Motley Moose – Archive

Being Sarah Palin becomes a more and more awkward thing to imagine as the reality of her situation becomes more painfully evident.  Even before she meanderingly announced that she was tired of being a United States Governor and then started threatening press and bloggers with legal action (oh, we’ll get to that…) she was having a bad week.

Mudflats lays it out for us:

a CBS piece detailing several leaked emails in which she asked the McCain campaign to lie about Todd Palin’s 7-year membership in a secessionist party. McCain strategist Steve Schmidt responded to her request saying that Todd was a member, and it was a secessionist party and he wasn’t going to create an issue in the media if it didn’t exist already, nor would he lie for her.

The statement you are suggesting be released would be inaccurate. The inaccuracy would bring greater media attention to this matter and be a distraction. According to your staff there have been no media inquiries into this and you received no questions about it during your interviews. If you are asked about it you should smile and say many Alaskans who love their country join the party because it speaks to a tradition of political independence. Todd loves his country.

We will not put out a statement and inflame this and create a situation where john has to adress this.”

Groucho Marx set the tone for the leading question with his classic question:

Have you stopped beating your wife?

Michael Steele and the RNC have taken a page from the Groucho Marx book of political surveying with their survey of President Obama’s foreign policy.

It may actually come as a surprise to the party whose leading lights all write for tabloid journals that represent the “Jerry Springer Show” stratum of literature, but people aren’t all idiots simply because they aren’t you.

Last night on his show, Glen Beck had as a guest a person who suggested that:

The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States.

Of course, Beck slapped him down:

Yep.  Which is why I was thinking this weekend that if I was him that would be the last thing I would do right now.

Human Events, of all places, has a remarkably sane summation of the Iranian situation written by, of all people, Pat Buchanan.

“Ten Days That Shook Tehran” asks the question:

Where do the ayatollah and Ahmadinejad go from here?

It is Sunday morning in Iran now.  Dawn has crept across the land and is chasing away the shadows that hide the truth.

Here’s hoping that our friends in Iran made it through the night OK and that the day brings them peace and freedom.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei gave a speech today.  The content boils down to: “I’m worried.  I’m not sure what to do.  Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”

In 1989 the Chinese government had enough of the protesters occupying a huge square in the middle of its national capital, so they kicked out the foreign press, shut down communications and rolled in the tanks.

Well, they almost shut down communications…

In 2009 the Iranian government tried the same thing.  It didn’t work any better.

Arbor Networks provides a good view on Iran’s connection to the Internet via the Internet Observatory.  The fat healthy traffic to the left of the dropoff is what Iranian Internet traffic looks like at normal times, the cliff denotes the election and to the right of that you see traffic increasingly “leaking” past the imposed restrictions.

Every year, millions of tiny turtles crawl forth from their sandy birthing holes along beaches around the world.  In a scene to set fear into the heart of the most hardened marine they storm their beaches in reverse, working against odds higher than Normandy to reach the safety of the sea.

Every year, after decades of surfing the deep currents of the world’s oceans, hardy veterans of the cycle of life and death return to the exact same beaches they stormed in their youth.  Landing craft for a new generation, they plant their biological claymores and leave them to explode into the world in their own time.

For all the trials and travails we perceive in our dry world, we suffer no more and reap no less than the leathery warriors who storm the beaches age upon age.  We can take a lesson and face our beaches with as much grace.

Consider this an open thread.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) “isn’t sure which side (President Obama) is on” with his “un-American” speech in Cairo.

Listen, jackass, this is our overwhelmingly-elected President you are talking about being “un-American”.  This is our Commander in Chief who you are openly wondering “which side he is on”.  Protecting your precious political career is no excuse for personal and moral cowardice, when you accuse the President of treason you should put your damn money where you fat mouth is.

On May 26, 1987, Donna White – in a beautiful pink lace dress – took the hand of a haggard young man in a white sport jacket in Toronto City Hall, and she said the two most fateful words ever spoken by starry-eyed youth.

Twenty two years, five states and three children later she still does.

Babydoll, since we happen to have 700 milles between us tonight I thought I’d just say this in public: thanks for sharing this wonderful world with me, for oh-so long.