Show top rated links | LinkViewer
Shocka: Palin Resigns As Alaska Governor
Politics | Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 12:34:37 pm PDT
Initial reports were that Sarah Palin was planning not to run for re-election, but in a surprise move today she announced she’s resigning as Governor of Alaska.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin will resign her office in a few weeks, she said during a news conference at her Wasilla home Friday morning.
Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the Governor’s Picnic at Pionner Park in Fairbanks on Saturday, July 25, Palin said.
There was no immediate word as to why she will resign, though speculation has been rampant that the former vice presidential candidate is gearing up for a run at the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
Palin made the announcement flanked by Parnell and most, if not all, of her cabinet.
Hmm. This is a pretty standard way to downplay something and keep it out of the news cycle as much as possible— release it late Friday on a long weekend.
UPDATE at 7/3/09 2:21:58 pm:
MSNBC video of Palin’s announcement:
CBS: Palin Emails Show Infighting With Staff
Politics | Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 12:17:19 pm PDT
CBS has obtained internal McCain-Palin campaign emails that show a lot of infighting between Sarah Palin and campaign staffers.
Internal campaign e-mails exchanged three weeks before Election Day offer a rare look at just how frustrated then Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin had become with the manner in which top McCain campaign aides were handling her candidacy. The e-mails, obtained exclusively, also highlight the power struggle and thinly veiled acrimony that pervaded the relationship between Palin and the campaign’s chief strategist, Steve Schmidt.
The episode in question began when an investigative report published on the left-leaning Web site Salon.com raised questions about Palin’s relationship with members of the Alaska Independence Party (AIP) when she was mayor of Wasilla. The AIP’s platform calls for a vote giving Alaskans the option to secede from the United States. It had already been widely known that Todd Palin was a registered member of the AIP from 1995 to 2002 and that Governor Palin had taped a recorded greeting at the party’s 2008 convention.
On the morning of Oct. 15, Palin was aboard her campaign jet and en route to New Hampshire when she happened to catch a disparaging CNN segment that touted the Salon.com story, complete with a provocative graphic at the bottom of the screen reading, “THE PALINS AND THE FRINGE.”
While shaking hands after a rally later that afternoon, someone on the rope line shouted a remark at Palin about the AIP.
The comment set her off. She worried that the campaign was not sufficiently mitigating the issue of her alleged connection to the party, which despite a platform that harkens more to the Civil War than the 21st century, continued to play a serious role in Alaska politics.
Palin blasted out an e-mail with the subject line “Todd” to Schmidt, campaign manager Rick Davis and senior advisor Nicolle Wallace, copying her husband on the message (all of the e-mails are reprinted below as written).
“Pls get in front of that ridiculous issue that’s cropped up all day today - two reporters, a protestor’s sign, and many shout-outs all claiming Todd’s involvement in an anti-American political party,” Palin wrote. “It’s bull, and I don’t want to have to keep reacting to it ... Pls have statement given on this so it’s put to bed.”
Her reference to a single protestor’s sign and “many shout-outs” was indicative of Palin’s occasional tendency to take anecdotal evidence of a minor problem and extrapolate it into something far more menacing. The final of the three presidential debates was just hours away, which would mark the unveiling of the soon-to-be canonized Joe The Plumber.
UPDATE at 7/3/09 12:20:26 pm:
Meanwhile, Palin appears to be positioning for a run at the presidency: Palin won’t run for re-election in Alaska, source says.
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is expected to announce Friday that she will not seek a second term, a Republican source close to Palin tells CNN. ...
As the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, Palin is considered one of the front-runners for the GOP nomination in 2012. Her decision not to seek another term as governor is sure to stoke speculation that Palin is seriously eyeing a run for the White House.
UPDATE at 7/3/09 12:23:24 pm:
Todd Purdum has a lengthy (and not very complimentary) piece on Sarah Palin in Vanity Fair: It Came from Wasilla.
WSJ: Franken Stole the Election
Politics | Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 11:27:21 am PDT
The Wall Street Journal’s editors weigh in on Al Franken’s Senate win: The ‘Absentee’ Senator.
The Minnesota Supreme Court yesterday declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of last year’s disputed Senate race, and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman’s gracious concession at least spares the state any further legal combat. The unfortunate lesson is that you don’t need to win the vote on Election Day as long as your lawyers are creative enough to have enough new or disqualified ballots counted after the fact.
Video: Sarychev Peak Eruption from Space
Science | Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 11:19:45 am PDT
An incredible 3D image captured by an astronaut in the International Space Station as it passed over the Sarychev Peak volcanic eruption on June 12, 2009.
Astronaut photograph ISS020-E-9048 was acquired on June 12, 2009, with a Nikon D2XS digital camera fitted with a 400 mm lens, and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center.
