The Moose Lady Is Loose: Civil War Edition

In a bid to make herself relevant in GOP politics again, Alaska's biggest loser called on people to rise up after Trump's arrest on Newsmax on Thursday night. 

 

Sarah Palin responded to Donald Trump’s arrest in Georgia on Thursday night by talking up the possibility of civil war. Speaking to Eric Bolling as the former president was booked at the Fulton County Jail on election interference charges, Palin slammed “those who are conducting this travesty and creating this two-tier system of justice.” “I want to ask them: What the heck?” the former Alaska governor said. “Do you want us to be in civil war? Because that’s what’s going to happen. We’re not going to keep putting up with this.” Addressing Bolling, Palin went on to say: “I like that you suggested that we need to get angry. We do need to rise up and take our country back.

 

If you didn't have Moose Lady on your bingo card calling for open revolt against the US, well, nobody did because she's the kind of GOP "luminary" that has to go on Newsmax to get any attention at all, and while it's pretty disturbing to see he call for civil war, I'm betting she'll have a good time with the attention she'll get in the near future...from federal law enforcement. 

All proving that we dodged a bullet with John McCain's loss to Obama, Jesus.

Last Call For Moose Lady Is Not Loose, Con't

With the recent death of Alaska GOP Rep. Don Young, the state's at-large Congressman for basically my entire lifespan, the seat went to a highly contested primary (for November) and special election (for the rest of Young's term) with ranked choice voting. Our old friend Sarah Palin threw her hat into the ring, along with Nick Begich III, the Republican nephew of former Democratic Sen. Mark Begich and grandson of former Democratic Rep. Nick Begich. Two of Alaska's most powerful political families clashed in a battle for the ages.

 

And when the smoke cleared this week, the race went to the Democrat.

Democrat Mary Peltola was the apparent winner of Alaska’s special U.S. House race and is set to become the first Alaska Native in Congress, after votes were tabulated Wednesday in the state’s first ranked choice election.

Peltola led Republican former Gov. Sarah Palin after ballots were tallied and votes for third-place GOP candidate Nick Begich III were redistributed to his supporters’ second choices. Peltola, a Yup’ik former state lawmaker who calls Bethel home, is now slated to be the first woman to hold Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat.

If results are confirmed as expected by the state review board later this week, she will succeed U.S. Rep. Don Young, the Republican who held the office for nearly five decades — since before Peltola was born. The special election was triggered by Young’s death in March.

“I feel like I need to catch my breath for a minute,” Peltola said in the moment after results were announced in a live video by state election officials in Juneau. Peltola was surrounded by family and campaign staff at an Anchorage office.

“What’s most important is that I’m an Alaskan being sent to represent all Alaskans. Yes, being Alaska Native is part of my ethnicity, but I’m much more than my ethnicity,” she said.

It is an outcome largely seen as an upset. Peltola would be the first Democrat to join Alaska’s three-person congressional delegation since U.S. Sen. Mark Begich lost reelection in 2014. And she defeated two Republicans to do so. Combined, Palin and Nick Begich III, nephew of Mark Begich and grandson of former U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, commanded nearly 60% of first-place votes.

Begich was the first candidate eliminated, after no other candidate exceeded the 50% threshold needed to win under Alaska’s ranked choice voting system. The second-place votes of Begich’s supporters were then tallied in what is called an instant runoff. Only half of Begich’s voters ranked Palin second — not enough for her to overtake Peltola.

Peltola had 39.7% of the first-place votes to Palin’s 30.9%. In the instant runoff, Peltola ended up with 91,206 votes to Palin’s 85,987, or 51.47% to 48.53%. A small number of additional ballots have not yet been counted by election officials, likely not enough to change results.

Peltola ran a largely positive campaign as Begich and Palin traded barbs in the final weeks before the Aug. 16 special election, emerging as the victor with a platform that highlighted her position as the only candidate on the ballot who supports abortion access — an issue that has become important to voters with the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision removing federal protections for access to the procedure (the procedure remains protected under the Alaska Constitution).

Peltola has also said she is “pro-fish” and emphasized her plans to protect subsistence fisheries in Alaska as salmon stocks decline in the region where she has fished throughout her life.

 

And Moose Lady?

 

She lost again. Not by much, and Peltola will have to immediately start campaigning as Palin almost certainly will be her top opponent in November. But Begich will be back too. We could see this all over again in a couple of months.

 

But for now, an Alaskan Native Democrat represents The Last Frontier.

Last Call For Moose Lady Blues

With the death of long-time Alaska GOP cash sponge Rep. Don Young, Sarah Palin is the by far most well-known name running for his spot in a crowd of dozens of comers, but that doesn't mean she's going to win.

The Matanuska-Susitna Valley, a lush patch of the state where the lakes are fed by glacial meltwater, is where Sarah Palin launched her political career three decades ago. In the heart of the state’s conservative movement, she rose from city council member to small-town mayor, before beating a sitting Republican governor and becoming the GOP nominee for vice president in 2008.

But to construction contractor Jesse Sumner, who was born and raised in the valley and in 2018 was elected to the local borough assembly on a platform of fiscal conservatism and gun rights, that’s all a distant memory overshadowed by what he sees as years of political neglect. Now, as Palin seeks a comeback in a run for Alaska’s only U.S. House seat, she won’t be getting his support.

