That new body slamming Montana Congressman believes that retirement is for pussies because Noah was building that ark at 600 years old.

Hi my name is Greg Gianforte and I believe in fairy tales.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

In a 2015 talk at the Montana Bible College, Gianforte said the idea of retirement doesn’t exactly match his religious beliefs. 

“There’s nothing in the Bible that talks about retirement. And yet it’s been an accepted concept in our culture today,” he said at the time, according to a report in HuffPost. “Nowhere does it say, ‘Well, he was a good and faithful servant, so he went to the beach.’ It doesn’t say that anywhere.”

“How old was Noah when he built the ark? 600,” he said. “He wasn’t like, cashing Social Security checks, he wasn’t hanging out, he was working. So, I think we have an obligation to work. The role we have in work may change over time, but the concept of retirement is not biblical.”

Oh dear god that I don't believe in, what fresh hell, which I also don't believe in, has Montana subjected itself to?

Noah is a character in a children's tale of morality, NOT an actual person whose life should be taken literally!

I swear the next person who tries to convince me that religion does not destroy rational thinking, I am going to body slam.

All eyes are on the Montana special election and their body slamming GOP candidate. Update!

Even before last night's incident this race was pretty close according to Five Thirty Eight: 

Most pollsters gave Gianforte the lead. Gravis Marketing had him up 49 percent to 35 percent. A Change Research poll put Quist closer, with Gianforte ahead 49 percent to 44 percent. Two Google Consumer Surveys put into the field over the last three weeks actually had Quist up by 7 and 14 percentage points, respectively. In other words, there’s a wide spread in the publicly available data.

However since Gianforte went all  roid rage on that Guardian reporter there has been a significant shift in perceptions of the race.

For one thing Gianforte lost a newspaper endorsement: 

We're at a loss for words. 

And as people who wrangle words on a minute-by-minute basis, that doesn't happen often. 

What happens even less — hopefully never again — is a Montana candidate assaulting a reporter. While there are still questions left unanswered about GOP House hopeful Greg Gianforte's altercation with Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs, eyewitness accounts, law enforcement investigations and records are all shocking, disturbing and without precedent. 

That's why The Billings Gazette editorial board is also doing something without precedent: We're rescinding our editorial endorsement of Greg Gianforte.

And that was only one of three.

Of course as reported yesterday the Gianforte campaign is asserting that THEY were the injured party.

And of course the Right Wing media has been quick to jump to their defense.

What kind of a wuss files charges over broken glasses? Someone who wants to influence an outcome, that's who. #JournalismIsDead

— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) May 25, 2017

Sadly for them however there was a local Fox affiliate who were eyewitnesses to the incident:  

As the time for the interview neared, Gianforte came into the room. We exchanged pleasantries and made small talk about restaurants and Bozeman. 

During that conversation, another man — who we now know is Ben Jacobs of The Guardian — walked into the room with a voice recorder, put it up to Gianforte's face and began asking if he had a response to the newly released Congressional Budget Office report on the American Health Care Act. Gianforte told him he would get to him later. Jacobs persisted with his question. Gianforte told him to talk to his press guy, Shane Scanlon.

At that point, Gianforte grabbed Jacobs by the neck with both hands and slammed him into the ground behind him. Faith, Keith and I watched in disbelief as Gianforte then began punching the reporter. As Gianforte moved on top of Jacobs, he began yelling something to the effect of, "I'm sick and tired of this!"

"Then began punching the reporter." Boy there's a bumper sticker for you.

The Fox News team also added this:

To be clear, at no point did any of us who witnessed this assault see Jacobs show any form of physical aggression toward Gianforte, who left the area after giving statements to local sheriff's deputies. 

In response to these statements Gianforte has been charged with misdemeanor assault.

Now this being Montana, apparently beating the shit out of someone for asking a question is not necessarily the end of your campaign, so Gainforte could still win this.

But if he does win it could be the worst possible outcome for the GOP.

Courtesy of CNN:

If Gianforte loses, he -- and the story -- disappear. Republicans would immediately blame his last-minute implosion for the defeat, allowing them to avoid the idea that the race should be properly read as a national referendum on Trump and the recently-passed American Health Care Act. (Worth noting: Before Gianforte's choke-slam on Jacobs, the race had been tightening due to the corroding national environment for Republicans.) 

