You seem to be misremembering. Just because the USSR had enough nukes to kill us all a million times over, they weren't anywhere near as scary as a few brown people with beards!

Oh noes, TERRORISTS!!

How about this error -- There NEVER were provisions for:

"bureaucrats" who "will be able to call the shots, based on somebody's subjective judgment of productivity, of somebody's life, who will receive the health care that needs to be rationed, and who will not."

My Moron is a little rusty, but I think "rationing" may mean "ratcheting."

That's what my Moron to English dictionary said too, bleh.

You made my day. This paragraph

"I can think of plenty of politicians who are genuinely, unambiguously dumb. I've even met a few, and marveled at how they were able to attain any kind of political responsibilities, given their limited intellectual prowess. But I don't think I've ever seen a politician as conspicuously unintelligent as Sarah Palin gain national prominence. She represents the very worst American politics has to offer, and the embarrassment she brings to the political system is severe."

is Sarah Palin and the last sentence is PERFECT!

There really are Death Panels...

...They are called insurance executives. They routinely deny life saving coverage to sick people who then die.

...Pretty simple concept. If you are too poor...you die. Death Panels.

She makes Dan Quayle look like Einstein.

Well, it isn't only the political system she is an embarrassment to, she is an embarrassment to all women who struggle to get taken seriously.

I am not embarrassed by Palin. Every time she opens her mouth, I see democratic victories. If she is the face of the repiglican party, the dems will be in power for the foreseeable future.

"bureaucrats" who "will be able to call the shots, based on somebody's subjective judgment of productivity, of somebody's life, who will receive the health care that needs to be rationed, and who will not.

I do believe that provision never existed other than in the infintile minds spewing such nonsense. Nonetheless these panels do exist and are a part of the present private health care scenarios. These Death Panels are the ones who pull the plug on "expensive" treatments, on sickly indiduals who are launched from their policies because they get sick and those poor bastards who are presently sick or who were sick somewhere in their past that caused a health care company to refuse them coverage. Death Panels do exist.

I can't believe Barbara Walters didn't point this out to that PALINaroundwithterrorists idiot. Was it worth it Barbara? I mean, making PALINaroundwithterrorists respectable via an interview? I can't see how it helped the common good to have someone lie to the world via one of your interviews and not have the crotch to call them on it. Shame on you. Nauseating....

Here's the really scary thing: if Palin really does wind up as the GOP's '12 Presidential nominee, she could well get just enough votes in just enough important states to allow the black box voting mechanisms to make her our 45th President.

-Z

Sarah Palin says that Reagan didn't mean "evil empire" literally... You know, this is worth it just for the fun of watching the contortions at the National Review, World Net Daily, and so forth. Will Reagan be thrown under the bus for Palin?

in defense of Sarah and St. Raygun, sometimes the line between figurative and literal is hard to discern, particularly because it sometimes evolves.

for example, people used to complain, figuratively speaking, that US politics and elections were becoming "beauty pageants." now that mush have become an absolutely literal comparison, because nothing else explains how Palin gets one line of type or one screen-worth of airtime (and just ask R. Lowry, he'll back me up on this one. from the edge of his couch.)

"I hardly know where to start..."

the problem with trying to refute or argue with way too much that comes out of way too many republican mouths, not just palin's. the crazy is just too thick, too broad, and too ceaseless. you literally can't keep up.

Hmmm. "...a corrupt system based on a misguided ideology." Something feels familiar here.

Her 'evil empire' comment is right on par with Guilianni's 'War or Terror' comment. You keep forgeting, the modern Republican has little to no interest in the actualy process of governing (that's why Palin quit the moment the job started to get tough). They just want to win elections and look good. It's all about looks, perception and 'creating their own reality'.

Substance, actaul results, real people helped, none of that matters to them.

Zorro, I share your concerns, and not just in the presidential race. These paperless, black box machines need to go!

Ah, Steve, you went ahead and swallowed the red pill. You told us you weren't going to do it. Listen carefully: Stop! Turn around, take a deep breath, and walk towards the light. That's it, good job, no, no, over here. Ok, good to have you back, big guy.

CBO scored the Senate HCR bill at $849 billion. Let's pick up the discussion there, shall we?

She's not so much unintelligent as shallow and immature. Her comments are those of a junior high school student. Only the surface is real.

"... I don't think I've ever seen a politician as conspicuously unintelligent as Sarah Palin gain national prominence. She represents the very worst American politics has to offer, and the embarrassment she brings to the political system is severe."

That was cool.

I wouldn't put Palin at the top of the heap of intelligence deficit bimbos. I think Bachman is still in the running.

If this bimbo hadn't been a beauty queen, she would be working today as a greeter for the Anchorage Walmart.

"But I don't think I've ever seen a politician as conspicuously unintelligent as Sarah Palin gain national prominence."

Have you ever heard of a guy named Mike Pence?

The DNC should challenge Palin to a debate against Obama's oldest daughter.

