One of Huffington Post’s many bloggers went way over the top today with a “parody” of Sarah Palin’s resignation from the governorship of Alaska.
The post was entitled Palin Will Run In ‘12 On More Retardation Platform and was written by Erik Sean Nelson who according to his bio has written for several comedy websites and short fiction.
The full post text, which has now been pulled from the site, can be read below
In Sarah Palin’s resignation announcement she complained about the treatment of her son Trig who always teaches her life lessons. She said that the “world needs more Trigs, not fewer.” That’s a presidential campaign promise we can all get behind. She will be the first politician to actually try to increase the population of retarded people. To me, it’s kinda like saying the world needs more cancer patients because they teach us such personal lessons.
Her first act as President: To introduce a Pre-K lunch buffet that includes lead paint chips. Sort of a Large HEAD-START Program.
She will then encourage women to hold off on pregnancies until their 40’s just to mix up some chromosomes.
She now is in favor of abortion only in case of diploid birth.
Her policies will increase jobs because Wal-Mart is building new stores each day and someone has to be the greeter.
This will lead to smaller government because fewer Americans will have the cognitive ability to hold a government job.
Look, she says she’s resigning as governor because people are making attacks on her and Trig. If she ever did become president, all Osama bin Laden would have to do to defeat the United States is Photoshop a picture of Trig and she’d surrender the country that night. As she said, “That’s not politics as usual.” It isn’t. Politicians don’t usually quit for so stupid of reasons.
Update: Erik tells Bloggasm in an email that he pulled it not the editors, because “No one was seeing the absurdity of Palin hiding behind her children, so my piece was not accomplishing anything good.”
Calling the moment of silence “over the top” and “uncalled for” Kentucky congressman John Yamuth admits he was opposed to the stupid and pointless moment of silence for Michael Jackson on the US house floor last week. The moment of silence was spearheaded by Jesse Jackson Jr., son of Jesse Jackson a close friend of the Jackson family.
Courtesy of Politico audio of the interview
"I thought it was outrageous," Yarmuth told a Los Angeles radio station Monday. "In my two and a half years, we’ve never done that for anybody else who’s a celebrity. We’ve done it for former members, and that’s about it, for former members who’ve passed away. … I basically got up and walked back to the cloakroom and got off the floor, because I just thought it was totally uncalled for and over the top."
So who were the other congressman in the closet with Yarmuth? And why didn’t any of them decide to publicly speak out against the uncalled for act?
I’m sure everyone and their mother has seen the five minute Milbank-Pitney “showdown” over whether Nico should have gotten the right/privilege/whatever to ask a question following the AP’s question1
I’ve got some advice if you’re still talking about the debate or the five minute segment of an hour long program: ignore it. It’s only theater and it only distracts you from the true issue, the traditions of White House press conferences.
If you need a refresher it goes like this, AP and Reuters, the wires get first dibs, followed by the television networks, then we get newspapers, then magazines like Time, then at the end is the site’s like Huffington Post and other niche sites on the web.
Why do we still follow these “traditions”? That is the bigger issue at hand here. What makes the AP’s question better than say a two-bit political blog you just squeezed out a press pass? Nico (who doesn’t work for a two-bit blog lets be honest here) asked one of the hardest hitting questions at the press conference. Is that why everyone is up in arms? Maybe the Chuck Todd’s of the world realize there are good, well thought out questions in the room instead of their ones they thought up on the toilet that morning?
I say its time to do away with traditions, call on Helen Thomas first, don’t call on the AP, ignore Chuck Todd and go for Ana Marie Cox. Make seating first come first serve (Maybe scratch that – people camping out on the south lawn may piss off the Obama’s). Maybe when reporters realize they need to compete for slots they’ll come up with really good questions.
The supposedly bigger issue is was it staged? Did Obama know? Doubtful and doubtful, its just good cover for a “He got a cookie before me” kiddie fight ↩
Sally Kern, an Oklahoma state representative, made news last year when she openly stated that the greatest threat to the nation was not “Terrorism or Islam” but homosexuality. Kern couldn’t stay away from the spotlight and is back with a proclamation, which she and others intend to sign at the state capital on July 2nd, blames gays and our immoral nation for our national economic crisis (Kern and other deny the proclamation was released to coincide with gay pride events around the country)
"Whereas, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and Whereas, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse ,and many other forms of debauchery."
The Proclamation only takes about 2 minutes to read so if you want a good laugh have a go at it (PDF Link). I got the biggest crack out of this resolve statement towards the end of the proclamation
WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refused to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day of Prayer
Secret Muslim just won’t go away, even after it’s been proven that it was George W. Bush who broke protocol by publicly celebrating the day.