Iran Intends to Try British Embassy Employees
World | Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 11:01:30 am PDT
The Iranian thugocracy is holding three British Embassy employees arrested last weekend during the election protests, and a senior cleric says they are going to be put on trial.
A senior Iranian cleric said today that several employees of the British Embassy in Tehran arrested in recent days would be put on trial for unspecified charges of acting against Iran’s national security, potentially escalating a confrontation with the West over last month’s disputed presidential election.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the conservative Guardian Council, said in a Friday prayer sermon that the employees, all of them Iranian nationals, “will definitely be tried” for taking part or promoting weeks of unrest surrounding the June 12 election, which was marred by opposition allegations of massive vote-rigging.
“The enemy made an effort to poison the people,” Jannati, who is politically close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told worshipers gathered in Tehran. “They had planned a velvet revolution before the election . . . A number of people at the British Embassy were arrested for involvement in the unrests and they will definitely be tried.”
Russia Allows Afghanistan Flyovers
World | Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 10:53:55 am PDT
This is a welcome development, but I’m sure Putin has his own reasons for agreeing to it: Russia Opens Route for U.S. to Fly Arms to Afghanistan.
MOSCOW — The Russian government has agreed to allow American troops and weapons bound for Afghanistan to fly over Russian territory, providing an important new corridor for the United States military as it escalates efforts to win the eight-year-old war, officials from both sides said Friday.
Krauthammer: The Ricci Case and Affirmative Action
Opinion | Fri, Jul 3, 2009 at 9:49:06 am PDT
Charles Krauthammer on The Meaning of the Ricci Case.
The major conundrum of the civil rights age remains. The 14th Amendment bans discrimination on the basis of race. But the Civil Rights Act, which bans “disparate impact” discrimination — procedures (such as exams) that yield racially unbalanced results — affirmatively mandates racial favoritism to undo those results. The evil day will come, writes Justice Antonin Scalia in his concurrence, when this contradiction will have to be resolved.
He is right. For decades we have been finessing the issue with a mess of compromises, euphemisms, incoherences and pretenses such as banning racial quotas but promoting racial “goals.” Anyone who has ever had to make hiring or admission decisions knows that this angel-on-the-head-of-pin distinction is 95 percent a matter of appearances, gestures and lawsuit-avoiding paperwork.
And yet we have muddled our way through, permitting a large dose of intentional discrimination to ameliorate past discrimination — and present inadvertent imbalances — without totally abandoning the ideal of colorblindness.
The result? At the near half-century mark of the Civil Rights Act, racial minorities have seen remarkable social advancement. The younger generation is infinitely more racially tolerant and accepting. We’ve made great racial progress. But the fundamental unfairness that underlies the racial spoils system continues to rankle. That’s what animated the Ricci case.
And Now for a Baby Sumatran Orangutan
Images | Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 11:29:41 pm PDT
This Sumatran Orangutan inflicts its ineffable cuteness upon you, courtesy of ZooBorns.
6 New Personality Disorders Caused by the Internet
Humor | Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 6:02:41 pm PDT
Major Military Campaign in Afghanistan
World | Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 3:21:20 pm PDT
A massive military offensive is under way in Afghanistan against the Taliban.
NAWA, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S. Marines suffered their first casualties of a massive new military campaign Thursday as they engaged in sporadic gunbattles along 55 miles of Taliban-controlled heartland in southern Afghanistan.
One Marine was killed and several others were injured or wounded on the first full day of the assault, the largest military operation in Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban government in 2001.
The offensive will test the Obama administration’s new strategy of holding territory and letting the Afghan government sink roots in Helmand province. The insurgency has proven particularly resilient in this area, where foreign troops have never before operated in such large numbers.
President Barack Obama told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that he has a “very narrow definition of success when it comes to our national security interests” in the region. “And that is that al-Qaida and its affiliates cannot set up safe havens from which to attack Americans.”
And Long War Journal has some disturbing news from eastern Afghanistan: Haqqani Network captures US soldier in Afghanistan.
The Haqqani Network has captured a US soldier who was based in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika. The soldier, who has not been identified, had reportedly been captured after walking off of his small outpost.
The US military has confirmed a solider has been missing since June 30 and believes he has been captured by the Taliban.
The Washington Post 'Salon'
Media | Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 11:48:33 am PDT
Oh brother. The Washington Post was apparently planning to sell access to top Obama officials and other VIPs, at a price of $25,000 to $250,000 a pop, in a “salon program” at the private home of CEO Katharine Weymouth.
The Washington Post has long prided itself on its access to the capital’s elite. Now, it appears, the paper is willing to sell that access.