"kind of rationing down"

Steve, I think this one needs a '(sic)'.

"The DNC should challenge Palin to a debate against Obama's oldest daughter."

Hey, now, let's be fair: I think Sasha could also hold her own quite nicely in a debate as well.

The risk we tend to entertain when we turn our backs on Sarah Palin is her ability to turn into one Tim McVeigh!

Her screw-loose intellect is capable of fomenting unparallelled violent idiocy upon us all! -Kevo

The former half-term governor was asked by ABC News

You don't "ration" down, idiot. You ratchet down.

At last. Proof that I am smarter than someone who's richer and luckier than most of us ever will be.

Oh fer cryin' out loud, Sarah is right, Sarah is always right.

Except... you can find the evil empire on a map...
It's just north of jersey and pennsylvania...
They even have it on the license plates...

It is ends justify the means thinking that Glenn Beck probably indulges in as well. Inaccurate inflammatory rhetoric is communication styling. It might not show how unintelligent they are but it does how unintelligent they think there audience is.

She represents the very worst American politics has to offer, and the embarrassment she brings to the political system is severe

I couldnt agree more. Her and McSquirrel got 60 million votes. 60 million! Just think they could actually be running this country right now ..... into its grave.

I feel like the AFLAC duck after listening to Yogi Berra. DOH!

ration down = dumbify

That's the sense she invented.

You know what's really hilarious? Palin is trying to use an excuse provided to her by Camille Paglia, who described the "death panel" claim as a "metaphor," and she doesn't even know what a metaphor is. So she racks her underinformed little brain for an example of one. Aha! Reagan called the USSR the "evil empire" even though that wasn't technically the name of their country. That must be a metaphor! No, actually, it's just a term of abuse that he used to insult them. But hey, close enough for Palin. So, when she used the term "death panels," she was just using inflammatory abusive language to get people riled up, just like Reagan, dontcha know, and that must be "metaphor."

A woman who can't keep up with Camille Paglia even when Paglia is trying to make excuses for her is slow indeed.

If Karl Rove was responding to this (assuming they aren't essentially on the same side) he'd attack Palin for denying that the Soviet Union was evil and for being soft on Communism.

"The Soviet Union was the existential threat of the 20th century"

Sure, that's what everybody says now. That's not exactly what everybody believed in the 1980s.

Mike

"And yet [Reagan] talked about that, in terms that people could understand -- kind of rationing down, not complicating the issue." - Sarah Palin

I swear the transcribers are getting worse and worse.

I don't even have to hear her to know she said "ratching down".

I know Palin is fucking stupid. But move over Sarah, guess who said this:

"I think it is important, though, to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession."

Fucking idiot.

I arrived late to find bleh had already identified what I suspected, she once heard someone use the term "ratcheting down". Still, it's amazing how this stuff flies with the channels these days and they will never notice it.

Steve, thank you for writing this. It couldn't have been pleasant.

There's a new story for the 21st century . It is called the Empress' New Clothes. And S Palin the Quitter is th Empress!

And don't forget.... she told Baba Wawa that what she really wants to do is be a writer!

If everyone who said "I wasn't going to talk about Sarah Palin, but ..." actually followed through and didn't talk about her, then we'd never have to hear about her.

If everyone who said "I wasn't going to talk about Sarah Palin, but ..." actually followed through and didn't talk about her, then we'd never have to hear about her.

Party pooper!

Palin thinks use of the words "evil empire" made it possible to win the Cold War. That's insane.

That's modern conservatism. They appear to sincerely believe that the president talking tough and acting strong-willed influences events far more than what he actually does.

If everyone who said "I wasn't going to talk about Sarah Palin, but ..." actually followed through and didn't talk about her, then we'd never have to hear about her.

I realize it's hard not to take the bait since this creature of the media has destroyed what very little is left of journalism with standard; and along the way captivated much of the male population with her shallow sexuality. There can't be any serious discussion of her political views because they are nonsense. She appeals to populist anger among her intellectual equals. Nothing more, nothing less. How many of such there are we may find out, unfortunately.

Steve, give it a rest. Never mention her again. It's an insult to anyone with an IQ above room temperature to take Sarah Palin seriously. Let's leave it there. Treat her as non-existent. It's hard. I know. Especially when submerged in the crap produced by all the media whores.

the problem with trying to refute or argue with way too much that comes out of way too many republican mouths, not just palin's. the crazy is just too thick, too broad, and too ceaseless. you literally can't keep up.

Don't try. If you haven't, read Harry Frankfurt's On Bullshit, for guidance. You can debunk a liar, because a liar accepts that the truth matters, and constructs lies with that in mind. It's a waste of effort to debunk a BS artist, because they don't care whether what they say is true or not, only that it makes the impression they want. So it takes us a lot of effort to debunk them, but it takes them no effort at all to come up with a new line of BS.