Both the ACLU and the Human Rights Campaign released statements condemning the proclamation. C.S. Thornton, the Deputy Director of the Oklahoma ACLU chapter, had this to say of the proclamation
"I think it’s very unfortunate, frankly, I haven’t seen scapegoating like this since pre-World War II Germany. She blames all these things upon a great moral crisis that has in fact caused our national economic downtown, but nowhere in this parade of horribles does mention greedy Wall Street executives or government regulators who were asleep at the switch."
The Human Rights Campaign’s statement read
"This resolution is an affront to those who believe in America’s constitutional democracy and to people of all faiths who follow the universal teaching to love their neighbors as themselves. In one long diatribe, Rep. Kern manages to demean both the American founding fathers she quotes and the faith she is asking the state of Oklahoma to endorse. America’s revolutionary leaders were about building a just society where all could practice their own religion, or not, in peace. Sally Kern is about tearing apart the diverse tapestry the founders helped to form. Jesus Christ taught that we should tell the truth in love and work together in community. Sally Kern makes the truth a beggar on the way to dividing families and communities."
Washington said its farewells to Michael Jackson in official fashion on Friday. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) and Rep. Diane Watson (D.-Calif.) led a brief moment of silence on the House floor. The office of Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) is preparing a House resolution honoring the singer. And the leader of the Black Caucus, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), released a statement early Friday calling Jackson “an icon who inspired generations” and “an incredible human being who touched the lives of millions.”
It really is sad to think that all of these members of congress took the time out of there day to honor Michael yet passed over Farrah Fawcett who died after an incredibly courageous battle with cancer and Ed McMahon, who was a decorated war pilot having served in both World War II and the Korean War.
Seems to me congress is saying the death of someone who self-proclaimed himself the “King of Pop” is more important than others, therefore we need to remember him but not the others who left us. What kind of message does that send?
Joe “I’m not really a plumber” Wurzelbacher had this to say about Senator Chris Dodd at a teabagging rally in Wisconsin:
Wurzelbacher has a reputation for being a blunt, politically incorrect speaker. Referring to Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., more than once, Wurzelbacher asked, “Why hasn’t he been strung up?”
Sitting around watching cable news and it seems the hot button issue is “What will Sanford’s Argentina getaway do to his political career?” The answer is that it will only speed up his eventual downfall. Let’s not mince things here: Sanford hedged his bets and went all in to embrace the “Party of No” approach in relation to the stimulus. When all of his items were overrode by a Republican state government he lost. When his state said they wanted the money and he continued to push his No agenda he lost. Going to Argentina just sped up his inability to run for president in 2012.
Sanford had little chance of even being the Republican nominee in 2012, now he’ll just be lucky to survive his term as governor. The facts of his trip is that he or his staff lied to the press and other lawmakers, he refused to tell anyone where he was. He wasn’t hiking, he was in Argentina. That’s a serious issue. Sanford can never be trusted as a lawmaker again. Ever.
I was never a fan of Chris Dodd’s, but having two faced Joe as our other senator, I figured Dodd wasn’t too bad. Then the 2008 presidential election hit, and Dodd’s reputation couldn’t seem to do anything but go down.
Needless to say Dodd has some serious work to do if he hoped to get reelected in 2010. So he returned to Washington and is now attaching his name to everything and anything. Credit Card Reform. Check. Health Care. Check. At the rate Dodd is going, Connecticut will be lucky if he lives through 2010.
Dodd already has numerous Republicans challengers and at least one Democratic one, which theoretically means he could not even get to the final election. Even if Dodd doesn’t make it to face a Republican he will have left his mark on the state’s 2010 election. Right now. In June of 2009. With just under 500 days till the 2010 election Dodd has already rolled out his third campaign ad (not to mention the ad for him rolled out by a third party)– and we thought the 2008 presidential election was long.
Now to the whole part of backfiring, we Americans hate commercials, especially political ones full of half truths and whole lies. Run those a few times during the evening news and people get fed up. I know I am. If Dodd had done his job in the first place and didn’t have banks in his back pocket he wouldn’t be playing catch up. All these ads are making me think about is not what Dodd has done in the last few months, its what he did beforehand.
What’s the most pressing issue someone can ask the White House press secretary? The economy? Health Care reform? Nah those don’t matter what does matter is why the hell hasn’t the president chosen a church by now, least by Fox News standards (and some other woman’s)
As Wonkette so elegantly put it, if the president doesn’t pick a church by August 1st he’s automatically a Muslim.