Now, consider what happens if Gianforte wins. Some time between now and June 7, he will have to appear in court to face the assault charge. And based on the audio provided by Jacobs as well as the eyewitness reports from a Fox News crew, it's hard to see how he doesn't get convicted. (Nota bene: I am not a lawyer.) 

What do Republicans do then? Every member of leadership will be asked, daily, whether seating Gianforte represents a willingness to look the other way. And for a party already struggling with branding issues, that's not the sort of story House Republicans need bouncing around Washington. 

If they don't seat Gianforte, then what? Can they force him to resign? And would that mean -- as I suspect it would -- another special election where the Democratic nominee, Rob Quist, would almost certainly run and might well start as the front-runner due to the controversy surrounding Gianforte? 

Gianforte losing is a bad story for national Republicans. Gianforte winning might well be a worse one.

Those are good points.

All I know is that an election in Montana that had once been well off my radar, has now become much too fascinating to ignore.

Update: Gianforte won. Proving that this is indeed Trump's America.

That is until we rise up and take it back from him.

Republican congressional candidate in Montana body slams Guardian reporter. Update!

Courtesy of the Guardian:

The Republican candidate for Montana’s congressional seat slammed a Guardian reporter to the floor on the eve of the state’s special election, breaking his glasses and shouting, “Get the hell out of here.” 

Ben Jacobs, a Guardian political reporter, was asking Greg Gianforte, a tech millionaire running for the seat vacated by Ryan Zinke, about the Republican healthcare plan when the candidate allegedly “body-slammed” the reporter. 

“He took me to the ground,” Jacobs said by phone from the back of an ambulance. “This is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me in reporting on politics.” 

Jacobs subsequently reported the incident to the police. Gianforte’s campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Audio of the abortive interview recorded by Jacobs captures the altercation, and appears to reference previous questioning from another Guardian reporter. “I’m sick and tired of you guys,” Gianforte said. “The last guy who came here did the same thing. Get the hell out of here. Get the hell out of here. The last guy did the same thing. Are you with the Guardian?” 

“Yes! You just broke my glasses,” Jacobs replied. 

“The last guy did the same damn thing,” Gianforte said. 

“You just body slammed me and broke my glasses,” Jacob said. 

“Get the hell out of here,” Gianforte yelled.

Greg Gianforte just body slammed me and broke my glasses

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) May 24, 2017

This literally JUST happened so there is no response yet from the candidate's spokesperson, though I cannot even begin to imagine what that might be.

I will say this though, I think that Mr. Gianforte can kiss his political career goodbye.

I wonder if other Republicans are going to respond to questions about the CBO in such an aggressive manner?

Update: The campaign just released a statement:

Gianforte's statement: pic.twitter.com/WVNdA1yZ8w

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) May 25, 2017

You listen to that audio again and tell me if this statement appears to honestly lay the events as they occurred.

White Supremacist who planned armed march in Montana claims permit refused, but it turns out he is just a cheapskate.

Andrew Anglin

Courtesy of Flathead Beacon:

Andrew Anglin, publisher of The Daily Stormer, said the armed march will not occur on Jan. 16 as previously planned. The neo-Nazi and white supremacist website mailed the city of Whitefish an incomplete application seeking a special event permit. City officials said they cannot act on incomplete applications. 

Anglin wrote online on Jan. 11, “I have spoken at length with my lawyers – though the ACLU has yet to respond to my inquiry – and we’ve decided that due to the permit refusal by the city of Whitefish, we will need to postpone the planned march.”

However as it turns out the neo-Nazi only sent $65.00 top cover a fee of the $125.00 required for a parade permit.

I don't know if that being a white supremacist scumbag simply does not pay very well, or if they have trouble with reading comprehension? 

What I think I do know is that the folks of Whitefish, Montana are probably breathing a sigh of relief.

Racist pieces of shit are one thing, but racist pieces of shit marching down the street with weapons strapped to their bodies is something else entirely.

White supremacists plan armed march in Montana town.

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

The Daily Stormer, a popular American neo-Nazi website, is organizing an armed march in Whitefish, Montana, home of white nationalist leader Richard Spencer’s mother. 

In a recent blog post that features Hilter’s face as its banner image, Andrew Anglin, publisher of the white supremacist website, announced he’s planning an armed march in the town for the second week of January — days before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. 

