Tina Fey back as Sarah Palin

The Sarah Palin Network. What a concept! For those of my faithful readers who are not on Facebook, where I posted this.

Note that the feed on the commercial before the clip is really choppy, but the clip itself is good quality.

Sarah Palin oblivious to Thanksgiving turkey slaughter

Betty C. mentioned, in a comment to my recent food post, something about a "Sarah Palin Thanksgiving Turkey interview." So, of course, I had to see for myself what it was all about. First, here's a snippet from The Australian about it:

Sarah Palin oblivious to Thanksgiving turkey slaughter

Sarah Palin has fouled up a Thanksgiving interview, shocking television viewers who saw what the Alaska Governor could not - a turkey being slaughtered behind her.

Mrs Palin was granting a traditional Thanksgiving pardon to one lucky turkey, obviously not the one being slaughtered by an employee at the Triple D Farm & Hatchery outside her hometown of Wasilla, the Associated Press reported.

Here's the video - Supposedly, Palin was asked if that was the background that she wanted for the interview, and she replied: "no worries."

But my real question is: "What the hell was that newscast producer thinking?" I also thought - Hey, she's got that Fargo accent, and here's the classic Fargo scene as the background.

Palin tricked into thinking that she was getting a phone call from Sarko

[From Yahoo New / Uk - Ireland]
November 1, 2008

VP pick Sarah Palin hoaxed by comedy prank call

Republican vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin on Saturday was the victim of a prank phone call by a French-Canadian comedian impersonating French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

To hear this conversation (I cannot be sure that it's genuine, one never knows...), click here (the audio track would not work for me on the website mentioned in this article.) Listen to it, I love the way the comedian has Sarko say "I can see Belgium from my house," which sounds like "I can see Belgium from my ass." And "my wife is so hot in bed." Way too much!

After Palin realized the call was a hoax, her campaign staff admitted she was "mildly amused."

The prank tag-team from Quebec, "Justiciers masqués," who have previously targeted heads of state and celebrities, posted the conversation on their website (www.justiciers.tv).

In the recording, John McCain's running mate enthusiastically takes the fake Sarkozy's call.

"It's so good to hear you, thank you for calling us ... we have such great respect for you, John McCain and I, we love you!" Palin said.

She appeared unfazed by the fake president's thick French accent and some outrageous comments.

At one point the impersonator, comedian Marc Antoine Audette, told the Alaskan governor he is following the US elections closely along with his special American advisor Johnny Hallyday -- a famous French rock'n'roll singer.

When the fake president told Palin his wife Carla Bruni is "hot in bed," the governor chuckled and complimented him for his "beautiful family."

Palin also proffered to continue relations if she reaches the White House.

"We should go hunting together," Palin said.

Palin laughed in response to Audette's comment: "I just love killing those animals ... take away life, that is so fun!"

The governor, who is making a whistle-stop tour through key states in the last weekend before the November 4 election, told the fake president that she is "very confident" about the Republican ticket's chances, and said she thought "the race is tightening" ahead of Tuesday's general election.

"I see you as a president one day, too," said the comedian.

"Maybe in eight years," replied Palin.

The comedy duo have previously used their impersonations to target former French president Jacques Chirac, celebrities Mick Jagger and Britney Spears, and Sarkozy himself.

"This was our most explosive coup so far," comedian Audette told AFP, adding that it was "difficult" for he and his accomplice Sebastien Trudel to get their request for a phone conversation past Palin's entourage and her Secret Service detail.

The McCain campaign later released a statement about the phone call.

"Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy, and other celebrities in being targeted by these pranksters. C'est la vie."

For Le Monde story on this, go here.

Life and times...

I really did not have much time to write a substantial entry for today. My weekend was kind of busy, because Marty came from Indianapolis to spend most of it with me. He arrived by about 10:15 on Friday evening (he had been able to leave work a bit early.)

On Friday evening, I went to the "opening" of an exhibit of photographs by one of my colleagues at a local art shop. It was quite nice, and I got to see a number of friends and colleagues, including Tim whom, I have recently come to realize, I have now known for close to ten years. However, as is often the case at such events (and that's why I usually hate them), I did not really get to have any significant conversation with anyone. I think that I managed the diet end of it pretty well by having just one beer, but I did have some cheese which, as we all know, if fairly high in calories (but it was damn good!).

