Sadly, No!

My personal stance on Sarah Palin’s daughter is that it ain’t none of my business. She’s a kid, kids make mistakes, and I hope the press leaves her alone.

I’m personally much more amused about stuff like this:

Palin Was a Director of Embattled Sen. Stevens’s 527 Group

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin began building clout in her state’s political circles in part by serving as a director of an independent political group organized by the now embattled Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.

Palin’s name is listed on 2003 incorporation papers of the “Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service, Inc.,” a 527 group that could raise unlimited funds from corporate donors. The group was designed to serve as a political boot camp for Republican women in the state. She served as one of three directors until June 2005, when her name was replaced on state filings.

Palin’s relationship with Alaska’s senior senator may be one of the more complicated aspects of her new position as Sen. John McCain’s running mate; Stevens was indicted in July 2008 on seven counts of corruption.

Palin, an anti-corruption crusader in Alaska, had called on Stevens to be open about the issues behind the investigation. But she also held a joint news conference with him in July, before he was indicted, to make clear she had not abandoned him politically.

Stevens had been helpful to Palin during her run for governor, swooping in with a last moment endorsement. And the two filmed a campaign commercial together to highlight Stevens’s endorsement of Palin during the 2006 race.

The group was called “Ted Stevens Excellence in Public Service?” Like, really?

That’s pretty mavericky, my friends.

Bristol Palin is up the pole:

Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said. ‘We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us,’ the Palins’ statement said. ‘Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support,’ the Palins said.”

The there wasn’t the exact there some thought was there, but this shows there was definitely some sort of there there.

H/t: Blue Buddha in comments.

PS: Anybody know about Alaska’s age of consent law? You have to wonder if Sarah Palin will be charging the young man who impregnated her 17-year-old daughter with statutory rape.

Lousiana Governer Bobby Jindal has looked Gustav in the eyewall, and the hurricane has turned tail and fled.

The difference between rock-ribbed Republicans and weak-sister Democrats couldn’t be more stark:

Bobby jindel will take care of louisiana. He’s a good man and everybody should pray for them.

As for the lib. God is not on your side. He watching the people of louisiana and protecting them. You lib are sick i hope god will show the error of your ways.

Oh, He will, ‘jindel’ fans, He will. Michelle Herself has it on good authority that:

God is not on your side, gloating sleazeballs.

Brad adds: This is as good a time as any to pimp my new AlterNet piece on GOP efforts to turn the hurricane into an image makeover. Excerpt:

How the GOP Is Counting on Hurricane Gustav for an Image Makeover

By Brad Reed, AlterNet. Posted September 1, 2008.

[…]

To understand why the GOP has been so quick to cover all its bases on the current hurricane, we should consider the tremendous fallout that Hurricane Katrina had on the Bush presidency. The 2005 storm had a devastating political impact on George W. Bush and the Republican brand because it showed the American public what happens when a political party believes at its core that government should not be taken seriously.

Sound extreme? Consider Michael Brown, the woefully unqualified former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who became the public face of the disaster when Bush praised him against all evidence for doing a “heck of a job.” Prior to becoming head of the nation’s largest disaster relief agency, Brown worked for 11 years as “the chief rules enforcer of the Arabian Horse Association.” His only supposed experience in emergency management had been working for the emergency services division in the city of Edmond, Oklahoma for three years in the 1970s.

You would think that with such a thin résumé, Brown would have been laughed out of the FEMA offices. But under the rules of Bush governance, partisan loyalties and ideological zeal always trump talent, intelligence and experience. Consider some other classic Bush appointees who were not merely unqualified, but who were in some cases actively hostile toward the institutions they were chosen to lead. There’s George C. Deutsch, the former NASA press officer and college dropout who threatened NASA scientists with “dire consequences” for undermining the administration’s position on global warming and who harped upon agency web designers to not dismiss intelligent design creationism on the agency’s website. Or how about Monica Goodling, a religious zealot and former Justice Department political appointee who would screen candidates for career positions at the DOJ by asking them questions such as “What is it about President Bush that makes you want to serve him?” And who could forget notoriously unqualified Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers? Or John Bolton, the former United Nations ambassador who hates the United Nations? Or all the Heritage Foundation staffers who were sent over to rebuild Iraq?