“Montana has extremely liberal open carry laws, so my lawyer is telling me we can easily march through the center of the town carrying high-powered rifles,” Anglin wrote, adding that he plans to be there personally. “Currently, my guys say we are going to be able to put together about 200 people to participate in the march, which will be against Jews, Jewish businesses and everyone who supports either. We will be busing in skinheads from the Bay Area.”

I wrote earlier that this same group was targeting Jews in Montana and releasing their personal information onto the internet.

This of course is just another example of what it will be like in Donald Trump's America, where no minority group is safe from intimidation, harassment, or physical endangerment.

White supremacist group targets Jews in Montana. And so it begins.

Richard spencer

Courtesy of the Independent:  

A white supremacist website has endangered people’s lives by posting contact details and photos of Jewish residents in a small Montana town – where the mother of white supremacist Richard Spencer lives - and has urged readers to "take action". 

The Daily Stormer, a racist website that describes Jews as a "people without shame", cites a Daily Mail article which alleges that Sherry Spencer was considering selling her business in Whitefish, as she claimed she was suffering backlash against her son’s views. Richard Spencer is a member of white supremacist think tank the National Policy Institute, which coined the term alt-right. 

The attacks focus on a group called Love Lives Here, which Ms Spencer accused of damaging her family. 

The peace organisation, which is "committed to co-creating a caring, open, accepting and diverse community, free from discrimination and dedicated to equal treatment", denied any wrongdoing. 

The fascist website has posted photos, phone numbers, addresses and social media channels of members of Love Lives Here. It also posted a picture of a child and pasted yellow stars on each photo. Jewish people in Nazi Germany were forced to wear a similar yellow star on their clothing. The article told readers to "hit them up".

Having trouble remembering.

Wasn't Hitler already in office before they started targeting the Jews?

If you are wondering if this Richard Spencer is a big time Trump supporter, well duh!

Of course this is just the beginning. Once Trump is officially in office every deplorable out there will feel they have free rein to openly discriminate against every minority that they have secretly, or not so secretly, hated for years.

I am sure my scarlet "A" for Atheist will be arriving in the mail any day now.

Primary day open thread. Update!

This will be my last primary day open thread and thank Odin for that.

Today's offering will be, in the order that their polls close,  New Jersey, New Mexico, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, and finally California.,

New Jersey's polls should be closing right now.

The polls in North Dakota, South Dakota, and New Mexico close in about an hour.

Montana is next in about two hours.

And finally the big Kahuna California will close at about 7:00 PM AK time.

At this point there is of course no real suspense as Hillary is already the presumptive nominee, but it will still be interesting to see how certain states vote and if Sanders is actually able to steal California away from Clinton.

As always I will update this post as polls close and information is available.

Update: Well this doesn't bode well.

Asked by @LesterHoltNBC if his campaign ends tonight, Sanders says he'll keep trying to turn super delegates pic.twitter.com/zf6XLJbpR3

— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) June 7, 2016

At some point you are just embarrassing yourself.

Update 2: Donald Trump is speaking right now and reaching out to Bernie Sanders supporters who were victimized by a "rigged system."

Donald Trump to Bernie Sanders supporters: "We welcome you with open arms" https://t.co/oZz0jUmo8i #PrimaryDay https://t.co/HeiM2uj1D1

— CNN (@CNN) June 8, 2016

I bet he really thinks he can get some of them to come over to the dark side too.

And who knows, maybe he's right.

Update 3: Hillary just won New Jersey. Well that's one down.

Update 4: Sanders wins North Dakota. (It is the last caucus state.)

Update 5: In the speech she is giving right now Hillary Clinton just referred to herself as the first female presidential nominee in history.

Oh it is on now!

Update 6: New Mexico has been called for Hillary now as well.

Update 7: Hillary has now won South Dakota.

Update 8:

Speaking is hard for me. But come January, I want to say these two words: "Madam President." #ImWithHer

— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) June 8, 2016

By the way Hillary is leading in California.

Update 9: Sanders has won Montana with a whole 21 delegates up for grabs.

Montana man accidentally shot...by his dog.

Courtesy of International Business Times:

Paramedics fought to save man's arm after he was accidentally shot by his dog. 

Richard Fipps, the dog's owner was towing a friend's car after it had become stuck, when he ordered his dog to move from the truck's front seat to the back. 

In the horrific accident, the dog knocked the trigger on the 46-year-old's rifle with his paw. Fipps was shot as he stood in the middle of the road in Montana, Wyoming. 

