm tried to feed us. First the vp didn’t work out, the governorship didn’t work out, and somehow she’s supposed to have all this tremendous influence and money to king somebody? They’re trying anything to justify their coverage of her. The Kingmakers are the ones pulling HER strings.

  • Ann:

    jcinco–and how cynical (crazy?) of McCain to think that he could capture Clinton voters by putting Palin on the ticket. I’ve got daughters and granddaughters, too, and come from a long-line of fiery women. I totally agree with you: We’ve worked too hard for our rights to have them taken away by religious zealots. And conservatives could learn something from we liberals about actually talking to their children about sex (not an easy conversation for any parent to have–no matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on). It’s all about prevention.

    Trust me–I’m making my regular donations to the Democratic Party once again!

  • I am so grateful for this blog as well as several others that have done so much to let this country know how close we have come to the nightmare of Sarah Palin in a national office. I, too, knew from the moment I saw her on stage what she was and is. I think that so many people who are really very busy in life and very cynical
    about politics don’t pay that much attention. It has been the blogs that have brought all of this knowledge to the fore. The blogs have opened many eyes to the reality of the danger of Sarah Palin. The media loves the money they make by letting everyone watch a big, slow, bloody multi car wreck, the same way people do on a highway.
    Thank you Joe. I also thank Jesse Griffin and Malia Littman from the bottom of my heart.
    ann

  • Sounds like you’re jealous of our President because he’s smarter than your idol Sarah Palin, but, then again any 5th grader is smarter than Sarah Palin.

  • Ann:

    My brain keeps saying, “do not engage. Do NOT engage” and yet, I can’t help myself. Joe’s not telling us what to think. We’re actually critical thinkers. If you were one, you’d wonder if “The Undefeated” told the whole story. You might even want to investigate and learn more on your own about Ms. Palin. As a critical thinker, you might ask yourself, “where’s the meat in the ‘common sense’ ideas she keeps talking about?” Ask yourself, if Ms. Palin wasn’t blessed with movie star good looks would you even be a fan? If she looked like–oh, I don’t know say, Thelma Ritter (marvelous character actress from the 1940s-1960s and look her up on IMDB), would you even be talking about her?

  • As much as it pains me to say it, and being not particularly religious but believing myself to be intensely spiritual, I cannot support those who barker their religion or their church from door to door. That includes Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and any and all brand of Dominionists or Evangelicals. When they do come to the door I try to be polite, but come on… I’m 64 years old now and by this time I’ve sorted out the difference between faith and fantasy, between belief and blasphemy.

    That the pseudo-religious are making inroads into our civic institutions and our government is the most frightening thing I can imagine. “Faith is of the heart, not of the mind. When the heart is ungoverned by reason, charlatans have powerful tools to deceive.” [this comes from Sister Justine, of Dragon Age fame for those who know that…]

    And charlatans will deceive. That is what they do. That is what Sarah Palin is, a charlatan. Also, too, many others including SP’s BFF Franklin Graham. And her voodoo witch doctor Pastor Muthee. And her other BFF, Glenn Beck. They have not lived a life of service, of modesty, of humility. They have lived a life of scraping bare those who have not the ability to reason, and are blindly deceived.

    I can only hope that there is a special hell for the usurpers, the deceivers, the charlatans. They deserve every degree of hellfire plus some.

  • anon:

    I don’t think TT is lying. I think she really believes this stuff because someone she (mis)placed her trust in told her it’s true and these “facts” fit in with what she dearly wants to believe. The problem with our education system is that it doesn’t teach people like TT to check facts and learn for herself. Critical thinking, the key to surviving in the modern world, is a lost art.

  • Ann:

    Please see my reply to Anne (right above you). Critical thinking is really key. Please ask yourself the same questions that I encouraged Anne to ask of herself. I think President Obama’s history is an open book. He WAS born in America. He is Harvard-educated. He’s an author (I encourage you to read his books). He has a beautiful family. If you actually listened to him talk–with an open mind–you’d see for yourself how smart, thoughtful and engaged he is. I’m guessing the difference between you and me is that I actually want someone in the office of President of the United States–who’s infinitely smarter than me. It’s a tough, demanding and incredibly complex job. I’m not seeing your Ms. Palin as anywhere near up to the task.

