In the same speech, the former governor talked up the concept of "death panels" in health care reform, casually threw around the words like "bogus" and "awesome" to discuss weighty topics, and generally made a series of observations that didn't make any sense.

It's like the Republican Party has been taken over by a bunch of 8th-graders.

But this is so easy to deal with. Who called the shot? George Bush -- who else?!

I guess I don't understand. Is it the fear of the crazies that the words have a greater chance of sliding off the coin being so close to the edge?

GOP 2009: Dumbass Central !

Every once in awhile, it's fun to catch up on what shenanigans the hottest ex-Governor of the coldest state is getting up to.

It's hard to believe, but there are people stupider than Sarah Palin. And it's the very distilled essence of stupidity to toss out a rhetorical question in politics without having researched its potential for embarrassment - that is, if you're capable of embarrassment. Yes, stupider than she are those who thought (and maybe still think) she would make a great president. Oh, and those who harbor secret fantasies that, if they voted for her, she might let them get some.

I guess I don't understand. Is it the fear of the crazies that the words have a greater chance of sliding off the coin being so close to the edge?

She's got a point, pal. The exact same thing happens when you sail too close to the horizon.

Shorter Palin

They are attacking your religion.
They are to be hated.

[Insert sexy wink here]

But as we know, reality no longer has any role to play. Now that Palin has brought this up, it's "out there" and MUST be discussed by the mainstream media.

Of course, it would take FAAAAAAARRRR too much work for any reporter to, say, Google this and find out what the actual facts are. So, we'll be treated to a couple of weeks of "ZOMG! Obama is trying to remove God from our money!!!11!" before we get even one half-assed reports of "Oh, this was done by Bush and the Republicans, and then undone by the Democrats."

That's how it played with Death Panels, that's how it's played with every other bit of bullshit from the right, and this steaming pile will be no different.

It's insulting to me that the phrase is still on our currency. It carries with it a blatent disregard for the separation of church and state.

I'm an elementary school teacher. Every morning, the pledge of alligience is read aloud over the intercome as the students recite it. Every morning, the students recite the phrase "under god." And every morning, I skip that part.

To say something is to risk putting a target on my back. Does anybody else have this problem?

Once pushed far enough, the phrase will read, "In Go We," which is Kenyan for "Where's my iced tea, motherfucker?"

Palin, and her Palinista followers have not a clue how to govern, nor how our representative government works!

Blindly she keeps flailing in the darkness, and the ignorant think with her they see the light! She is single-handedly stupifying a swath of our population that was already trending in that general direction - oh what a threat to our way of life! -Kevo

hells littlest: Brilliant.

Ah, the the glory and awesomeness of being Sarah Palin! Never mind those pesky things called facts.

As a Canadian I am fascinated by the pledge of allegiance. I mean here is the US, a country based on the foundations of free speech and kids are forced to say this pledge every morning. Can someone please explain the origin of this, and why as a country you put up with it? Seriously, if they tried to institute something similar here, people would be up in arms.

It's like the Republican Party has been taken over by a bunch of 8th-graders.

That's IT!!!!! They should be known as the "eighthers"! And we should REALLY piss them off by spelling it correctly each time.

Why do you hate America, Liam? Why do you want our troops dead? Why do you want the terrorists to win?

I'm not kidding, that's why.

The Reign Of Error.

Oh, and those who harbor secret fantasies that, if they voted for her, she might let them get some.

Exactly. I remember a co-worker in college tell me once that Mariah Carey was a great singer because she was "pretty". This is the same thing. Sarah Palin is an energy industry expert because she's pretty. Michelle Bachmann has keen insights into American history because she's pretty. Malkin is an astute political analyst because she's pretty. And liberals are just jealous of Ann Coulter because she's "pretty", or so I've heard them say.

"Eighth graders" is dead-on right.

Shorter Sara Palin confusing the concept of shorter with longer:

I may not answer your questions in the way you think I ought to but, what do you want? I'm a dumb hick who doesn't really understand anything except that there's money to be made continuing this performance.

I mean here is the US, a country based on the foundations of free speech and kids are forced to say this pledge every morning.

Yeah, it's almost as if a lot of Americans are hypocrites who don't live up to what even they would claim are our values as a nation.

But I'd never criticize America, because that would make me a godless liberal elitist muslim terrorist islamofascist feminazi socialist commie atheist surrender monkey.

Liam -- You can look up the details on Wikipedia; but I believe the pledge was originally written by a Socialist for some reason or other around 1910... in the 40's, nobody in the United States recited the pledge out of obligation because that's what the Nazi's would do. In the 50's, "under God" was added, and everyone said it because our enemy was the commies and they didn't believe in God, so the more Americans believed in God the better we could keep out the communists.