“I think maybe she left us behind somewhere on the way to fame,” said Sumner, who has supported the candidacy of one of Palin’s opponents since last fall and is not changing his plans. He complained that Palin — who has spent much of the past decade as a right-wing celebrity, bouncing between reality TV, cable news punditry and the Trump movement — hasn’t been involved in Alaska politics since leaving office in 2009.

When she did show up at a Republican fundraiser last year, “everybody was surprised to see her there,” Sumner said.

Such sentiments, which voters and activists across the state shared in recent interviews, loom over Palin’s campaign for an open seat. It’s the first time in five decades that Republican Rep. Don Young, who died last month, won’t be on the ballot. The top four vote-getters in June’s nonpartisan primary will move on to a special election in August under a recently implemented ranked-choice voting system. Nearly 50 candidates have entered the race.

But none are as well-known outside Alaska as Palin, making the race a test of power of national political celebrity in a state where local relationships and reputations have long been crucial. She announced her campaign on April 1, two weeks after Young’s death, filing the paperwork to run minutes before the state’s deadline.

The campaign has also become a barometer of the influence of former president Donald Trump. Years before Trump was elected president, Palin embodied a similar brand of combative politics that fired up far right voters and alarmed many in GOP leadership. She supported him in 2016 and he has endorsed her this year, even as many key Republicans in the state have gone in a different direction.

When asked about Palin’s candidacy, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (daughter to Frank Murkowski, the governor Palin once defeated) touted the other four dozen candidates and said she couldn’t name the last time she saw Palin in Alaska, because it had been “years.” Murkowski also faces reelection this year, with Trump backing her main rival, Kelly Tshibaka.

Palin’s campaign did not grant requests for an interview with her. The campaign provided a written statement from an unnamed campaign adviser saying Palin “believes that America is at a tipping point and that the hard-working men and women of Alaska deserve a champion in Washington to fight for them against the destructive policies of the far left.” The statement echoed Trump in mentioning “fake news” and disdaining “Washington elites.”

But there are few signs of a detailed policy platform from Palin. Her campaign statement said she wants to help Alaskans “lead the next energy renaissance.” Her campaign website is thin on specifics and, instead, showcases photos of her in fishing bibs, horseback riding, and at Trump rallies. Her Twitter feed touts endorsements from national Republican figures such as former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.

Palin may still be crafting her strategy and message with only seven weeks until the primary, but University of Alaska Fairbanks political science professor Amy Lovecraft said the House campaign is surprisingly quiet in terms of advertising and events. She attributes that to the scramble caused by Young’s sudden death and adapting to the new nonpartisan primary format. Plus, she said, candidates with high name recognition may be biding their time, assuming they will make it through the first round.

“The people who think they have the best shot at Young’s seat may be saving their money for a knockdown, drag-out election later,” Lovecraft said.

 

Between this and endorsing J.D. Vance in Ohio's Senate race (and Herschel Walker in Georgia's Senate race), Donald Trump is larding the galley with real losers. We'll see if any of them can get past a primary.

The Big Lie, Moose Lady Edition

Again, the Republican Party is dedicated to two things in 2022: Putting Donald Trump back in the White House as Maximum Leader of the American Regime, and doing so over the broken democracy that America used to be.

 

Donald Trump's supporters give him credit for lots of things, but a Michigan member of Congress went way beyond reality in falsely claiming that Trump "caught" Osama bin Laden.

"Caught Osama bin Laden and Soleimani, al-Baghdadi," said Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., during a Trump rally Saturday in Washington Township, Mich., in a speech in which she attacked President Joe Biden's foreign policy.

Trump was a private citizen in 2011, when President Barack Obama authorized the mission that killed bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader and architect of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. Biden was vice president at the time, and opposed the raid during internal deliberations because of uncertainty over whether bin Laden would be at the location of the raid.

During his presidency, Trump authorized military operations that led to the deaths of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Iranian military commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, and accused terrorist Hamza bin Laden – the son of bin Laden.

 

Of course this is a huge lie, and everyone applauded anyway.  Fact don't matter to Trumpies, and they haven't for a long time. The people he endorses are bound to him by falsehoods, the latest of which is Moose Lady, up for the now late Don Young's Alaska House seat.

Former President Donald Trump on Sunday endorsed Sarah Palin in the upcoming Alaska House special election.

Calling her a “wonderful patriot” and “tough and smart,” Trump said the former governor had been “a champion for Alaska values, Alaska energy, Alaska jobs, and the great people of Alaska.”

Referring to her time on the 2008 Republican ticket alongside the late Sen. John McCain — a longtime foil of the former president — Trump said, “Sarah lifted the McCain presidential campaign out of the dumps despite the fact she had to endure some very evil, stupid, and jealous people within the campaign itself. They were out to destroy her, but she didn’t let that happen.”

“I am proud to give her my Complete and Total Endorsement, and encourage all Republicans to unite behind the wonderful person and her campaign to put America First,” Trump added.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate and conservative firebrand announced Friday that she was running to fill the House seat held by the late Rep. Don Young, following recent talks with Trump.

