The Lowest Lows

Within a few hours of each other, I heard the disappointing news that Sarah Palin will not run for president and the disheartening news that Steve Jobs has died. Both have profound effects on this country. One had a great impact on recent history, one has an impact on the present.

Apple was a fixture in the home computer market of the 1980′s. Its fortunes changed in the 90s, as the internet seemed geared toward Windows. Apple was producing a boutique product, a more expensive computer loved by professionals, artists and loyalists. The average consumer nearly ignored it,but this last decade belonged to Steve Jobs.

Almost 10 years ago today, the iPod was introduced. Music on the internet had been reduced from multiple “free” sharing sites to a burgeoning system of pay per song. The iPod offered not only a portable music player, but an easy way to download, organize and play your music. Microsoft was left in the dust. The iPhone is a brand all in itself, with more apps than you can count with Android just trying to keep up. The iPad is the gold standard of what we now call tablets. People may have PCs at home, but many spend most of the day tethered to a smart phone.

One of the biggest names in social media is Sarah Palin. She’s used a technology that was in the early stages in 2008 to bypass what has come to be a hostile media filter. Even under constant attack, her support is rock solid. There was a palpable sadness when she announced she will not seek the nomination.

I still don’t know what to make of her announcement. The romantic in me wanted the epic battle of common sense conservatism against Mitt Romney’s squishy centrism. I sure as hell wanted to see “Sarah be Sarah” without idiot campaign advisers like Nicolle Wallace planning defeat. The wonk in me knows that Romney will batter Obama in the general election, but he won’t have the good-natured panache of Palin. We will all feel dirty after this campaign season. Maybe then we’ll be ready for Palin. It took decades to be ready for Steve Jobs.

I need something to cheer me up

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Has it really been twenty years?

Damn, they look so young. I haven’t changed a bit.

(via lorac at Uppity’s)

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Nope

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Mark Levin:

The former Alaska Governor and VP candidate sent the following letter to her supporters on Wednesday:

October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska

After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.

My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.

From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.

I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.

Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.

In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.

Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!

God bless America.

– Sarah Palin

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Shit. I’m getting drunk.

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Backstabber

Run Sarah, run! (but watch your back)

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Sarah didn’t like her. Sarah didn’t trust her.

Sarah has good instincts:

Nicolle Wallace knows her politics. She served as White House communications chief under George W. Bush and also worked as a senior advisor on the McCain-Palin 2008 campaign. Her second novel, It’s Classified, explores what would happen if a woman were plucked from relative obscurity and elected Vice President of the United States — only to find herself completely unprepared for the job. Wallace talked to TIME about the problem with likable politicians, why everyone in the White House eats constantly and her character’s obvious similarity to Sarah Palin.

[...]

In the book, the vice presidential character, Tara Meyers, is completely unfit for her job.

The idea of a mentally ill vice president who suffers in complete isolation was obviously sparked by the behaviors I witnessed by Sarah Palin. What if somebody who was ill-equipped for the office were to ascend to the presidency or vice presidency? What would they do? How long would it take for people to figure it out? I became consumed by this question.

When you were working on the McCain campaign, what about Sarah Palin alarmed you so much?

Well, first let me just say that the novel is by no means meant to build a case against Sarah Palin. However, to the extent that the people around [the fictional vice president] Tara watched in this troubled state of confusion, despair and helplessness as she flailed around — that was something I experienced. Palin vacillated between extraordinary highs on the campaign stage — she ignited more enthusiasm than our side had seen at any other point — to debilitating lows. She was often withdrawn, uncommunicative and incapable of performing even the most basic tasks required of her job as McCain’s running mate.

The decision to relocate debate prep from the campaign trail, which is where McCain did his prep, to Sedona, was to isolate her and help her overcome the shock of becoming an overnight celebrity. There certainly were discussions — not for long because of the arc the campaign took — but certainly there were discussions about whether, if they were to win, it would be appropriate for her to be sworn in.

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Discussions? Exactly who did these discussions involve?

Who has the authority to decide a Vice President-Elect should not be sworn in? A hired gun political operative? I don’t think so.

A Vice President can’t be fired, they have to be impeached. There is no constitutional authority for anyone to prevent a Vice President-Elect from taking office.

Notice the clever way Wallace bounces back and forth between “It’s not about Sarah” and “It’s about Sarah.” That lets her slime Sarah without facts or substance.

She was often withdrawn, uncommunicative and incapable of performing even the most basic tasks required of her job as McCain’s running mate.

So she was tired for long days of campaigning and didn’t feel like talking to somebody she didn’t like or trust. Don’t you think if Sarah had a habit of curling up in the fetal position we would have heard about it before now?

What were these “basic tasks” she was allegedly incapable of performing? I don’t recall hearing about anything of the sort back during the campaign.

The Vice Presidential debate took place about one month after Sarah was nominated. She spent most of that month (and the month that followed) campaigning all over the country. IIRC she only took a few days off to prepare for the debate.

I just have one question for Nicole Wallace – Is the going rate still 30 pieces of silver?

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Rep. Issa talks to Anderson Cooper about Fast and Furious

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Looks like the Fast and Furious scandal is finally going mainstream.

(Via Hot Air)

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What about fluffy bunnies?