In a flier circulated to Beltway lobbyists, the Post touted a “salon” program which gives “exclusive access” to “Obama administration officials, Congress members, business leaders, advocacy leaders and other select minds” for between $25,000 and $250,000. (View an image of the flier.)
White House officials said privately Thursday that the administration had no idea that the Post was peddling access to its officials.
The first event, entitled “Health-Care Reform: Better or Worse for Americans” is scheduled for July 21, at the home of Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth.
“Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No,” the flier states. “The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it.”
The flier, first reported by former Post editor Mike Allen on the Politico web site, offers the chance to “hear and be heard as an equal with key policy-makers and other stakeholders,” including Weymouth, Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli and health-care “reporting and editorial staff members” at the Post.
Post company spokeswoman Kris Coratti issued a statement Thursday morning claiming that the flier was a “draft” that hadn’t been “properly vetted” before being dispatched.
Arab Fists Still Clenched
Middle East | Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 10:17:12 am PDT
Imagine my surprise; Barack Obama’s bold new initiative for Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel is getting nowhere.
The U.S. administration has not been successful in securing commitments from Arab countries to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel, a senior source in Jerusalem said Wednesday.
The source said U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent meeting with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia did not produce a commitment to encourage the other Arab states to begin normalization.
“In such a situation, the Americans can’t continue demanding gestures only from Israel, such as the demand that Israel freeze settlement construction,” the source said.
So naturally, since the Arab countries remain committed (as they always have been) to the destruction of Israel, Obama will continue asking them to unclench.
In response, a senior White House source said talks with the Arab states are continuing with the aim of obtaining a commitment to make gestures toward Israel, and there is still hope for progress.
North Korea Launches Four Missiles
World | Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 10:12:02 am PDT
As North Korea continues preparations for a long-range ballistic missile test, possibly this weekend, today they test-fired four short-range missiles that apparently landed in the China Sea.
Reports say these were ground-to-ship missiles; this bit of saber-rattling is probably intended as a threat to South Korea.
Sanford: Dog About Town
Politics | Thu, Jul 2, 2009 at 6:16:18 am PDT
More of the Mark Sanford story’s leaking out, and it’s just not looking any better for the philandering creationist governor: Sanford, like a man in love, gushes about his ‘soul mate,’ confesses to other encounters.
Crying at times and clearly wearing his emotions on his sleeve, the two-term governor also acknowledged that he had casual encounters with other women but insisted that he never crossed the line by having sex with them.
“If you’re a married guy, at the end of the day, you shouldn’t be dancing with somebody else,” he said. “There were a handful of instances wherein I crossed the lines I shouldn’t have crossed as a married man but never crossed the ultimate line.”
Overnight Open Thread
Open | Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 11:08:53 pm PDT
Human judges can show mercy. But against the laws of nature, there is no appeal.
— Arthur C. Clarke
God Said, Don't
Politics | Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 5:34:02 pm PDT
Joe the Plumber had a chat with the Almighty, and the word came down from on high: “Don’t run for office, Joe.”
Asked if he has plans to run for public office, he replied, “I hope not. You know, I talked to God about that and he was like, ‘No.’”
He continued, “I believe he’s gotten me on this grassroots movement. If I can encourage leaders to step up, that’s what I would like to do. That’s a heavy role. That’s something I don’t know if I am prepared to do yet.”
Wednesday Night Music: Pat Metheny Trio, 'Lone Jack'
Music | Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 4:25:47 pm PDT
Pat Metheny with Christian McBride (bass) and Antonio Sanchez (drums), tearing through a tune called “Lone Jack,” from the album, Pat Metheny Group.
New Gallup Poll: More Americans See Democratic Party As 'Too Liberal'
US News | Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 1:59:54 pm PDT
A new Gallup poll has some interesting results; this year the number of Americans who described the Democratic Party’s views as “too liberal” increased to a historic high mark (46%), putting it slightly ahead of the number who say the Republican Party is “too conservative” (43%).
However, it’s not great news for the Republicans, because the number who say the GOP is “too conservative” has remained unchanged from its own historic high mark last year.
It looks like a lot of Americans are disenchanted with both parties for being too extreme.
Here’s a Gallup video on the poll with more details on the results.
Tech Note: Daily Format
Technology | Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 1:17:04 pm PDT
For years, the LGF front page has contained the last 3 to 5 days worth of posts, which can result in rather large pages depending on the content in the posts. I’m experimenting today with a single day’s worth of posts on the front page, to cut the size considerably — which makes the front page load much more quickly for you, dear reader.
Obviously, the downside is that you see fewer posts as you scroll down the front page. But there is a light green navigation bar at the top and bottom of the page, with a link to yesterday’s posts. Once you click that link you’re in daily mode, and can use the navigation bar to step back and forth by days.
As always, you can use the “Daily Archives” button in the left sidebar to bring up a calendar and jump directly to any day in LGF’s history.