“Public service is a calling, and I would be honored to represent the men and women of Alaska in Congress, just as Rep. Young did for 49 years. I realize that I have very big shoes to fill, and I plan to honor Rep. Young’s legacy by offering myself up in the name of service to the state he loved and fought for,” Palin said in a statement Friday.

Some 51 candidates are presently running to replace Young, including several state lawmakers, and Palin is no shoo-in. The special election’s primary is scheduled for June 11, with the top four candidates advancing to the general election on Aug. 16.

 

This is the biggest test so far of Trump's Dear Leader powers. If he can't get Palin into the race on June 11, his endorsement may not mean as much as previously.

 

Then again, if we see dozens drop out now that Trump has endorsed Moose Lady, well, we'll see.

 

Who are the Democrats running here?

Moose Lady Versus The Media Isn't Over

Sarah Palin's libel case against the New York Times ran into twin buzzsaws of reality this week, with the judge dismissing the case for lack of merit, and the jury already in the deliberation stage returned a unanimous verdict of Palin's loss. But as TPM's Bill Kovarik explains, the case is far from over and almost certainly headed for the Roberts Court, where Justices Thomas and Gorsuch lie in wait to dismantle legal protections for media outlets.

As a media historian, I can see the Palin case providing a vehicle to return libel laws back to a time when it was much easier for public figures to sue the press.

Before 1964’s Sullivan standard, the libel landscape in the U.S. consisted of a patchwork of state laws that made it easy for political figures to selectively persecute newspapers and public speakers who espoused opposing or unpopular views.

For example in 1949, John Henry McCray, a Black editor from South Carolina, served two months on a chain gang after being charged with criminal libel for writing a story about a racially charged execution. White publications reporting the same story were not charged.

Similarly, in a 1955 libel case, Dr. Von Mizell, a Black surgeon and NAACP official, was ordered to pay a US$15,000 fine for writing in opposition to a Florida state legislator’s idea of abolishing public schools instead of integrating them.

Then came the Sullivan case. It centered around several tiny mistakes in a civil rights advertisement carried by The New York Times. L.B. Sullivan, a public official not even named in the advertisement, sued for defamation, and the case went from Alabama to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In setting the Sullivan standard in 1964, the Supreme Court said in effect that it ought to be difficult for any official at the federal or the state level to prove that a falsehood was libelous enough – and personally damaging enough – to surmount First Amendment protections.

The court said a public official could not win a libel lawsuit by citing minor mistakes, technical inaccuracies or even outright negligence. Instead, under the Sullivan standard, a public official had to prove that there was “actual malice,” which means that a critic knowingly published something false or was in reckless disregard of the truth.

The court insisted that “debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on public officials.”

Originalists on the current Supreme Court – that is, those justices who believe that the Constitution should be interpreted as it was by those crafting the original document – seemingly disagree.

Justice Thomas, in a 2019 opinion, suggested the Sullivan ruling failed to take into account “the Constitution’s original meaning.” He followed this up in a 2021 opinion that stated the requirement on public figures to establish actual malice bears “no relation to the text, history, or structure of the Constitution.”

Some legal scholars have argued that originalism doesn’t cut much ice when it comes to First Amendment protections. After it passed in 1791, the First Amendment was open to so many state interpretations that there is no agreement on what the accepted interpretation of the day was.

Nonetheless, should Palin appeal against the latest ruling, it is likely that the case could reach a Supreme Court in which at least two justices seem primed to challenge the decades-old Sullivan rule.

Given the Roberts Court track record on dismantling standing precedent in order to push the country into 1850 Federalist hell, don't be surprised if this come back to haunt an America that, by the time SCOTUS gets to destroying Sullivan, will have already lost Roe, the Civil Rights Act, the rest of the Voting Rights Act, affirmative action, and probably the law of gravity.

It'll take some time for this one to work its way up, but I'm sure SCOTUS will hear it in 2023 or 2024.

Another Hat Enters The Ring, Con't

Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is entering the Democratic primary today, and Steve M. has the right of the situation.

On the subject of Patrick's Bain Capital ties, Axios's Dan Primack writes: 

There is unconfirmed speculation that Patrick was awakened in his suburban Boston home last night, by the sounds of champagne corks popping at Elizabeth Warren's campaign headquarters. 

Really, plutocrats? You're terrified that Warren might be the nominee, so you urge Mike Bloomberg and Deval Patrick to get in the race -- and you're probably among the "many, many, many people" urging Hillary Clinton to jump in as well? 

This is crazy. It reminds me of the streaming wars -- company after company is announcing a big new video streaming service, and while some are going to thrive, others are sure to bomb. (Will there really be a market for Peacock or Quibi?) 

But this is how top executives think: Why not jump into a crowded field? What's the downside of oversaturating the market? If you're the executive responsible for one of the flops, the worst-case scenario is that you'll lose your job and get an eight-figure golden parachute. So why not? 

That kind of thinking seems to be making the fat cats want to urge every business-friendly Democrat into the race. Good luck with that, guys.

