Doggedly searching for the crux of the biscuit.
Aside from the duties of the vice president, what other basic tenets of American government are apparently unknown to Sarah Palin? How about the First Amendment?
ABC News' Steven Portnoy reports: In a conservative radio interview that aired in Washington, D.C. Friday morning, Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin said she fears her First Amendment rights may be threatened by "attacks" from reporters who suggest she is engaging in a negative campaign against Barack Obama.
Palin told WMAL-AM that her criticism of Obama's associations, like those with 1960s radical Bill Ayers and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, should not be considered negative attacks. Rather, for reporters or columnists to suggest that it is going negative may constitute an attack that threatens a candidate's free speech rights under the Constitution, Palin said.
"If [the media] convince enough voters that that is negative campaigning, for me to call Barack Obama out on his associations," Palin told host Chris Plante, "then I don't know what the future of our country would be in terms of First Amendment rights and our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media."
Geez, so much stupid packed into such a tiny space. Let's review the relevant bit of the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law [...] abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press". Here's what it doesn't say: "The media shall make no judgment as to the veracity or unsavoriness of comments by a candidate for office." Seriously, what the hell is she talking about? How are her First Amendment rights even remotely affected?
Then this: "our ability to ask questions without fear of attacks by the mainstream media." Translated: I have a right to attack an opponent (which indeed she does), but if the media calls it an attack then... HELP! I'M BEING ATTACKED! The media can't stop you from saying anything, crazy lady. At most, individual outlets can choose not to report it, but that really doesn't seem to be a problem right now, does it? And her implied solution is that the media shouldn't be allowed (by the government, one presumes) to express an opinion about a candidate's speech, which actually would be a violation of the First Amendment.
I am so ready for this election to be over so she can drag her ignorant ass back up to the tundra and take a remedial course on American government. She clearly slept through it the first time around.
beware. She will not drag her ignorant self anywhere for too long.
Posted by: ERB at October 31, 2008 03:52 PMI'm not sure they teach government in Alaska. I don't want her to go back though. I want her to be the next Reagan, although I gotta say I knew Reagan, and she ain't a Reagan, not even a Nancy.
I'm pretty sure idea her idea of how the world works is she gets to make stuff up and the rest of us have to simply nod and tell her how great she is.
Here is a tip Sarah Barracuda, thankfully the world is not full of your gullible followers. Some of us actually listen and reason things out.
But you are doing us a service by exposing how ignorant and irrational you and your followers are.
Hey, any bets on whether Billy-Bob and the pregnant Palin teen actually go through with the wedding when the VP deal falls apart?
I'm thinking once the gravy train stops Billy might have other priorities. Not like spending more time with his family - more like shooting things up and stuff.
Posted by: Tripp at October 31, 2008 03:56 PMCariboo barbie going back to Alaska sounds like a great idea! She has lost her entertainment value.
Examples of her followers can be found in the previous "Here Comes the Smiting" article.
Posted by: Joel at October 31, 2008 04:15 PMGee, and I thought I was pompous and narcissistic? She really thinks she is protected BY THE FIRST AMENDMENT against critique? I wonder if she even knows it's protecting us FROM her? I am so scared that I think she IS the harbinger of the Apocolypse!
Posted by: Jody Wade at October 31, 2008 06:20 PMSaying she's as dumb as a Texas fence post is an insult to Texas fence posts.
Posted by: mikefromtexas at November 1, 2008 04:19 AMSarah the patsy Judas goat is perfect for the GOP. If she wins, ha ha ha, if she loses, who gives a fuck, it's chum-time for the victim party.
Together, Doug Feith, her and chimpy would give the world the neo-Three Stooges.
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely,the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will have their desire at last, and the white house will be adorned by a downright moron."
–H. L. Mencken
This must never happen again. The real work starts the first day of the new presidency.
Posted by: waldo at November 1, 2008 04:40 AMI agree with you completely, apo, but to be fair, she`s good company on misunderstanding the 1st Amendment and "free speech".
Posted by: TokyoTom at November 1, 2008 11:38 AMI once knew a guy who was such a strict constructionist that he maintained, with no small vehemence, that protesting and carrying a sign and shouting was not protected by the 1st Amendment because of all the "or"'s in there. I kid you not. He used this to justify his belief that the police should be called to break up any protest of government policy. "If you want to say something, that's OK, and if you want to assemble, that's OK, but that sign you're waving didn't come off a press and you're doing all of them at once so it's not protected." He honestly said this to me after finding out I participated in a protest against the Patriot Act.
Of course, he also stated that Bush would save the economy by "flooding" (to use his term) the market with oil from the national strategic reserve the moment it hit $30/barrel.
Posted by: Robust McManlyPants at November 7, 2008 05:46 PM