At this event, I had talked for a while to a couple whom, actually, Marty and I had invited for dinner on Saturday evening. We left together, at about 7:30, and they were going to have dinner at a local restaurant, and asked me if I wanted to join them, and I gladly agreed to do so. That place was OK, not great, of course. I just had the soup and salad bar, and limited myself to a bowl of minestrone and a salad (just lettuce and tomatoes.) I was back home by about 9:00, and relaxed until Marty's arrival.

It was great to have Marty around for about a day and a half. On Saturday morning, I blew off the weekly Weight Watchers meeting - but I will attend another one tomorrow night. Marty and I had to prepare the dinner for our four guests, so we took off for breakfast at Perkins' at about 9:25. After breakfast, we shopped for the ingredients that we needed to make our dinner. We had planned on duck in olive sauce (canard aux olives), rice pilaf, mushrooms, and celery au gratin. We went to a couple of stores, dropped off the stuff at my place, and drove to a crappy mall about 20 miles from where I live, where there is an Ollie's Bargain Outlet store. I bought The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher for a mere $6.99, as well the 2005 edition of the Videohound's Golden Movie Retriever for $2.99. Marty got himself a cookbook, the same copy of the Videohound, and a 2008 road atlas.

By the time we got back home, it was way past lunch time, so we made some chicken salad sandwiches, and had a quick lunch. As we were ready to take a well-deserved nap, I realized that there was a message on my voice mail, I checked it, and it turned out that the couple with whom I had had dinner the night before had to cancel out on us, because the wife's mother (who lives with this couple) had to be taken to the hospital. I hope that it was nothing too serious. I will find out tomorrow at school. We were, therefore, left with only two guests, but it was fine.

After a one-hour or so nap, we began cooking. Our guests arrived at about 7:15, and dinner turned out very well, we had fun with our guests and drank tons of wine (probably not good for the Weight Watcher that I have become...). However, my kitchen looked like a bomb had hit it, and we had to do some thorough cleaning after the guests had left. We put in a serious team effort, and were done by about 10:30. We were bushed, and were in bed by 11:00.

We got up at about 8:00 on Sunday morning, and it seems like Marty was getting a cold - he was not miserable, but a bit sniffly. We watched the Sunday morning news shows (and, yes, Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama on Meet the Press), and the opening skit of last night's SNL, which I had recorded on my DVR - the REAL Sarah Palin made an appearance, and you finally get to see how uncanny her resemblance with Tina Fey is (Palin appears a bit into the pseudo press conference, which she is watching with Lorne Michaels, the producer of SNL - some fun stuff happens then too):



Speaking of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, Tina was on Letterman on Friday night, and discussed her impersonation of McCain's running mate. First of all, she strongly indicated that she really did not want to do it at first, but then was convinced anyway (there's a funny line when she says that her 11 year old kid saw Sarah Palin on TV and said "that's Mommy!"). Anyway, here's part of that interview - I couldn't find the entire clip on You Tube:



Anyway - all good things, I guess, have to come to an end, and Marty had to leave for home on Sunday at noon. He will be back for Thanksgiving and I will be going to Indianapolis around December 20 or so, after having visited Claire and Jeff in Providence.

My semester is officially half over, so it's good news. But the second half is always a bit more difficult to manage than the first one. Wish me luck!

Have a few minutes of good old American fun!

Believe you me, you will have fun, if you go to this site! Just rummage around the room, and click on some of the items. The red phone is the best - but save it for last!

My Banned Books week t-shirt

I let Banned Books week (September 27-October 4) go by without blogging about it. Claire (not my daughter, Claire, but Alt. Claire!) did - here.

But - I am the proud reader of many banned books (take that, Sarah Palin*!), and I bought a Banned Books t-shirt from my school's English Club.

Here's the front of that t-shirt:

And here's the back:

--------------

There is a bogus list of "Sarah Palin's Banned Books" circulating on the internet. However, I do believe that it is true that, when she was the mayor of Wassila, Alaska, Palin tried to get some books banned from its public library. Here's what Time Magazine reported about this, back in early September:

[Former mayor of Wassila John] Stein says that as mayor, Palin continued to inject religious beliefs into her policy at times. "She asked the library how she could go about banning books," he says, because some voters thought they had inappropriate language in them. "The librarian was aghast." That woman, Mary Ellen Baker, couldn't be reached for comment, but news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor.

According to Librarian.net (the blog where a commenter originally posted that bogus list of Sarah Palin banned books), "Mary Ellen Baker resigned from her library director job in 1999."