There's no real punishment for spending other people's money on ego runs like this, even for people like Bloomberg who have billions of their own to spend.  I know we talk about the right-wing gravy train, but the left version of it exists as well.  Yeah, some people fall off the tracks or get run over completely (talking to you, Moose Lady) but for the most part, politicians go on to sinecures and rake in big money.

The people out there with 10, 11 figures in their net worth?  They make things happen in politics.

Last Call For Baked Alaska

If you thought Sarah Palin was the worst governor in the history of Alaska, Republican Mike Dunleavy's line item vetoes are making Palin look like Bernie Sanders by comparison, as he's cut nearly $450 million from the state's budget (a 10% austerity whack on top of steep cuts made by the state's Republican legislature) that targets everything from the University of Alaska to Medicaid funding to a petty move to cut funding for the state's court system after the state's supreme court ruled abortion was protected by the state constitution.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Friday cut $444 million from Alaska’s state’s operating budget, slashing services beyond the cuts already made by the Alaska Legislature in order to move closer to a balanced budget without raising taxes or reducing the Permanent Fund dividend.

The action drew immediate and impassioned criticism from many Alaskans, including those who rely on those services and those who provide them, and there were calls on lawmakers to override the vetoes. But the governor also drew praise from Alaskans who believe state government is too large.

The University of Alaska is the biggest target of Dunleavy’s line-item veto pen, losing $130 million in state support atop the $5 million cut approved earlier by lawmakers. The resulting reduction is nearly 41% of the state’s support for the university system. University officials said the cuts would be devastating to the UA system.

“I believe they’re going to be able to work through this ... I don’t believe they can be all things to all people, and I think that’s generally speaking, the state of Alaska. We can’t continue to be all things for all people,” the governor said Friday morning in a news conference that was broadcast statewide.

For the fiscal year that starts July 1, Medicaid spending was reduced by $50 million, the state’s senior benefits program was eliminated, a cruise ship pollution inspector program was eliminated, the Village Public Safety Officer program lost $3 million in funding and most state support for public broadcasting was erased.

The Legislature can override those decisions, but only if three-quarters of its 60 members agree. The deadline for an override is the fifth day of the special session that begins July 8.

Alaska House Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, said the governor’s budget presents an “imminent threat" to Alaskans.

“The fundamental question is now squarely before Alaskans. What’s more important: a healthy economy, our schools, university, and seniors, or doubling the Permanent Fund Dividend at the expense of essential state services? The governor has made his choice clear,” Edgmon wrote.

We'll see if legislators want to overrule the cuts, but I wouldn't hold out too much hope for that.  The list of Dunleavy's cuts are here, and thousands of University of Alaska employees are already being furloughed because the vetoes and the fact that the fiscal year started yesterday means there's no money to pay them.

Welcome to Kansas, Alaska!

The Old Pilot's Last Flight Ends

Sen. John McCain passed away last night, and his legacy is that of a veteran and senator who saw his party crumble into the abyss, his hand more than a bit responsible.  When it was clear he was done ten years ago, he made the call to bring in Sarah Palin as his running mate. McCain was not a "maverick" and the words of then candidate Barack Obama make that clear.

[T]he record’s clear: John McCain has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. Sen. McCain likes to talk about judgment, but really, what does it say about your judgment when you think George Bush has been right more than 90 percent of the time? I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to take a 10 percent chance on change.

The truth is, on issue after issue that would make a difference in your lives — on health care and education and the economy — Sen. McCain has been anything but independent. He said that our economy has made “great progress” under this president. He said that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. And when one of his chief advisers — the man who wrote his economic plan — was talking about the anxiety Americans are feeling, he said that we were just suffering from a “mental recession,” and that we’ve become, and I quote, “a nation of whiners.”

A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud autoworkers at a Michigan plant who, after they found out it was closing, kept showing up every day and working as hard as ever, because they knew there were people who counted on the brakes that they made. Tell that to the military families who shoulder their burdens silently as they watch their loved ones leave for their third or fourth or fifth tour of duty. These are not whiners. They work hard and give back and keep going without complaint. These are the Americans that I know.

The very next day, August 29, 2008, McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate.

You can draw a direct line from that event to the Trump regime today.  I spoke my mind yesterday about it and I haven't changed my mind from then.

This is a man who voted against a federal Martin Luther King holiday in 1983 because it was politically expedient for him to do so then.  When it was no longer politically expedient because he was running for president, he announced he had been wrong.  He's not the first politician to do this, he won't be the last.  Very few did it regarding the legacy of Dr. King however.

Chuck Schumer wants to rename the Senate's Russell Office Building after McCain.  I don't particularly believe he deserves that honor, but this is why I'm not an elected official. Nine years ago to the day yesterday, Ted Kennedy passed.  Would that this be the Kennedy Senate Office Building, but no.

It is not something I will forgive McCain for anytime soon.  Maybe someday, when America emerges from the hell it is in today.  John McCain is a better man than Donald Trump to be sure, but that bar to clear is on the ground.  McCain requested that his eulogies be read by George W. Bush and Barack Obama.  Donald Trump?  He'll probably be at a rally.

But Donald Trump would not be in the Oval Office at all if it wasn't for John McCain.

I will forgive the man someday, yes.  He lived a full life, he served his country for decades, he suffered like no human being should ever have to suffer, but in the end he was flawed and he made terrible decisions that hurt the country he loved.