  • Ann:

    Whoops! Meant for Tammy!

  • Jolene:

    Mr. Mcginniss (may I call you Joe? LOL) I can’t wait for your next book, “The Rogue”! I think you are a wonderful journalist, and admire your books tremendously. “Fatal Vision” is one of my all-time favorite books, despite its sad, even gruesome story. I bought that book at least 3 times! You are so great at unveiling a sociopath, like Jeff McDonald, and now, Sarah Payload. I truly believe there’s something deeply pathological going on with her, that she has an inner sickness and perhaps many long-buried secrets. I would feel sorry for her (and her bots at the Sea of Pea) if she, and they, weren’t so damned determined to lead this country into a Dark Ages theocracy. They and she scare me, and I am beholden to brave people like you who dare expose the media’s little darling, Sarah Palin. They made her, and I hope to Buddha they unmake her in the end. Again, can’t wait to read your book.

  • krbmjb05:

    Ya, like giving you the POTUS SS# is something that should be done to appease your delusions. Here, why don’t you take mine instead. Hey everyone, let’s give TT our social security numbers. We should all give them so freely so IT can be sure we’re REAL Amurikans!

  • KarenJ:

    That goes hand-in-hand with what LibertyLover over at Mudflats called the Palin video boondoggle: “Technicolor Whitewash”.

  • craftyz:

    Hear hear, CWG! I, too, was “apolitical” before the tempest came.

    No matter what anyone wants to say now, there was no “lock” that Barack Obama would win the Presidency.

    There was no certainty that this. cretan. would NOT be the NEXT VP of the United States of America.

    The speed with which she was presented to us WITHOUT QUESTION was whiplash-worthy.

    On the word of one. man. we, as a NATION, were expected to give this woman a FREE PASS…

    To a possible PRESIDENCY?

    And John McCain is absolutely. 100% without question, RESPONSIBLE.

    He had more time to vet his VP candidate than ANY OTHER candidate in recent history (according to “Game Change”), simply b/c he knew early he was the nominee.

    And he ended up giving his team DAYS to vet this woman.

    There is just too, too much to say.

    I’m sure that Mr. McGuiness has done a thorough job of telling a fantastically true tale of Palin- my book is on order.

    I’m also sure it’s getting difficult to tell the tale without repeating too much of the info that’s already out there. I must recommend “Game Change”, “The Lies of Sarah Palin”, and even Bailey’s “Blind Allegiance”.

    It’s been stomach-churning to watch her rise, but I believe her “star” is in descent, never to rise again.

    And I believe (maybe just hope), that if nothing else, Sarah Palin HAS given us something. An INCREDIBLE slap-in-the-face to wake us the HELL up from our (justifiably) apathetic view to politics.

    And how we, as a nation, almost fell into the biggest. black. hole. ever. imagined…

  • craftyz:

    I can thank Sarah Palin for one thing – shocking my previously apathetic view of politics into taking a much more active role!

    ~~~~

    HA! I said almost the same Exact thing. Her and Barack together were a difficult combo to ignore.

    Thank GOODNESS G*D “chose” correctly… 😉

  • craftyz:

    Spot on, Tom!

    Now imagine what it’s like for us WOMEN to have…that, thing, “representing” us! (Now it’s Michelle Batsh!t.)

    How do you explain to a teenage girl WHY this woman has NOT been “laughed off the stage”, as you wrote?

    ~Well, you see dear, despite everything I have ever tried to instill in you as a young woman~ that character, integrity, intelligence, humility and humor are characteristics that are worth their weight in gold.

    Well, the “truth” is that this is an extremely shallow world. And if you are pretty enough and can manipulate enough people along the way, you could be richer and more famous than you Ever imagined. ~

    **sigh**

  • craftyz:

    Um, Heidi?