The Saturday Special

No caption is required for this one, I believe.

You can order your own t-shirt with this design on it here

Dispatch from Sarah Palin Land

Jérôme posted this video the other day. I thought I would do so as well. Watch it, especially if you did miss the now legendary Charlie Gibson "Bush doctrine" question (Palin didn't know what it is), and the Katie Couric question about what magazines Sarah Palin reads regularly. "I read them all!" she answered - see Sarah Vowell's hilarious comment on that in the video of her appearance on Letterman this past Monday night, which is embedded in the post below. Vowell's comment regarding what Supreme Court decision bothers her immensely (another Katie Couric question to Palin, who was unable to respond) was also precious!

Thanks, Jérôme, for bringing my attention to this one.

They, too, think that Palin could (or will) sink McCain

I watched part of the Presidential debate last night, but was bushed, so I went to bed before it ended. However, I recorded it, and will watch the end after my Weight Watchers meeting this morning. I'll let you know what I thought about it later.

In the meantime, I am giving you reading assignment for your weekend, dear faithful readers. And its source is unexpected - it's from The National Review online. Its concluding lines may make you gasp - and then smile. The chorus of This Social Distortion tune may be on McCain's mind these days...

PALIN PROBLEM
She’s out of her league.
The National Review Online - September 26, 2008

By Kathleen Parker

If at one time women were considered heretical for swimming upstream against feminist orthodoxy, they now face condemnation for swimming downstream — away from Sarah Palin.

To express reservations about her qualifications to be vice president — and possibly president — is to risk being labeled anti-woman.

Or, as I am guilty of charging her early critics, supporting only a certain kind of woman.

Some of the passionately feminist critics of Palin who attacked her personally deserved some of the backlash they received. But circumstances have changed since Palin was introduced as just a hockey mom with lipstick — what a difference a financial crisis makes — and a more complicated picture has emerged.

As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan’s president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)

And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she’s had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).

Finally, Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”

When Couric pointed to polls showing that the financial crisis had boosted Obama’s numbers, Palin blustered wordily: “I’m not looking at poll numbers. What I think Americans at the end of the day are going to be able to go back and look at track records and see who’s more apt to be talking about solutions and wishing for and hoping for solutions for some opportunity to change, and who’s actually done it?”

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

What to do?

McCain can’t repudiate his choice for running mate. He not only risks the wrath of the GOP’s unforgiving base, but he invites others to second-guess his executive decision-making ability. Barack Obama faces the same problem with Biden. (NOTE FROM ELISABETH: I REALLY DO NOT GET THIS COMMENT, SINCE I DO NOT SEE HOW BIDEN CAN BE A PROBLEM FOR OBAMA.)

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first.

Do it for your country.

Eve Ensler on Sarah Palin

This is a Huffington Post entry written by Eve Ensler on Sarah Palin (on September 8) - Thanks to Danny for having brought it to my attention:

KEEP ON READING PAST THIS POST, TODAY'S "REAL" ENTRY IS BELOW

Drill, Drill, Drill

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it's their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don't like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story -- connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don't move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

Vertigo also posted a link to this excellent article by Gloria Steinem, also on Sarah Palin:
Palin: wrong woman, wrong message
Sarah Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Hillary Clinton. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

From someone who should know, a diatribe on Sarah Palin

Note: I did not write what follows. It was sent to me by a friend of mine, who had received it from a friend, etc., etc. It was written by a Bryn Mawr graduate who is an Alaskan resident and was a Hillary Clinton supporter, who then sent this message to her former college classmates. I thought that it was interesting enough to share it with you, my faithful readers, although the occasional elitist overtones - references to "red necks" and "people without teeth" - of this diatriabe made me cringe at times. However, I do agree with most of what this woman wrote about Sarah Palin.

As an Alaskan, I am writing to give all of you some information on Sarah Palin, Senator McCain's choice for VP. As an Alaska voter, I know more than most of you about her and, frankly, I am horrified that he picked her.

The most accurate description of her is red neck. Her husband works in the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay and races snow mobiles. She is a lifetime member of the NRA and has worked tirelessly to allow indiscriminate hunting of wildlife in Alaska, particularly wolves and bears. She has spent millions of Alaska state dollars on aerial hunting of these predators from helicopters and airplanes, dollars that should have been spent, for example, on Alaska's failing school system.We have the lowest rate of high school graduation in the country. Not all of you may think aerial predator hunting is so bad, but how anyone (other than Alaska wolf-haters, of which there are many, most without teeth), could think this use of funds is appropriate is beyond me. If you want to know more about the aerial hunting travesty, let me know and I will send some links to informative web sites.