Personally, I don’t think the GOP spin masters are talented enough to really turn this hurricane into an asset. I think the Dems’ strategy of staying out of the way and encouraging supporters to donate money for relief efforts is the right one.

Speaking of, you can donate to the Red Cross here. Be safe, all.

Rick Brookhiser on Teh Corner:

We have shown the same color-by-numbers mindset that liberals did when they rallied to Obama. Liberals love Obama because he is a Numinous Negro. Conservatives love Palin because she has a Downs baby and an M-16. For both sides, that is all on earth ye know and all ye need to know. You might call it mystical and childish.

H/t: Amy Alkon (ha!)

David Gregory on Meet the Press just now said he thought it was “cool” that Sarah Palin started going into labor and then still took an eight-hour plane ride back to Alaska.

Er, David that isn’t “cool.” It’s bloody dangerous.

Are our media really this stupid?

UPDATE: Uh:

John McCain, in his first television interview since his shocking vice presidential pick, said that he saw in Sarah Palin “a partner and a soul mate.”

John — you talked to her extensively precisely once before offering her the VP job. Are you bloody serious? This is like proposing marriage to someone after meeting them for a mid-afternoon coffee date.

I gotta just stop following the news for the rest of today. The st00p1d is driving me bonkers.

To any readers from the Gulf Coast region: be safe, peeps. This thing sounds really bad.

Interested parties can track this beast here.

UPDATE: Woof:

4 Investigates: Floodwalls stuffed with newspaper?

“It blows my mind.”

Those are the words St. Bernard parish president Craig Taffaro used to watch videotape Eyewitness News showed him, of floodwalls built to protect his parish.

“That should be criminal,” Taffaro continues.

What he’s talking about was witnessed by a St. Bernard Parish resident who didn’t want to be identified, but did have sharp criticism of the work done by a contractor hired by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on the hole of a gas tank of an airplane,” the resident said.

Instead of an airplane, it’s a floodwall, and instead of a Band-Aid, the witness says two years ago, he saw the contractor filling the expansion joint or opening between the floodwalls with newspaper.

“The whole length of the wall was stuffed with newspaper.”

And when he confronted the contractor, the contractor blamed Washington for the substandard work.

“He basically told me when Congress sent down the money, it would be repaired the proper way.”

But during a recent trip to the area, two years later, it was apparent that didn’t happen. Much of the newspaper had deteriorated or been eaten by bugs, but some still remained. In fact WWL cameras even captured the date May 21, 2006, on a page of the Parade magazine from the Times-Picayune.

(Via.)

Here’s Scott “Zeppo” Johnson of Powerline, Time Magazine’s once and forever 2004 Blog of the Year:

True Grit, I hope, part 2

Just for fun, I asked David Lunde of Lundesigns if he would photoshop an image to go with my conception of John McCain as Rooster Cogburn to Sarah Palin’s Mattie Ross. He has kindly responded with the image below.

Posted by Scott at 1:28 PM

Except the person on the right is German model Sabine Ehrenfeld.

…Also, we should like to introduce David Lunde of Lundesigns to the blur tool.

Also David, not sucking — ur doin it wrong.

Update: He changed the picture and, it seems, used the blur tool on the new one. Two out of three ain’t bad!

Update: Dear Scott of Powerline, here is your picture.

[Hanx! J—]

ABOVE: GayPatriotWest

Sarah Palin: Diva For Gay Republicans?

• Who cares if she is opposed to gay marriage? I’m voting for her because she has Audrey Hepburn’s hairdo.

‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard. We are aware of all Internet traditions.™

Two Corner posts wrapped into one Shorter:

Heartbeat

…and…

Qualification Debate

• If I can just keep talking and use a whole lot of words over the span of several paragraphs, I might convince people that Sarah Palin is the most qualified person in American history ever to seek the office of the vice-presidency.

‘Shorter’ concept created by Daniel Davies and perfected by Elton Beard. We are aware of all Internet traditions.™

Has anyone thought about what will happen if Bush takes the stage at the Republican National Convention and the crowd starts chanting, “FOUR MORE YEARS!” like they did at CPAC earlier this year? Would that pretty much be game, set, match for Obama?