The injured man was taken to hospital where doctors are fighting to save his arm, although it may have to be amputated. 

"Carrying a loaded rifle in a truck is never a good idea, safety on or safety off," Steve Kozisek, the Johnson County Sheriff said. 

"The rifle was loaded and in the bed of the truck and the dog hopped up there and either stepped on it or caused something to move and set it off," he added. 

Kozisek said it was the first time in his 42-year career in the police force that he had ever dealt with an incident where a pet dog had shot its owner.

Just another example of a good dog exercising his 2nd Amendment rights. 

Gotta love 'Merica!

Twenty six year old man arrested for shooting and killing three year old while playing "gun tag."

Courtesy of NBC Montana:  

Galen Hawk, 26, appeared in a Polson courtroom Friday afternoon on a negligent homicide charge. 

Court documents say Hawk shot and killed 3-year-old Lonato Moran-Allen in a Ninepipes-area home Wednesday night. 

Investigators say Hawk and two others took the boy to a Ronan hospital, where he died. 

Court documents say Hawk and Moran-Allen were playing "gun tag." Moran-Allen had a toy gun and Hawk had a real one. 

Prosecutors say Hawk told detectives he'd been drinking whiskey and alcoholic lemonade the night of the shooting.

Just another good guy with a gun keeping America safe, right NRA?

More guns, equal more deaths, period.

In Montana, some of the Democratic candidates on the primary ballot are really Right Wing extremist wolves in sheep's clothing.

Muppet hater Michael Comstock

Courtesy of Southern Poverty Law Center:  

Democratic primary voters in some Montana legislative districts will see new and unfamiliar names on the ballot this year. That’s because at least eight Democratic candidates are actually far-right “constitutionalists” and Tea Party activists. One of them is the current Republican vice-chairman for Sanders County. Two of the others have turned out to be homeless. 

Most of the activity has occurred in Gallatin County, where Bozeman is the main population center and county seat. The county is home not only to Montana State University but also a variety of extremist elements. Key members of the radical Montana Freemen group were active there in the 1990s. 

Chief among the new crop of candidates is Michael Comstock, a well-known local Tea Party activist and antigovernment “Patriot” movement organizer who has run previously as a Republican. This year, he filed to run in the Democratic primary for the state Senate seat in District 24, a seat currently held by Republican incumbent Roger Webb, who is running for re-election. 

Comstock claimed during an interview with KCFW-TV in Bozeman that he’s a mainstream Democrat in the tradition of John F. Kennedy and Montana icon Mike Mansfield, and more mainstream than his primary opponent, Democratic activist and educator April Buonamici. But as the blogger Montana Cowgirl observed in her posts calling out Comstock and the other candidates, no one in Bozeman who knows Comstock is fooled by this, since he has been a colorful figure on the local political scene for many years: 

Comstock’s main focus is his concern about a possible takeover by ‘a one-world UN controlled government,’ the Bozeman Chronicle has reported. In his campaign literature and on Facebook, he says he is worried about the impending collapse of civilization. He proudly calls himself ‘a Tea Party extremist’ and believes the Muppets have ‘sold out to socialism and bad behavior.’

Yes, well everybody knows that the Muppets are tools of the radical Left Wing. Right?

So here's a question.

If the Democrats are in such trouble in 2014, and the Republicans have such clear sailing ahead, WHY are they resorting to all of these dirty tricks in order to sabotage the Democratic primary, and suppress turnout?

No, everything indicates that they are the ones that are worried, and that we are the ones who need to recognize that we are the ones in the catbird's seat. 

Of course if we don't have that confidence we could still shoot ourselves in the foot.

In the world of religious fundamentalism there are no victims of sexual assault, only sinners sinning with sinners.

Courtesy of Salon:  

The small city of Missoula, Montana recently grabbed headlines after the Department of Justice sent a letter to the Missoula County Attorney’s Office, asserting it had “substantial evidence” that the county has completely failed at the job of dealing with sexual assault. A lot of details of the allegations against Missoula officials were disturbing, including a prosecutor who allegedly told the mother of a 5-year-old rape victim that “boys will be boys,” but another thing that jumps out is the role religion played in justifying the minimizing of rape allegations. According to the Justice Department, a deputy county attorney responded to one rape victim by reading her Bible verses “in a way that the victim interpreted to mean that the Deputy County Attorney was judging her negatively for have made the report.” 