I will forgive the man someday, yes.  But not today.  I leave with this tweet from author Dianne Anderson:

We can hold multiple truths at once in the event of someone’s death: 1. that his passing is a loss for his family and those in mourning deserve respect and understanding, and 2. Death does not erase a lifetime of bad political decisions.

— Dianna E. Anderson 🏳️‍🌈 (@diannaeanderson) August 26, 2018

And so, John McCain is gone.

The Old Pilot's Last Flight, But The Plane Is Burning

I do not believe history will be kind to Sen. John McCain for the last decade.  The man who gave us Sarah Palin and began the cycle of elevating racist dogwhistles to mainstream Republican presidential politics, culminating in the rise of Donald Trump, has no one to blame but himself for his failures.  

He has done the right thing in his life every now and again, and he served his country well as a Navy pilot and survived a hell as a Vietnam POW that I wouldn't wish upon anyone, but when given the multiple opportunities to be the voice of reason to salvage the smoking remains of the Trump GOP, McCain bunted, punted, and stunted.

Now the 81-year-old veteran faces his final days on his own terms, foregoing further treatment for brain cancer as he has decided to surround himself with friends and family.

Mr. McCain, 81, had been undergoing treatment since July 2017, and has been absent from Washington since December. Mr. McCain’s family has gathered in Arizona, and people close to him say his death is imminent.

From his ranch in Arizona, Mr. McCain had managed to maintain a voice in key foreign policy and military policy debates, sharply criticizing President Trump after his summit meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, an old adversary of Mr. McCain. At home, he has welcomed close friends to renew ties. But after decades as a fixture in Washington and a larger-than-life character, he had largely retreated from the public eye.

Senators from both parties quickly wrote to comfort Mr. McCain’s family and lauded his service. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader and an occasional McCain sparring partner, wrote on Twitter that Mr. McCain has been a “dear friend” with whom he was lucky to serve in the Senate.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, said, “May the prayers and affection of his country, and of friends around the world, surround John and his beloved family in these peaceful final hours.”

The son and grandson of four-star Navy admirals who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Mr. McCain rose to become one of the towering figures in American politics, twice seeking the presidency and winning the 2008 Republican nomination for president. In the Senate, he has been both revered as an iconoclast and criticized by many, including Mr. Trump, for his willingness to buck his party on issues like campaign finance reform and, last summer, the repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

Under Mr. Trump’s leadership, Mr. McCain has watched his party steer sharply away from many of the values he long championed. A fierce advocate for an expansive and interventionist American foreign policy, Mr. McCain has fretted as Mr. Trump moved the party toward “America First” policies, criticizing longtime American allies and institutions like NATO, while praising adversaries like Russia.

For decades, Mr. McCain advocated on behalf of refugees and was a leading — if intermittent — Republican voice in a few efforts to overhaul the American immigration system. Mr. Trump has tried to strictly limit both.

Though he was unable to vote on the Republican tax cut bill late last year, a top Trump priority, Mr. McCain’s endorsement helped secure its passage.

I'm hoping the old warhorse can summon one last condemnation of the party that has abandoned him and abandoned America in the name of white nationalism, and admit to his role in helping to enable it.  He owes the country, Barack Obama, and posterity a huge apology, quite frankly.

I'm not holding my breath.

Moose Versus Zombie

It seem Sarah Palin (who has been blessedly quiet these last few months because she actually looks sane next to Trump) is injecting herself into faux relevance again by going after GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Sarah Palin will work to defeat House Speaker Paul Ryan by backing his primary opponent in Wisconsin, the former Alaska governor told CNN's Jake Tapper. 

Palin said in an interview that airs Sunday on "State of the Union" that her decision was sparked by Ryan's bombshell announcement to Tapper last week that he wasn't yet ready to support Donald Trump, the Republican presumptive nominee. Palin endorsed Trump back in January. 

"I think Paul Ryan is soon to be 'Cantored,' as in Eric Cantor," Palin said, referring to the former Republican House majority leader who was ousted in a shocking upset in 2014 when challenger Dave Brat ran to his right in a Virginia primary. 

"His political career is over but for a miracle because he has so disrespected the will of the people, and as the leader of the GOP, the convention, certainly he is to remain neutral, and for him to already come out and say who he will not support is not a wise decision of his," Palin continued.

I didn't even know who Paul Ryan's primary opponent is, and I kind of thought Wisconsin's primaries were over, but it turns out the primaries for congressional districts are on August 6, and the only other Republican in the race is a guy by the name of Paul Nehlen. Nehlen it turns out is the newest Tea Party hero of the Breitbart crowd after Paul Ryan's comments on Trump.

When House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday he wasn’t ready to support Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, his Wisconsin primary opponent saw an opening.

Following the Trump campaign’s lash-out on Friday, Paul Nehlen seized that opening, suggesting he will do what Ryan won't: support Trump.

“If Mr. Trump is the nominee, I will support that decision, because it will have been the will of the voters that got him there,” the Republican challenging Ryan for Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District seat in the state’s August primary said in a statement.

