Nashville - Nashville Scene - Pith in the Wind - Pith on Palin Archives

Posted November 06, 2008 at 02:27:26 PM by Pete Kotz

We already knew that Sarah Palin isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but this report from Fox indicates she's scary dumb -- like not even knowing that Africa is a continent dumb.

Maybe it's just the blame game that takes place when any campaign loses. But the fact that it's airing on Fox -- the propaganda arm of the GOP -- makes it all the weirder. For a network that rarely strays from Republican talking points, it seems like the party hierarchy has turned on its sweetheart.

Is this simply a plot by McCain staffers to cast the blame? Or is there now a concerted effort by Republicans to bury her now, before she buries them again in 2012?

Category: Kotz, Pith on Palin, Politics, Presidential Politics

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Posted November 03, 2008 at 02:19:25 PM by Jack Silverman

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If a picture's worth a thousand words, then a picture with words has to be worth...what...like 5,000 words?

(Pardon our indulgence, but it's kind of like 20 minutes before closing time at the carnival, and we've got to use up all of our tickets as fast as we can before it's over.)

h/t: Carrie Duke

Category: Pith on Palin, Silverman

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Posted November 03, 2008 at 11:11:29 AM by Jack Silverman

We (hopefully) won't have Sarah Palin to kick around much longer, so this bit of spontaneous WTF was too ripe to pass up.

Typically, the whole CNN "I Reporter" shtick can be a little pathetic. You know the drill: Some schmuck with a video camera videotapes either a news-related event or, even more pathetic, him- or herself spouting off ridiculously uninformed "everyman" opinions about the pertinent issues of the day.

But hand it to I Reporter Brad Bailey, who caught VP candidate Palin at a campaign event, perhaps after a quick hit of crack in the Straight Talk Express potty. Bailey, who is black, asks Palin how to get minorities more involved in the political process. Palin responds, "We've got to be all about the equality. Our constitution preaches...Todd is Alaskan and if you go up to Alaska, we have a problem with him being a minority up there. We live it."

We live it. Well, if you want to get technical, Todd is one-eighth Yu'pik Eskimo and one quarter Curyung. Still, to suggest that Todd—who looks like the bastard child of Tim McGraw and David Hasselhoff—understands the indignities and discrimination suffered by minorities in America, seems like a stretch. Then again, so does everything about Palin's VP candidacy. Tick, tick, tick...

Category: Pith on Palin, Silverman

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Posted October 24, 2008 at 03:16:45 PM by Pete Kotz

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This high-minded missive just in from Scene book editor and fashion correspondent Margaret Renkl:

After Politico got busy this week with a serious investigative piece about the cost of Sarah Palin’s wardrobe, the blowhards actually had the grace to feel a little sheepish. Report that the U.S. has blown up an Afghan village and killed 60 little kids, and all you’ll get from the war machine is some blather about Taliban hiding places and collateral damage. But get busted for dressing your high-profile hockey mom in some to-die-for Manolo Blahniks, and egg starts dripping down the fat jowls and chin of even the worst wingnut. It’s not like Joe Six Pack has any shot at all of keeping this woman in the manner to which she has evidently grown accustomed, and didn’t they pick her just for Joe?

Oh, please, what’s the surprise? As any little girl in this country knows, you can pair up your Caribou Barbie with your G.I. Joe and send them out on the town together, and no one cares that Joe is wearing ugly clothes and muddy boots because no one’s looking at Joe anyway. But Barbie better be wearing a really cute outfit, and a different one every single day, or pretty soon the press pool’s going to be taking bets on which sensible pantsuit will show up in the rotation on Tuesday. Have you seen the pictures of Palin in her pre-personal-shopping days?

Sure, it’s wasteful. In any meaningful context it’s wasteful—according to my Heifer International catalog, you can send a milk cow to 300 hungry Afghan families for $150,000—and it’s both wasteful and stupid for a political campaign that’s being outspent 20 to 1 on ad buys in Indiana alone. But it still makes sense. John McCain went shopping in a toy store for his vice president, so it shouldn’t be surprising that he bought the entire made-to-fit wardrobe on the same aisle. What use would she be without it?

Category: Pith on Palin, Politics, Presidential Politics

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Posted October 24, 2008 at 02:10:57 PM by Pete Kotz

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One of the most frustrating things about being a reporter is dealing with “public servants.” Though they use the “servant” thing liberally, few could pass the journeyman’s test for the International Brotherhood of Maids & Butlers. The most frustrating thing: Even though we pay for government, they don’t actually believe we’re entitled to know anything about government -- unless we pay extra.

Think of it as buying stock in GE, then having GE charge an additional fee just to see how your stock is performing.

It’s not really an ideological thing. In all-Democratic Cleveland, where I recently worked, it was easier to backstroke across Lake Erie than get basic information from city and county. Here in Tennessee, the Bredesen administration is entertaining thoughts of charging residents escalating fees based on the size of the info requested. But for pure shamelessness, no one beats the Palin administration in Alaska.

Since her nomination, news agencies have bombed the governor’s office with records requests. In Alaska, this is ot considered good form. But instead of being a nice little maverick and providing people what they’re entitled to, Palin has gone the opposite direction, asking for enormous fees to drive away inquiring minds.

Writes Bill Dedman on MSNBC.com:

The price quotes reveal that Palin's office has repeatedly tried to charge different news organizations the cost to reconstruct the same e-mail accounts of the governor, her senior staff and other employees. Each time an e-mail is requested, the office quotes the same cost of $960.31 for 13 hours to recover and search each employee's e-mails.
NBC's price quote for e-mails sent to Todd Palin: $15 million.

The AP's price for e-mails between state employees and the campaign headquarters of Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain: $15 million.

And the AP again, for e-mails between state employees and the National Park Service (on polar bears, wolves and other topics): $15 million.

I don’t know about you, but this sound very unmavericky to me – and possibly un-American.

Category: Kotz, Pith on Palin, Politics, Presidential Politics

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Posted October 06, 2008 at 08:56:21 AM by Jack Silverman

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According to Global Language Monitor, he's stupider than Sarah Palin

Sorry, Pete. Lost in the whirlwind of post-veep-debate spin was this irrefutable proof that Sarah Palin is smarter than Joe Biden. According to the Austin, Texas-based Global Language Monitor, in last Thursday's debate, Palin spoke at more than a ninth-grade level (9.5), while Biden spoke at nearly an eight-grade level (7.8).

Either that, or—as this post's title suggests—dumb is the new smart. I think I'm going with the latter.

Of course, before reading too much into the results, consider this: according to the language monitoring organization, which is to thoughtful insight what O.J. Simpson is to integrity, the following Palin sentence scored an 18.3 grade level! (I guess that's, like, midway through a Ph.D. or something.):

What I would do, also, if that were ever to happen, though, is to continue the good work he is so committed to of putting government back on the side of the people and get rid of the greed and corruption on Wall Street and in Washington.

Even Global Language Monitor president Paul Payack acknowledged that higher grade level doesn't necessarily mean better sentence: "When she said it, it sounded good, but on paper it's a completely different animal," Payack said. "It's like, what is that?"

The fact that Payack thought it even "sounded good" suggest he might be better suited for another line of work. We hear Metro Nashville Public Schools are hiring.

Category: Crazy Crap, Pith on Palin, Politics, Silverman

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Posted September 16, 2008 at 05:00:14 AM by Jim Ridley

Energized, galvanized, filled with renewed hope—those are the only words that could describe Jackie Broyles and Dunlap these days, thanks to a certain Alaskan governor.

Category: Pith on Palin

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