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Kid Pareene:

So my immodest proposal is simply this: Individuals and households in the bottom 99 percent who owe debt to any large financial institution that received federal government support during and after the 2008 crisis should see their debt forgiven. That would certainly stimulate the economy, as most people would suddenly find themselves with a great deal more money to spend on iPads (and food, and clothing, and housing, and healthcare). The debt can be forgiven by decree or if the government really wants to it can step in to pay it itself; I don’t much care either way. (Though it’d be nice to see it just wiped off the books, to enrage the banks.)

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After that we can vote ourselves bread and circuses!

We already have a process to relieve people of consumer debt they can’t afford to pay. It’s called bankruptcy.

Banks don’t keep huge piles of money in their vaults, they loan it out. That’s why they can afford to pay interest on savings.

So if you wiped out all the debt, they would be unable to pay back their depositors. They would simply go out of business, leaving taxpayers holding the bag.

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He’s aging like milk

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New poll shows Obama approval continuing to sour

Disapproval of President Obama is hardening at new highs, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday, providing troubling signs for the president as he pushes his jobs program and girds for a hard-fought reelection battle.

Four in 10 Americans “strongly” disapprove of how the president is handling his job, up from 28 percent at the start of the year. Obama’s disapproval rating has steadily grown since the beginning of the year as the economy has stalled.

Obama’s troubling numbers can be partially attributed to the loss of independents. Forty-three percent of those not affiliated by party strongly disapprove of the job he has been doing. The president has also struggled with the elderly — 47 percent of those over 65 years of age strongly disapprove of his job performance.

Signs point to true dissatisfaction with the president’s performance, rather than greater polarization between those who love and hate the president. Only 21 percent of those polled strongly approve of the job the president is doing, down from 20 percent in January. Only 43 percent of Democrats strongly approve of Obama’s job performance.

Maybe he should try Enzyte – it’s supposed to improve performance.

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The Republicans did it too!!

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The Obama White House must really be feeling the heat over the Fast and Furious scandal:

AP sources: Bush-era probe involved guns ‘walking’

The federal government under the Bush administration ran an operation that allowed hundreds of guns to be transferred to suspected arms traffickers — the same tactic that congressional Republicans have criticized President Barack Obama’s administration for using, two federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and other Republicans have been hammering the Obama Justice Department over the practice known as “letting guns walk.” The congressional target has been Operation Fast and Furious, which was designed to track small-time gun buyers at several Phoenix-area gun shops up the chain to make cases against major weapons traffickers. In the process, federal agents lost track of many of the more than 2,000 guns linked to the operation.

When Bush, a Republican, was president, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Tucson, Ariz., used a similar enforcement tactic in a program it called Operation Wide Receiver. The fact that there were two such ATF investigations years apart in separate administrations raises the possibility that agents in still other cases may have allowed guns to “walk.”

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Don’t worry guys, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

Seriously – like Solyndra, it doesn’t matter who else did it or who did it first.

Speaking of which:

The Republicans know all this, surely. In 2005, when the Energy Policy Act was first proposed by the Bush administration, they made some of these same arguments in support of the loan guarantee program, which was part of the bill. The bill passed the House with overwhelming Republican support. Most Democrats voted no.

Today, the Republican-led Energy and Commerce Committee is investigating Solyndra, forcing its executives to take the Fifth Amendment, and releasing embarrassing White House e-mails. I looked it up: every single Republican on that committee who was in office in 2005 voted for the loan guarantee program that they are now so gleefully condemning.

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The fact that corruption and poor judgment are bipartisan does not make them good things.

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Yeah, that will show them

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Occupy Colleges plans national walk-out Wednesday

Occupy Colleges — a movement that stemmed from Occupy Wall Street — is calling for a national campus walkout Wednesday at 12 p.m. to protest rising college debt and a lack of jobs for graduates.

“Do not go to school. Go fight for yours and everybody elses rights at Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Los Angeles or your nearest Occupation. The time is now to join our fellow %99!” stated Occupy College on its Facebook page.

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Hey kids, you REALLY want to teach those greedy capitalists a lesson?

Drop out of school.

Show the bourgeoisie that you stand in solidarity with the proletariat! That will bring them to their knees.

Plus, you’ll have more time to get high and stuff.

Your parents will be so proud.

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Damn, those Tea Partiers are white:

Though a few representatives of minority groups have appeared among the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters in New York City, photos and videos of the left-wing mini-throngs indicate they suffer from a serious lack of diversity. And the protesters themselves told The Daily Caller on Tuesday that they are conscious of the issue, if not the inconsistency it demonstrates.

A 40-photo Washington Post slideshow showing hundreds of angry protesters in New York and other cities includes no more than 15 clearly identifiable minority protesters, and just six African-Americans. The rest of the protesters shown are white, and most are male.

In 26 photos from San Francisco and Chicago gatherings posted on OccupyTogether.org, only one person from a minority group is clearly visible, and it’s unclear whether he is a protester or a bystander.

Minority groups are similarly underrepresented in photos and videos posted on OccupyWallSt.org, the self-described “unofficial de facto online resource for the ongoing protests happening on Wall Street.”

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At least the Nutroots is fully integrated.

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Netroots 2011

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