Sadly, this kind of reaction from Christian conservatives to sexual assault—blame the victim and make it about sex, not violence—is surprisingly common. 

Kiera Feldman, writing for the New Republic, captured this problem perfectly in her piece about the sexual assault problem at the hyper-Christian university Patrick Henry. She chronicles one case where the alleged assailant attacked the victim in her sleep, which should be a clear-cut case of non-consent. But, since Patrick Henry is a school focused on preventing and punishing all sexual contact between students, the criminal and abusive aspects appear to have been ignored in favor of seeing this mainly as a sexual transgression. The assailant kept referring to his behavior as “taking liberties,” as if the problem with what he did was that it was sexual, not that it was violent. The dean decided therefore that both the victim and the assailant were to blame, reportedly telling the victim, “You are in part responsible for what happened, because you put yourself in a compromising situation,” and adding, “Actions have consequences.” Both students were given counseling, and the victim reported that her counseling was just more blaming her for the assault through lessons in “modesty.” 

This is not just a problem for Patrick Henry College. The other big name in fundamentalist universities, Bob Jones University, reportedly has the same problem. Writing for Al Jazeera America, Claire Gordon reports similar stories coming from rape victims at BJU. One alleged victim reported that the dean asked her, “Is there anything that you did that made him do that?” and also that the content of her counseling sessions, which she thought were private, were shared with the administration. The counselor herself claims that the school then terminated the sessions because they felt she was becoming too sympathetic toward the victim, which suggests that from the get-go, the intention was to get dirt on the victim to discredit her claims. Shortly thereafter, the victim was expelled from the university. 

Things only have grown uglier since then, as BJU recently terminated, rather abruptly, a contract with a firm it hired to help improve its responses to sexual abuse on campus. As the New York Times reported, critics of this decision suspect it was because BJU didn’t like the firm’s findings. Victims of abuse told the Times various horror stories about the administration’s response to their reports. “They said not to go to the police because no one will believe you, to defer to authority like your father or especially someone in the church,” said one woman who reported abuse. 

“The person who supposedly counseled me told me if I reported a person like that to the police, I was damaging the cause of Christ, and I would be responsible for the abuser going to hell,” another victim reported.

You know I was raised with very little religion in my life, but with a great deal of focus on personal responsibility.  Early in my life my mother made me responsible in caring for my younger siblings when she was at work, and hammered home the importance of treating people with respect and not simply as objects.

Of course I was also never raised to think that sex was anything to be ashamed of, or that having it outside of wedlock meant you were a bad person.

Sex was considered a healthy part of relationships, and not something that was given away or used for barter.

However rape was an entirely different matter altogether. If I had been accused of rape my mother would have gladly led the police right to my door, and if I had the audacity to blame what I had done on the victim my mother would have slapped me across the face.

To that point if anybody had been ignorant enough to violate my sister my mother would have insisted that I find that person and punish them severely. Which I would have done gladly.

And as I have said repeatedly on this blog, rape is NOT sex.  It is violence.

Blaming a woman for her own rape is the kind of response you might expect from those who believe that everything wrong with the world today can be traced back to Eve's transgression in the Garden of Eden.  No rational person would blame a child for their own abuse, nor should they blame a woman for the violence done to them.

In Saudi Arabia a female rape victim was sentenced to 200 lashes for the crime of being unable to fend off her attacker.

One would think that in America we had progressed past this kind of antiquated thinking, but apparently in some areas of the country they would be wrong. And that should shame us all.

Deeply red Montana prepares to turn blue. Can other Republican strongholds be too far behind?

Courtesy of the New York Times:

This funky college town, nestled along two rivers where five mountain ranges converge, has long been a liberal pocket, an isolated speck of blue in a deeply red state. Now Montana is electing more politicians who lean that way, thanks to a different-minded generation of young voters animated by the recession and social issues. 

It is no secret that young voters tilt left on social issues like immigration and gay rights. But these students, and dozens of other young people interviewed here last week, give voice to a trend that is surprising pollsters and jangling the nerves of Republicans. On a central philosophical question of the day — the size and scope of the federal government — a clear majority of young people embraces President Obama’s notion that it can be a constructive force, a point he intends to make in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. 

“Young people absolutely believe that there’s a role for government,” said Matt Singer, a founder of Forward Montana, a left-leaning though officially nonpartisan group that seeks to engage young people in politics. “At the same time, this is not a generation of socialists. They are highly entrepreneurial, and know that some of what it takes to create an environment where they can do their own exciting, creative things is having basic systems that work.” 