    You’re Awesome! =)

  • Trisha:

    Tammy, You do realize that President Obama was a US Senator, right? As president of the USA, he has the highest security clearance of any individual in the United States. They don’t just hand those out to anyone.
    President Obama not vetted? We know nothing about him? He already had a high security clearance as a US Senator. Currently, he is the most vetted man in the country. Do your homework

  • BfromC:

    Tammy,

    President Obama was my senator before he became president. I know plenty about him and find him worthy of much admiration and respect. Anyone who wants to find out about our president will find a great deal of TRUE information readily available. You just have to search and read it, and not quote all the anti-Obama emails you receive from your closest Fox-watching friends and relatives.

    Before becoming a US Senator, he was a State Senator in Illinois for many years. In addition to that he has been a Constitutional Law Professor at the distinguished University of Chicago, as well as having worked for a law firm. His community organizing work started right out of college, when he chose to do something for a struggling section of Chicago that had lost a huge number of jobs to factory closings. Oh, and he was president of Harvard Law Review, a very high honor that would not have happened without extensive review of his grades, work, and abilities. They probably even checked his SS#. Back in those days, universities used SS# as the main student ID.

    I suppose you would mock and discredit people who selflessly go into Peace Corps, Job Corps, and similar lines of service out of college. But I know for certain where you learned to denegrate someone who spent some years as a “community organizer.” It is rather ironic that Sarah Palin felt it was appropriate to discredit one of Obama’s early jobs, when she listed her involvement in the PTA as some great experience that made her worthy of being a governor and vice president of the USA. PTAs are kinda community organizing organizations, dontcha think?

    I doubt you’ll even be checking back to read all the responses to your comment here. You are like most trolls, drop the shit and run. But I’d love to know if you’d be willing to share YOUR SS# with the world, and if you did, just what would that qualify you for?

  • me:

    The dominionists tend to overlook all the things Jesus said about love, and if you bring those up, they whine about how the “socialists” “hijack and misappropriate” the Bible. They go on the defensive rather than explaining their own very evident lack of love. Or they twist the definition, claiming that the biblical way to love “sinners” is by letting them know that God is going to send them to hell if they don’t straighten up.

    Dominionists are very fond of the story in which Jesus throws the money-changers out of the temple, because this shows that he wasn’t just “gentle Jesus, meek and mild,” but that he had a temper and it was okay. This translates into dominionists’ anger somehow being righteous and acceptable.

    I grew up in a primarily dominionist-influenced/controlled environment. I believe it greatly exacerbated other problems I had. (I have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was severely depressed during my teens, which engendered mockery and blame from most of the authority figures in my life.) I have never managed to shed my belief in God, but I struggle almost daily–even after YEARS of therapy–against the idea that God is an angry sadist who takes great pleasure in watching me fail.

  • Do you have any idea how much more compelling your prose would be if it were spelled properly, used correct spelling, and grammar?

    No more compelling, that’s how much.

  • KristenG:

    “I mean, just today, enjoying a beautiful day at home and the doorbell rings. Open the door only to find a group of people on the porch wanting to talk about jesus and god and accepting jesus christ as the savior.”

    We have a sign on the door that says, “NO sales or religious calls!” It works very well.

  • A Telling Comment:

    I’ll never forget the day McCain announced Palin was the VP candidate. I was in Olathe, KS, which is a very conservative community with deep ties to a denomination called Church of the Nazarene throughout it’s leadership, education (a university), and it’s very identity.

    It’s also a middle class area in the suburbs, with many wealthier citizens. Needles to say, Kansas is among the most conservative state is the union.

    I had been in a waiting room in a local auto dealership for a couple of hours leading up to the Palin announcement at the same time as a 40-odd year old lady who I know to be married, upper middle class, and a member of a local 3500 or so member church of the Nazarene.

    After we had both had watched her intro and speech and our cars were done, we met on the sidewalk and she said in a tone of exasperation or frustration, “he just lost the election.”