The Supreme Court hasn't really addressed the issue of whether it's constitutional or not. The common claim (and legal, to an extent) is that deist language is "historical." But by the standards used in cases against creationism in schools(Dover), "In God We Trust" and "Under God" would probably fail; and even the "historical" language was inserted for religious reasons... it really needs to go; there is no sane legal defense for it, and the Supreme Court is dodging it because they would be run out on a rail if they ever ruled against the verbiage(and with the current court composition, they probably never will).

There was a subliminal message when the phrase was moved to the edge of coins. At the edge is a cliff.

a disturbing trend, huh! Reminds us of a neighbor in Sebring, FL (prior to his rapid and unexpected death from cancer) who passed along the CW that "in God We Trust" was no long on our coins (you know one of those trusted gang e-mails filled with LIES)...when my husband took two of the coins with the words on the edge of the coin over to give him...he looked them over and later left them under our carport because they didn't suit his requirement. It's like the "you can't pray in school", "illegals will be getting insurance under OBAMACARE", "there WILL BE RATIONING", and the rest of the crap they (Palin and others) continue to spew that is lapped up by their sheeple...poor sad, stupid citizens...

I don't think kids are forced to recite the pledge. I think it goes more to the fact that they are not told it is voluntary. Perhaps we can add an amendment to healthcare reform with an opt out clause for the pledge. That would certainly drive the wingnuts off the edge, huh?

It's not asiff I acktually spend time readin' an' thinkin' abowt any of dis crap, ya know? Also. Sometimes aahd peeple show up at some eevent I get paid to speek at comes up to me after an' starts just talkin' an' talkin' abowt death coins an' Muslim panels an' all sortsa aahd stuff to me and I caan't figger out why and it all gets jambled around in my head 'cause I'm thinkin' of how much ta ask for the next time someone wants to pay me ta speek an' if dere's gonna be good food on the flight out dere dis time 'cause, Whew!, the last flight I rode on?...da food made me gassy, an' if dere's one thing you shouldn't be when speakin' in fronta an audience is gassy, ya know? Also. Taahd sometimes wants me ta lookit somethin' on that compu-ter an' I say, "no Taahd, I don' wanta see dat video with da woman and da donkey again" and Taahd says, "no, no, I want 'cha ta read what dis guy said about death coins here", and I say, "Okay" but still wahnder why dere's a donkey in tha DumbocRAT party and in dat movie, 'cause it has ta mean somethin' ya know? Also.

-Who is putting these words into her mouth, and why are they doing it?

Because,surely, there is a plan somewhere in all this.

Right?. . .

I think this is simply part of Palin's long game. She does not intend to be a Republican when she runs for President.

She's planning an end run around the Republican primary and is going to run as a 'real' conservative.

She knows very well it was the Republicans commissioned the redesign. We're just overlooking the fact that she considers Republicans as much her enemy as Democrats. She's trying to tap into that 'Bush was a liberal' meme and build it into a 'GOP is Democratic lite' meme.

wait a minute... there are still dollar coins in circulation?
or are they talking about changing the ones sitting in storerooms at the mint because the vending machine industry doesn't want anyone to use them?

The edge inscription was specified to free up more space for the presidential portraits, according to the enabling Act. Passed by Congress, ya know. The Republican Congress, in '05 or '06, I believe. So now the presidential faces will have to be smaller.

I have wondered if the design was a setup from the word go. While the Repubs are in office, ya blame it on the ACLU. After that you can blame anyone in office. It's the kinda s**t ya can sling 'thout gittin' yer hand dirty.

I was just talking to Ed Moy (director of the mint) the other day. He says the phrase is being changed to "In God Some Of Us Trust". Further, minting the dollar will be outsourced to the company that currently makes that gold foil-wrapped chocolate money - the one that put the curse on the Halloween candy.

sarah palin's arrival on the national politica scene is the best thing that ever happened to george w. bush. she makes him seem like an intellectual force by comparison.

Unsaid but implied was that the new Democratic White House was behind such a move to secularize the nation's currency.

heaven forbid a secularization of our ... our money! perhaps sarah silly might want to read the new testament. you know, the part about rendering unto caesar that which is caesar's...

Now that we have the technology to make them easily, shouldn't the US allow citizens the choice of coins with different phrases. In Darwin We Trust would be nice.

Edge text has been used for a couple of centuries now a device to prevent "shaving" that is cuttig a little off the edge of coins so they spend the same, but are worth less because of the reduced metal content. Milled edges serve the same purpose.

Today, milled or edge texts are hardly worth the effort because base metal is used in coins, you never say them in nickles. Sarah Palin, as usual, God bless her, is trying to stur up an issue where none exists.

In 2005, a Republican Congress commissioned a new dollar coin, which was approved by a Republican president. In the proposed design, "In God We Trust" was moved to the edge of the coin.

Surely you didn't really expect Sarah to know that! But even if she did, why should she allow it to get into the way of sharing some of her heartfelt paranoia.

She is coming from the false meme that the US is political couture is Judeo-Christian, when thankfully our founders picked the diametric opposite by going with a Greek-Roman model.