I think the faster loading time is worth the slight inconvenience of not seeing several days’ worth of posts on the front page; but if you disagree, here’s a thread in which to make your case.
UPDATE at 7/1/09 1:26:59 pm:
Changed the test slightly; now the front page shows today and yesterday, so there isn’t just one post on the page at the start of a day.
JPost: Iran Hanging Mousavi Supporters
World | Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 12:43:23 pm PDT
The Jerusalem Post cites unconfirmed reports from Iran that the regime has begun hanging supporters of Mousavi.
As the Iranian authorities warned the opposition on Tuesday that they would tolerate no further protests over the disputed June 12 presidential elections, a report emerged of the hangings of six supporters of defeated candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Speaking after Iran’s top legislative body upheld the election victory of incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sources in Iran told this reporter in a telephone interview that the hangings took place in the holy city of Mashhad on Monday. There was no independent confirmation of the report.
Onion: New Green Menu Has No Natural Ingredients
Humor | Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 12:11:28 pm PDT
Obama Health Care Town Hall Meeting
Health | Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 11:19:37 am PDT
Here’s a thread to discuss Barack Obama’s town hall meeting promoting his health care plans, now under way in Annandale, Virginia ...
YouTube is streaming the meeting live.
McKinney Arrested By Israel, Appears on Hate Radio
Moonbats | Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 10:46:53 am PDT
One of the craziest moonbat politicians in the US, Cynthia McKinney, has been arrested again for trying to break Israel’s blockade of Hamas: Israel navy intercepts boat with ex-U.S. Rep. McKinney.
JERUSALEM (CNN) — The Israeli navy took control of a boat that violated an Israeli blockade and crossed into Gazan waters Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said, while a Gaza group said the ship was carrying humanitarian aid, a former U.S. congresswoman and a Nobel laureate.
The boat’s crew included former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, according to the Free Gaza Movement, a human rights group that sent the boat it calls “Spirit of Humanity” from Cyprus. ...
IDF said the Israeli navy contacted the boat, which it called the Arion, while it was still at sea and warned the crew they would not be allowed to enter Gazan waters “because of security risks in the area and the existing naval blockade.”
Disregarding all warnings, the boat entered Gazan coastal waters, IDF said. An Israeli navy force intercepted, boarded and took control of the boat, directing it toward Ashdod, Israel, IDF said. The boat’s crew, the military said, would “be handed over to the proper authorities.” ...
According to the Free Gaza group, McKinney said, “This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip,” before authorities confiscated cell phones.
“President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We’re asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey,” McKinney said, according to the group.
Adam Holland, meanwhile, has been tracking McKinney’s frequent appearances on antisemitic radio shows: McKinney on hate radio again.
Now McKinney has done several more interviews on another racist radio show with far-right links — this time with a better-known, and much more widely read, internet hate monger called Daryl Bradford Smith. You can read an archived version of his website’s homepage here: Zionism Research - The French Connection - Fighting Criminal Zionism. (Has McKinney read it? How did she find these people?) This webpage, on which recordings of the programs featuring McKinney can be found, features a banner headline endorsing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It reads:
The Protocols are sometimes criticized as containing nothing that had not been said previously by philosophers or statesmen; but even if that were true, it would detract little from their interest. For their importance does not lie in the aim, world domination, nor in the theory by which it is attained, exploitation of man’s baser instincts, but in the extraordinary astuteness with which the practical application of the plan has been suited to existing conditions.Smith’s homepage links to other pages on his website devoted to the works of infamous bigots such as Charles Coughlin, Denis Fahey, Nesta Webster, and Douglas Reed. The page devoted to Fahey deals with what Smith calls the “Judeo-Bolshevist plot against Christianity”. In fact, the vast majority of the authors published by Smith on his website come from the extreme far-right of the political spectrum, and promote, as did the Nazis, the view that communism was a Jewish conspiracy. However, Smith’s website also promotes the Stalinist Doctors’ Plot myth. It seems that Smith is happy to cross ideological lines and promote myths of czarist, fascist or Stalinist origin, so long as they support his anti-Jewish agenda. Now he’s interviewed Cynthia McKinney and added her socialism of fools to the mix.
Beck and Scheuer: Only an Attack By Osama Bin Laden Can Save America
Video | Wed, Jul 1, 2009 at 9:50:47 am PDT
In this clip from the Glenn Beck Comedy Hour, former CIA agent (and complete wacko) Michael Scheuer says the only thing that can save America from illegal immigration is for “Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.”
Good grief.
Beck, of course, nods and agrees with this warped analysis, and says, “Which is why I was thinking this weekend, if I were him that would be the last thing I would do right now.”
(Hat tip: LGF readers.)
