A Real Attention Moose

Sarah Palin's egotism and narcissism just can't help themselves, whenever anybody in the 2012 clown-car lineup threatens to become the new GOP rising star, Sarah Palin absolutely has to step in and wrench the spotlight away by whatever means possible.

When the Sarah Palin documentary “The Undefeated” makes its premiere in Iowa next week, the film’s star will be on hand for the big debut.


The production company behind the film announced Saturday that Palin and her husband Todd would be in Pella, Iowa, for the showing on Tuesday.

“We are very excited to visit historic Pella and its opera house and look forward to seeing the finished film for the first time with fellow Americans from the heartland,” Palin said in a statement.

Iowa, which holds the first contest in the presidential caucus and primary calendar, is key for any politician thinking of running for the White House. Palin has said she is contemplating running for the Republican presidential nomination.

Sarah Palin pushing her own hagiographical feature film in Iowa of course has the Right buzzing that she's going to surprise us and use the occasion to launch her presidential campaign.  That won't happen of course, but it won't stop the big news in the GOP next week from being all about Sarah Palin for several news cycles.

Remember when Obama was called a messianic delusional narcissist with a dangerous cult of personality for just having a book?  The same people of course think Sarah Palin is completely normal for having a book, her own reality show, her daughter on her own reality show, her daughter with a book, Sarah's job as a FOX commentator and now her own freakin' movie.  But she's a real down to earth Real American, she is.  Not at all like that arrogant, uppity Obama with his book.

Your Political Cartoon Of The Moment

R.J. Matson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Diabetes Turnaround Possible

An extreme eight-week diet of 600 calories a day can reverse Type 2 diabetes in people newly diagnosed with the disease, says a Diabetologia study.

Newcastle University researchers found the low-calorie diet reduced fat levels in the pancreas and liver, which helped insulin production return to normal.

Seven out of 11 people studied were free of diabetes three months later, say findings published in the journal.

More research is needed to see whether the reversal is permanent, say experts.

This is a good sign, but backs up what has always been suspected.  It takes enormous discipline to stick to the diet and make the changes required, but it has the potential to either reverse or dramatically reduce the effects of the disease.

They Want To Be A Part Of It, New York, New York, Part 2

So with New York approving gay marriage last night, time to wade into the Right Wing Noise Machine's reaction to it.

Law professor Ann Althouse seems mostly okay with it from a legal perspective, echoing Andrew Sullivan, the deal exempting religious organizations from having to perform same-sex marriages was important to establish marriage as a legal contract and not a purely religious contract:

It's a BFD because it also insists on maximal religious liberty for those who conscientiously oppose marriage equality. A gay rights movement that seeks to restrict any religious freedom is not worthy of the name. And it makes me glad that we largely avoided anything that looks like that strategy, and that last-minute negotiations were flexible enough to strengthen the protections for religious groups, churches, mosques, synagogues and the like. The gay rights movement is about expanding the boundaries of human freedom - and that must include religious freedom if it is to mean anything....

Which is actually a very fair argument that the law does respect the religious freedom of New York's churches, synagogues and mosques while respecting the right of the state to sanction same-sex marriages.

The opposite response came from the folks at Weasel Zippers who quipped "Sanity takes it in the rear" and that the commenters are predicting NY just made itself an even larger target for Islamic terrorists. Nice.

The Volokh Conspiracy commenters are arguing that the states that have outlawed gay marriage have done so by overwhelming vote margins and that the will of the people cannot possibly be served here, but to their credit over there that argument is being shouted down.

And the at HotAir, Allahpundit was at least pretty neutral about it, but his comments section went pretty batshit fast, proclaiming teh gayz real agenda is to sue religious organizations that don't support gay marriage out of existence, and that the gay mafia is after your free speech rights to hate gays (so liberals are the real bigots.)

It's noise, mostly.  But that's what you expect from the Noise Machine.

US federal regulators are preparing to issue court orders to Google and other companies as part of a probe into practices in Google's search engine business, US media report.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is expected to open a formal inquiry within the next several days, the Wall Street Journal said.

The FTC is looking at whether Google manipulates its search results to steer users to its own sites and services.

Google has not commented on the matter.

Google's competitors argue that the search giant, which handles roughly two out of every three internet searches in the US, has used its dominant standing in search to improperly promote its other products, like mapping, shopping and travel websites.

Lord knows Google is not known for its respect for privacy, but they have stomped the competition soundly over the years.  However, when you have become so huge that you are one of the first names on the Internet that comes to mind, it's going to be hard to prove a bias. And then there's this: as long as the other avenues are represented, at what level does it qualify as antitrust?

But The GOP Cares About Women, Part 3

In a big victory for choice in Indiana, a federal judge has agreed to stay the Indiana anti-choice bill that defunds Planned Parenthood in that state.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt on Friday night means Planned Parenthood, which stopped serving its 9,300 Medicaid patients last week after running out of donated funds, can again see those patients.

The judge also enjoined a part of the law that would have taken effect July 1, requiring doctors to tell patients seeking abortions that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks or less.

Both were part of an anti-abortion bill that passed the Republican dominated legislature with significant support and was signed into law by Mitch Daniels.

Pratt’s injunction means the two provisions cannot be enforced while she is hearing a lawsuit, brought by Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union, arguing that those parts of the law should be struck down.

 That's excellent news.  It means 9,000+ women in the state can get health care again.  It means compassion and logic have won out over Republican fanaticism.

But for how long?  Remember, the goal of these laws is to put a case on the docket of the Supreme Court in order to get them to overturn Roe v. Wade, or to limit it to the point where abortions are de facto outlawed by all the red tape and hoops.  Eventually one of these GOP abortion laws will reach the high court.

Oh, but it's all about jobs, you know.  Republicans are focused on jobs.

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

GOP Presidential candidates are focused like a laser on jobs jobs jobs the culture wars.

In a presidential race thus far centered on the economy, nearly half of the 2012 GOP field took a break Friday to turn the election's spotlight on abortion.


Five candidates appeared–in person or via Skype–at the National Right to Life convention in Jacksonville, Fla., where they tapped into a social conservative base that's largely been sidelined since the tea party movement shifted the GOP's focus to fiscal issues.

All the candidates agreed life begins at conception and punctuated their point by citing the Declaration of Independence, which states all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." 

For Republicans, life begins at conception.  Once you're born however, you're on your own, you little tax-dollar eating parasite, with your "education" and your "vaccinations" and your "public safety" and your "infrastructure" and when are you going to get a job, you lazy little squirt?

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Record flooding along the Souris River in Minot, North Dakota has deluged thousands of homes in the city as National Guard troops try to keep the main bridge over the swollen river open.
• Texas lawmakers hope to have the Lone Star State become the tenth in the nation to feature Confederate flag license plates.
• Speculation continues to swirl around the mystery illness that has kept Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez out of the spotlight, bringing up succession questions.
• Japanese retirees from the engineering and science community are pitching in to help with the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.
• Counterfeit Chinese microchips have the Defense Department rethinking how and where it gets its electronics, and how to secure them from hackers and back doors.