Nehlen is seeking to gain an edge in the primary against Ryan, who won his 2014 primary by nearly 90 percentage points. This time around, the Trump campaign and allies have aggressively attacked the House speaker and Republican National Convention chair, with Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson intimating that Ryan is unfit for his role if he can’t support the presumptive nominee.

Nehlen now has Moose Lady on his side, for better or for worse.

This is going to be fun.

Last Call For The Moose And The Money Man

Welp, you knew this was coming.

"I hope nobody's allergic to nuts, because we've got a big one here."

Indeed, we do.

Last Call For Moosing The Point

"Treating Muslim kids like human beings" is something that professional loser Sarah Palin won't stand for in her little myopic view of America.

In a winding Friday night post, Palin aired her suspicions that the “obstinate-answering” boy was really up to no good and Irving police and school officials have been wrongly maligned in the “reactionary-slash-biased media!” The case hasgenerated outrage amid the belief that Mohamed was arrested due to anti-Muslim bias and not any genuine threat posed.

“Yep, believing that’s a clock in a school pencil box is like believing Barack Obama is ruling over the most transparent administration in history. Right. That’s a clock, and I’m the Queen of England,” Palin opined. Throughout the post, she spelled Mohamed’s name “Muhammad,” which is the spelling commonly used in the English-speaking world for the prophet of Islam.

“Friends, consider the kids disciplined and/or kicked out of school for bringing squirt guns to school or taking bites out of a pop tart until it resembled (to some politically correct yahoo) a gun,” Palin rambled. “Or the student out deer hunting with his dad early one morning who forgot he had a box of ammo in his truck when he parked in the school’s lot later that day. Kids humiliated and intimidated for innocent actions like those real examples are often marked the rest of their lives and made to feel really rotten. Whereas Ahmed Muhammad, an evidently obstinate-answering student bringing in a homemade “clock” that obviously could be seen by conscientious teachers as a dangerous wired-up bomb-looking contraption (teachers who are told “if you see something, say something!”) gets invited to the White House.”

She then criticized President Obama, who invited Mohamed to the White House in response to the outcry, for taking advantage of the situation.

“By the way, President Obama’s practice of jumping in cases prematurely to interject himself as the cool savior, wanting so badly to attach himself to the issue-of-the-day, got old years ago,” she wrote.

Palin then urged fans to compare Mohamed’s clock enclosed in a pencil box to what she thought was a much more innocent-looking pink pencil box at her own home.

First of all, Palin really is a hateful person. It's no wonder she's angry all the time, she's not even bright enough to figure out what a digital clock looks like.  Again, want to thank John McCain and 55 million American voters for almost putting this woman in our government as Vice President.

Second of all, that silly pop tart gun story is tragically stupid and Palin is far from the only wingnut screaming that it's unfair that this kid didn't get invited to the White House too.  But that's not the issue, is it?  It's a nice deflection though from the real issue: a 14-year old was interrogated by the cops without a lawyer, and people didn't exactly line up to attack John Welch for his pop tart gun, unlike Palin and loads of right wing idiots who are convinced that Mohamed Ahmed didn't really build a clock at all or in fact had to have been making an actual bomb.

In other words, people upset that Ahmed is going to the White House are even more upset that Muslims aren't being rounded up and put in camps anyway.  You kind of lose your moral high ground over that.  When the response is to make this child and his family a target that must be exterminated by the right, well...

You tell me who's the good guy here.

Moose-Information Campaign

I can't imagine how this particular scholar of a candidate didn't win in 2008.

Immigrants to the United States should "speak American," former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said on Sunday, adding her voice to a controversy triggered by Donald Trump's criticism of fellow Republican White House hopeful Jeb Bush's use of Spanish.

"It's a benefit of Jeb Bush to be able to be so fluent in Spanish, because we have a large and wonderful Hispanic population that is helping to build America," Palin said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"On the other hand, you know, I think we can send a message and say: 'You want to be in America? A, you better be here legally, or you're out of here. B, when you're here, let's speak American.' I mean, that's just, that's - let's speak English," added Palin, Republican presidential nominee John McCain's running mate in 2008.

Politics is hard.  We need somebody mean, not smart.

CNN's Jake Tapper asked Palin Sunday for her thoughts on Trump's exchange last week with radio host Hugh Hewitt. Trump had since called Hewitt's questions "gotcha questions."

"I think I’d rather have a President who is tough and puts America first than can win a game of Trivial Pursuit," Palin told Tapper. "I don’t think the public gives a flying flip who, today, is a specific leader of a specific region because that leader will change of course."

Loud, stupid, and wrong beats measured, intelligent and right any day of the week, stupid liberal nerds!  Just ask President McCain!

Last Call For Zombie Death Panels

Medicare end-of-life care is back in the news, and that's a good thing.

Six years after end-of-life planning nearly derailed development of the Affordable Care Act amid charges of "death panels," the Obama administration has revived a proposal to reimburse physicians for talking with their Medicare patients about how patients want to be cared for as they near death.

The proposal, contained in a large set of Medicare regulations unveiled Wednesday, comes amid growing public discussion about the need for medical care that better reflects patients’ wishes as they get older.

Expect Republicans to start screaming that Obama wants to murder your grandmother again. Well...maybe not all Republicans...