She has been a strong supporter of increased use of fossil fuels, yet the McCain campaign has the nerve to say she has 'green' policies. The only thing green about Sarah Palin is her lack of experience. She has consistently supported drilling in ANWR, use of coal-burning power plants (as I write this, a new coal plant is being built in her hometown of Wasilla), strip mining, and almost anything else that will unnecessarily exploit the diminishing resources of Alaska and destroy its environment.

Prior to her one year as governor of Alaska, she was mayor of Wasilla, a small red neck town outside Anchorage.The average maximum education level of parents of junior high school kids in Wasilla is 10th grade. Unfortunately, I have to go to Wasilla every week to get groceries and other supplies, so I have continual contact with the people who put Palin in office in the first place. I know what I'm talking about. These people don't have a concept of the world around them or of the serious issues facing the US. Furthermore, they don't care. So long as they can go out and hunt their moose every fall, kill wolves and bears and drive their snow mobiles and ATVs through every corner of the wilderness, they're happy. I wish I were exaggerating.

Sarah Palin is currently involved in a political corruption scandal. She fired an individual in law enforcement here because she didn't like how he treated one of her relatives during a divorce. The man's performance and ability weren't considered; it was a totally personal firing and is currently under investigation. While the issue isn't close to the scandal of Ted Steven's corruption, it shows that Palin isn't 'squeaky clean' and causes me to think there may be more issues that could come to light. Clearly McCain doesn't care.

When you line Palin up with Biden, the comparison would be laughable if it weren't so serious. Sarah Palin knows nothing of economics (admittedly a weak area for McCain), or of international affairs, knows nothing of national government, Social Security, unemployment, health care systems - you name it. The idea of her meeting with heads of foreign governments around the world truly frightens me.

In an increasingly dangerous world, with the economy in shambles in the US, Sarah Palin is uniquely UNqualified to be vice president. John McCain is not a young man. Should something happen to him such that the vice president had to step in, it would destroy our country and possibly the world to have someone as inexperienced and inappropriate as Sarah Palin. The choice of Palin is a cheap shot by McCain to try to get Hillary supporters to vote for him. when McCain introduced her today, Palin had the nerve to compare herself with Hillary and Geraldine Ferraro. Sarah Palin, you are no Hillary Clinton.

To those of you who, like me, supported Hillary and were upset that she did not get the nomination, please don't think that Sarah Palin is a worthy substitute. If you supported Hillary, regardless of what you think the media and the Democratic party may have done to undermine her campaign, the person to support now is Obama, not Sarah Palin. To those of you who are independent or undecided, don't let the choice of Palin sway you in favor of McCain. Choosing her shows how unqualified McCain is to be president. To those of you who are conservative, I guess you have no choice for president. But please try to see how the poor choice of Palin tells us a great deal about McCain's judgment. While the political posturing inherent in the choice of Palin is obvious, the more serious issue is the fact that the VP is, a heartbeat away from the presidency. Sarah Palin is totally and unequivocally unqualified to be vice president, let alone president.

I know this is a lengthy and emotional email, but the stakes are high. I thought it might help for all of you, regardless of political affiliation, to know something about Palin from someone who has to live with her administration in Alaska on a daily basis.

WTF?!!?

For one, I did not really get any time to comment on John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate, since I was leaving for Pittsburgh on Friday p.m., and did not even take my laptop with me.

However, my first reaction was "WTF?!!?" Here's a total unknown, with a very minimal amount of political experience. OK, she is quite attractive, and knows how to handle an M-16. On the other hand, she stands for just about everything that I despise. As John Kerry put it (on This Week with George Stephanopoulos yesterday), Hillary Clinton's supporters are smarter than switching their allegiance to McCain just because he picked a woman for his VP.

And then, my second reaction was that Sarah Palin looks very much like Tina Fey, which will make for some great SNL skits! I do hope that this striking resemblance has not been lost on the producers and writers of this great show, and that there will be at least one Sarah Palin/John McCain skit on the Premiere of Saturday Night Live on Saturday, September 13 (Michael Phelps, by the way, will be the host.) With Sarah Palin's trademark B-52 hairdo, Tina Fey will be a dead-on look-alike!