It's a losing battle to treat it as a debate. The best tactics seem to be mockery and working to make sure that rational people know the BS artist is a serial liar.

She is in full-blown free association territory now--the lies are being improvised at the speed of ghost tones. She is the beat-nick liar of her generation. She needs a beret. And a bongo.

Death Panels rationed down on our commonsense heads Glenn Beck is clever conservative tax cuts values of porn-free living Levi and Track and my daughters voted for me to make up this story and wear the clothes they demanded I purchase as listen to America and its no evolution rapture.

This is among the stupidest things I've ever heard any politician say on any subject.

But Palin is not any politician. She is a celebrity wannabee. She is working desperately to achieve the status of perpetual celebrity that the characters in Hollywood Squares have achieved. They are famous for having been famous, and are regularly paid for that status. Palin desperately wants that.

She is not competent to achieve it, but the MSM political media is similarly desperate for viewers, so they don't pull the plug on her.

Her book was a last, desperate, gasp to get there, but WalMart's dropping of the price from $24 plus to $8.98 per copy demonstrates what a disaster her effort has been. WalMart must have committed to move a lot of copies and found it impossible at a reasonable price.

Honestly she's not any dumber than Dubya was, just a little more flamboyant about it.

Nor is she any dumber than Quayle. Nor, for that matter, than Reagan -- go back and look, listen to his speeches, read some of the people who chronicled his whoppers and lies and nonsense.

She's another Chauncey Gardiner the Republican big money puts in front of us. They've been doing it for thirty years, and thinking that she's more embarrassing than any of the others is really a disservice: it lets off Reagan, Quayle, and Dubya far too easily.

Let's not forget that Palin pushed for "death panels" before denouncing them.

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, Sarah Palin, Governor of the state of Alaska, do hereby proclaim April 16, 2008, as: Healthcare Decisions Day in Alaska, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens."

What was the aim? "...to raise public awareness of the need to plan ahead for healthcare decisions, related to end of life care and medical decision-making whenever patients are unable to speak for themselves."

Yessir, death panels.

http://gov.state.ak.us/print_news.php?id=1094

She's another Chauncey Gardiner the Republican big money puts in front of us.

No, that is not really an apt comparison. Chauncey Gardiner wasn't actively moronic, just brutally naive from years of being hidden away from everything.

Sarah Palin, on the other hand, is cynical, disingenuous, and willfully, appallingly stupid. She is more like Luca Brazi Walnuts than Chauncey Gardiner.

But I don't think I've ever seen a politician as conspicuously unintelligent as Sarah Palin gain national prominence.

Do you not watch C-SPAN? If you did, you wouldn't make that statement. I watched the questioning of Eric Holder yesterday and you can add Kyl, Jeff Sessions and Chuck Grassley (I'm just a farmer) to the list.
That was the putatively smarter of the 2 bodies. I'm afraid to turn to the House.

I would say she's definitely running in 2012, but I don't think she has any interest in the nomination OR being President. She has no work ethic and no self-discipline. And it takes alot of both to be the nominnee, much less the President. She'll run as Queen of the Lunatic Fringe and she'll be more over the top than in '08. She'll be setting herself up for what she really wants (and feels is rightfully hers): the vice Presidential nomination. I think she really believes the GOP will need her to keep their base engaged and on-board, and that they'll gladly hand over the Sax Fifth Ave. charge card and let her run amock. If they win? She doesn't even know what the Vice President does, she thinks they don't do anything. So she could wile away her time doing what she does best: be Sarah Palin.

I think that Bush was just as conspicuously unintelligent. Whenever he spoke off the cuff, he couldn't even string sentences together as well as she does, and it stopped him from speaking off the cuff very often. She is just smart enough to keep running that idiot mouth. She's the perfect sports announcer, she continually fills the air with chatter. She thinks appearing bright is just avoiding saying "uh".

"Her book was a last, desperate, gasp to get there, but WalMart's dropping of the price from $24 plus to $8.98 per copy demonstrates what a disaster her effort has been." - Rick B

When you write books that appeal to people that can't or don't read books, well - that's some easy math. Should would have been better off doing a Playboy article.

Palin probably meant "ratcheting down" as in "ratchet down the rhetoric," but Reagan was doiong exactly the opposite--he was adding to hysteria. The phrase she really ought to have used is "dumbing down" so that even wackaloons can understand.

Y'know, I've never really taken part in the chorus that we should ignore Sarah Palin. I wonder however, whether it is my own selfish "train-wreck fetish" cosseted at the expense of political pragmatism.

Because this truly is Sarah Palin's only strength. Without her ability to rile up progressives, she is as useless to the conservative base as she is to us.

It will never happen, so I'm not going to be one to harp on this issue. Having said that, I can find no finer example of someone's (or some *thing's*) power depending completely on the acknowledgment of their existence.

She's a monster under our beds and it gives conservatives and sociopaths (but I repeat myself) the only sense of power they've felt since last November.