Two months ago, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, one of the front-runners for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, suggested that Medicare patients should sign so-called advance directives that spell out the care they want if they become incapacitated.

So Jeb Bush is pro-"death panels" huh.  This should be fun.

In all seriousness, as James Joyner points out, palliative care is a legitimate Medicare issue and should be discussed by doctors and their senior patients.

Aside from the cleverness of “death panels” as a mobilizing tool, capitalizing on longstanding American fears about government control of healthcare, I’ve never understood the argument against the practice. Of course physicians ought to discuss with their patients what their end-of-life options are once they become terminally ill or sufficiently advanced in age. And, so long as we maintain a fee-for-service model, of course they ought get paid for it. 

To the extent that government is a prime payer of healthcare expenses—and for those over 65, there’s little controversy over the fact that it is—there is something of a conflict of interest at work, in that care for terminal patients eats up an inordinate percentage of lifetime costs. But it strikes me as absurd that doctors are going to talk their patients into ending their lives prematurely mostly on the basis of cost savings.

Oh, an absurd idea that Republicans aren't going to run with at full throttle?  That would be a first. Because that's exactly the fear Republicans stoked in voters in 2009 and 2010 and they won huge.

Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, urged her supporters to oppose Democratic plans for health care reform on her Facebook page. 

"As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!" wrote Palin in a note posted Aug. 7, 2009. 

She said that the Democrats plan to reduce health care costs by simply refusing to pay for care. 

"And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

It was PolitiFact's Lie of the Year, remember?

Republicans still won 60+ House seats.

I fully expect this Medicare rule change to be quietly pulled once again.  Republicans will keep winning that PR battle until the end of time.

Last Call For Jeb's Dead Ringer

Like, zoiks, Scoob! Jeb Bush is talking about d-d-d-d-death panels!

Jeb Bush, defending his efforts to keep alive Terri Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman, when he was governor of Florida, suggested on Friday that patients on Medicare should be required to sign advance directives dictating their care if they become incapacitated. 

A similar proposal by President Obama — that doctors should be paid to advise patients on end-of-life decisions — became a political firestorm in 2009, when Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate, claimed that the legislation would give bureaucrats the power to decide if some frail or disabled people were deserving of medical care. The assertion was shown to be false. 

In 2010, Medicare tried to add a regulation that would permit “voluntary advance care planning” during yearly checkups. But after an uproar, President Obama’s administration pushed to drop that provision. 

Mr. Bush’s suggestion that advance directives be required under Medicare showed how much public opinion has shifted on the subject since.

Oh it has, huh. Or maybe, Maggie Haberman, IOKIYAR.

So death panels are now a totally cool thing called “Medicare end-of-life directives.” I’m sure this won’t be the last thing that President Obama proposed and was destroyed by media pissing and moaning that Jebya here will be able to get away with.

Wonder why that is.

Drunken Moose Lady Assaults Reality

Sarah Palin lost her marbles at the Iowa Tea Party Hoedown Freedom Summit on Saturday, and it was both amazing and depressing to remember that a couple of million votes going the other way would have put this woman one Johnny Volcano heart attack away from leading the country.



As Charles Johnson puts it:

Even by Sarah Palin’s already low standards, this speech is extraordinarily incoherent and scattered. I’ve seen a lot of her speeches (do not pity me, it is my job), and I can’t remember a more garbled, deeply weird performance from Caribou Barbie.

It's a train wreck even for her.  And yet our media treats her as a serious political force in this country instead of a sad, pathetic sideshow.

Look upon this and despair, Tea Party.  This is your face to tens of millions of Americans like myself.

The Manifesto Of Moose-olini

To recap, a failed vice-presidential candidate and former governor who quit her position to become a national reality TV punchline has declared herself the final arbiter of who has credibility and DEMANDS!!!11!! that the Washington Post impeach President Obama or else.

Or else what?  Nobody seems to be real sure.

The list of Obama abuses and impeachable offenses is long. I challenge you to lift a finger and help protect democracy, allow justice for all, and ensure domestic tranquility by doing your job reporting current corrupt events fairly. If not, you prove yourselves incompetent and in bed with Obama, not caring one iota about media integrity.

Those running the Washington Post’s show now, compared to those during the Nixon era, are too afraid of being uninvited to the permanent political class’ cocktail parties and petty gossip fests, making you all a bunch of wusses. I challenge you to get to work.

The words "I challenge you to get to work" coming from a woman who quit her job as Governor of Alaska are so absurd that it shatters the border into absolute farce.  If the Washington Post doesn't call for President Obama's impeachment, they are "wusses"?  This is how American democracy is supposed to work, egged on by schoolyard taunts?

Go back to your latest scheme to fleece people of their hard earned cash, Sarah Palin.  The adults are busy trying to run the country, and in no way shape or form have you ever shown that you deserve to be a part of that particular conversation.

Meanwhile, this happened.

The Cartridge Family #PalinTVShows
— Steve M. (@nomoremister) July 28, 2014

Plenty more at that hashtag.

Last Call For Blaming The Victim

Republicans are getting cute now over impeachment.  They realize the Tea Party demands it and will turn on them like a rabid animal if they don't...but the country as a whole is very much against impeachment and they know it.  So how long will the Village let them play both sides?