Here in Montana, a state that backed John McCain in 2008 and Mr. Romney last year, voters under 30 have helped elect two Democratic senators and a new Democratic governor. Nationally, young voters have since 2004 been casting their ballots for Democrats by far wider margins than previous young generations — a shift that could reshape American politics for decades.

You know WHENEVER I read about a red state becoming purple, or that it is on the fast track to embracing progressive ideals wholeheartedly, I always get very excited about the future of the country and cannot help but imagine a time where the divisive issues of abortion, gay rights, and immigration are no longer considered appropriate issues to use in order to get political leverage. by EITHER side.

Wouldn't that be wonderful? To have actual grownup conversations about which direction to take the country without politicians feeling the need to frighten people into supporting them with talk of "the end of traditional values," or  "killing babies," or"keeping those Mexicans from taking jobs away from hard working Americans?" I don't know about you but I can hardly wait.

Hell if Montana is ready to turn blue can Alaska be far behind?

Not according to Nate Silver it's not!

Can I just say again how great it is to be a liberal in 2013?

Montana Republican party trots out bullet riddled outhouse to represent the "Obama Presidential Library." Nothing violent, or disrespectful about THAT imagery, now is there?

Courtesy of TPM:

Outside the Montana state Republican Party convention this weekend was an outhouse labeled the “Obama Presidential Library” and covered in painted-on bullet holes. 

Inside the outhouse contained a fake birth certificate for Barack Hussein Obama, according to the Helena Independent Record. 

It was stamped “Bull——.” A graffito advised “For a Good Time call 800-Michelle (crossed out), Hillary (crossed out) and Pelosi (circled in red.)” 

State GOP Chairman Will Deschamps said he didn’t know who was responsible for the outhouse but called it a “sideshow,” the paper reported. 

“It’s not something I’m going to agonize over,” he said. “Some of that stuff is not real good taste. We do have a president of the United States, and we have to honor that.”

I think it is clear, beyond any shadow of  doubt, that the disrespect for this President permeates the Republican party like we have never seen before in out political history.

They don't just oppose his policies (Many by the way that one time were Republican policies), they simply despise HIM on a very personal level.

Gee, I wonder why that is?

Sarah Palin attacks the "old media" by confusing it with the "new media," and laments their desire to put "the Prince of Make-crap-up-istan" on a pedestal. Whatever that means. Update!

You know in my real job, the one that pays my bills, I often have to work with individuals who are very dedicated liars. So dedicated in fact that they believe the lies that they tell to such a degree that to identify what they say as a lie can become very difficult.

But there are what I call "gives." These are subconscious indications (Much like a poker player whose face betrays his royal flush) that betray the truth they are hoping to conceal.

One of these gives is providing TOO much detail in an attempt to make your lie more believable, when in fact you make it too complicated to adequately keep track of all of the moving parts.

The other give is the need to revisit the lie over and over again, much like an arsonist who returns to the building that they set afire over and over to see if people have figured out who did it, or simply to admire their handy work.

Sarah Palin has demonstrated both of these "gives" a number of times.

In the speech above Palin cannot help but revisit a number of her lies, as well as stories that she is still very angry were ever reported on. I cannot help but find it especially entertaining that she has resurrected older stories, ones that hardly anybody talks about anymore, and which were first reported here on IM.

Clearly she is STILL irritated by the fact that I reported on those stories, and in some cases continue to report on them, and is bringing them up in a relatively unnecessary attempt to refute them even though many in her audience have probably never heard of the Montana land deal, or the FBI investigation, or the Hampton's rumor.

That Montana land deal story WAS a very good story, by the way.  And I was quite confident that I had my facts correct, but the Palins apparently quashed it JUST to prove me wrong. Which of course was, at the time, a much better outcome than I was hoping for.

The same was true of her divorce, which I first reported in my, now somewhat notorious, Splitsville post. After that, according to various sources that we have talked to since, Palin circled the wagons and offered Todd a deal to "play the happily married spouse." Once again, in my opinion, the best outcome I could have hoped for at the time.

As for her impossible pregnancy, and Trig's ridiculous birth story, Palin simply CANNOT resist revisiting the burned ashes of that particular lie constantly. I believe that she considers it a successful lie even though the falsity of it is now accepted by a larger population of Americans than never before, and though she is STILL actively working to keep the truth hidden from view.