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) on Sunday did not rule out impeaching President Obama after he was asked three times by "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace.

When first asked whether he would consider impeaching Obama, Scalise dove into a response pinning impeachment talk on the White House.

“This might be the first White House in history that’s trying to start the narrative of impeaching their own president. Ultimately, what we want to do is see the President follow his own laws,” Scalise said. "The Supreme Court unanimously said 12 times the President overreached and did things he doesn’t have the authority to do."

Scalise gave a similar response the second time Wallace asked if impeachment was on the table.

"Well, the White House wants to talk about impeachment and they’re trying to fundraise off that, too," he said.

"I’m asking you, sir," Wallace quickly responded.

Scalise dodge the question for a third time. 

"The White House will do anything they can to change the topic away from the President’s failed agenda," he said. "The president isn’t solving the problems. We’re going to try to solve problems for everyday people. I would like to see the President engaged in that, too, that’s his job, but he wants to change the topic, talk about things like this."

Blaming the White House for impeachment talk.  Pretty much like blaming the victim in, oh, anything requiring abuse of power, persecution, and whatnot.  Get a pair, Scalise.  You don't get to blame the White House for impeachment talk, when Sarah Palin is making an ass of herself demanding you do it.

The GOP's own impeachment talk is now a distraction from the real issues?  I'm glad Scalise agrees with the fact he has a party full of morons.

Yes, The White House Sees It Coming

Here's a clever play by White House staffer Dan Pfieffer, who fully expects Orange Julius to play the impeachment card after the 2014 midterms and lets everyone know it.

Dan Pfeiffer, a senior aide who has been with the administration since Obama first took office, told reporters that he anticipated that a lawsuit filed by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) over executive actions taken by the president on health care would ultimately not be enough to satisfy some of the more vocal conservatives in Congress. 

Pfeiffer added that coming executive actions surrounding immigration reform would only stoke the impeachment flames. 

"I think a lot of people in this town laugh that off," said Pfeiffer. "I would not discount that possibility. I think that Speaker Boehner, by going down this path of this lawsuit, has opened the door to Republicans possibly considering impeachment at some point in the future."

Pfeiffer wouldn't bother responding to such speculation unless the goal was to egg the wackos in the GOP on to try to force Boehner to pull the trigger, and one loudmouth wacko is playing right into it:
 

Speaking at the Christian Science Monitor breakfast, Pfeiffer based his prediction on several factors. The first was former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) calling for articles of impeachment to be drawn over the president's executive action allowing certain young undocumented immigrants to stay in the country. The second was a CNN poll released Friday morning showing that while just 33 percent of the country supported impeachment, a full 57 percent of Republicans were in favor of it. 

"I think impeachment is a very serious thing that has been bandied about by the recent Republican vice presidential nominee and others in a very unserious way," said Pfeiffer. "And no one has even made any allegation of anything that would be within six universes from what is generally considered in that space."

Looks like somebody's found an actual use for Moose Lady after all. Who knew, right?

We'll see if the "unserious" charge sticks.  Villagers do love that imaginary word and if they start piling on, the anger factor in the GOP will certainly ignite something stupid, dangerous, and detrimental.

Maybe even before the midterms.  Wouldn't that be something...

Last Call For Impeach-Moose Proceedings

Incessant attention whore Sarah Palin realized nobody cared about her anymore, and that her old shticks weren't working, so she's going for the Full Enchilada.  WaPo's Aaron Blake:

Sarah Palin on Tuesday joined a growing chorus of Republicans calling for the impeachment of President Obama, writing in a Breitbart op-ed that the influx of young illegal immigrants over the southern border "is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, 'no mas.' " 

Mixed/careless metaphors aside, this is nothing but bad news for Republicans — especially four months until the 2014 election. 

Palin is hardly the first GOP politician to raise the issue of impeachment over the past couple years. Others include Sens. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Reps. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.), Kerry Bentivolio (R-Mich.), Michael Burgess (R-Tex.), Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), former congressmen Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) and Allen West (R-Fla.), and the South Dakota Republican Party. Not all of these folks called for Obama's impeachment directly, but all of them suggested that it is or should be on the table.

Such lofty company.  Still, as Blake points out, the 'MURICA crowd loves her, and it's clear her "perpetual fundraising for the next election" coffers are getting low, so she needs to remind the hoi polloi why they need to hand over another twenty bucks to her so she can go shoot and pose with a giant squid on the Hardwood Channel.

What none of these folks have, though, is a national following. That's where Palin comes in. She's the first Republican of any significant national stature to make this call. And she's the kind of figure who could potentially recruit others to the cause — people who will want to be heard. Palin surely doesn't carry the kind of weight she once did in the GOP, but she still has a significant tea party following and is highly popular among the conservative base. 

If a significant pro-impeachment portion of the conservative base does materialize — and that's a big "if" — it will put Republican lawmakers in the unenviable position of responding to questions about whether they, too, agree with the idea of impeachment.

Oh please, let's spend the next 28 months talking about how much Sarah Palin wants those Republican wimps to impeach Obama, and reminding America exactly why the next president (or 4) will be a Democrat too.