I wonder just HOW much money the tabloids and blogs have manged to suck out of her bank account in order for her to continue to hide the truth from us?

Another thing I found rather interesting about the speech fragment in the video is that while Palin is attempting to espouse the virtues of the "new media" while slamming the "old media," the stories that she is clearly still irritated by were reported in, what she has labeled, the "new media." Blogs were the ones that discussed her fake pregnancy, her Montana property, and the federal investigations, NOT Katie Couric!  However Palin is on a roll, and as we know with Palin facts rarely matter.

And as for the person she claims wants to be "the prince of Make-crap-up-istan? How is that NOT Rupert Murdoch?

All in all I think we have to chalk this up to yet another Sarah Palin EPIC FAIL!

Update: I forgot to mention that the Grizzled Mama's influence has now been so dramatically reduced that in order to get people to attend a conference which features her as a speaker, Tea Party.net is also offering a get rich quick scheme that they guarantee will quadruple the attendance fee:

This opportunity is so important…and I’m so confident that the New Orleans Conference will pay for itself many times over…that I’ll offer you this ironclad guarantee: 


If you attend New Orleans 2012 and don’t make back at least four times the money you paid to register — in six months or less — just let me know. 


I’ll happily give you a prompt, hassle-free refund on your entire registration fee. Every penny.

Yeah but first you have to be subjected to the screech that passes for speech from the "Wasilla Banshee" and spend the day with tricorner hat wearing dipshits who don't understand the Constitution.

I think I'll take a pass.

Update 2: For those who are interested here is the entire speech.

Montana judge admits to sending racist, bestiality suggestive e-mail about President.

Judge Richard Cebull.

Courtesy of Great Falls Tribune:

Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull on Wednesday admitted to sending a racially charged email about President Barack Obama from his courthouse chambers. 

Cebull, of Billings, was nominated by former President George W. Bush and received his commission in 2001 and has served as chief judge for the District of Montana since 2008. 

The subject line of the email, which Cebull sent from his official courthouse email address on Feb. 20 at 3:42 p.m., reads: "A MOM'S MEMORY." 

The forwarded text reads as follow: 

"Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine. "A little boy said to his mother; 'Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?'" the email joke reads. "His mother replied, 'Don't even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!'" 

The judge acknowledges that the e-mail is racist but claims he did not intend for it to become public. Like that makes it better!


"It was not intended by me in any way to become public," Cebull said. "I apologize to anybody who is offended by it, and I can obviously understand why people would be offended." 

Cebull said his brother initially sent him the email, which he forwarded to six of his "old buddies" and acquaintances. 

He admitted that he read the email and intended to send it to his friends. "The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan," Cebull said. "I didn't send it as racist, although that's what it is. I sent it out because it's anti-Obama."

I'm sorry I know everybody expects me to write some witty post eviscerating this asshole, but I am literally so sickened by that level of hate directed at our President that I am almost struck speechless.

However I would really like for some reporter in Montana to take a look at the cases that this judge has presided over, and compare whether or not the black defendants that come before him were treated any differently than the lighter skinned defendants that come before him.

Because I have to say that anybody who felt compelled, scratch that, excited to share this e-mail with his "old buddies," has a very deeply ingrained malignant racism that certainly must have expressed itself in a variety of ways over the years.

Obama leading McCain in the red state of Montana!

Barack Obama is leading John McCain by five percentage points in Montana. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state shows Obama attracting 48% of the vote while McCain earns 43%.

You know perhaps Obama's 50 state strategy is not such a waste of money. If he can be competitive in Montana then he may be able to compete everywhere.

As a matter of fact I have been seeing his commercials running fairly constantly up here in the red state of Alaska, and I have to say they are pretty effective.

I have also been second guessing Obama for a while now, on his FISA stance, on the faith based initiative, on his overreaction to the Wesley Clark story, amongst others.

But now I am wondering if perhaps I am underestimating Barack. Could he in fact be smarter then I am ? I hate to ponder that possibility since it makes my ego hurt, but in light of his growing popularity perhaps the guy knows exactly what he is doing and many of us are just not seeing the big picture.

Now that does not mean I will not continue to point out mistakes or blunders when I think I see them, because that is part of the process. And if I am incorrect I will just have to apologize.

To be honest I hope I have to apologize quite a lot in the near future.