Spudnuts?

Sarah Palin’s response the SOTU was bizarre, to say the least, particularly when it came to discussing the “Sputnik moment” — a tiresome analogy borrowed from Thomas Friedman — that was advanced by President Obama as an inspirational, Kennedyesque national project to spur innovation and revive the American economy by making various “investments” in science, education, and high-speed access to Internet porn. (Okay, he didn’t say that last bit, but come on…)

Tommy Christopher at Mediaite has perfectly detailed the travesty and quite helpfully included this supposition as to how, of all things, Spudnuts weirdly entered the discussion, suggesting that the equation went like this: “Sputnik moment” + “Something that sounds like Sputnik but isn’t”=WIN!”

By the way, the article linked to above provides a fascinating potted history of the rise and fall of the Spudnuts empire, which on close examination seems like a pretty dodgy business model to emulate.

Finally, am I the only one who got the impression that this entire interview with Greta Van Susteren was scripted in advance?

Alaskans Smell Like Salmon…

This startling revelation from best-selling author, newly-minted millionaire and Facebook blogger Sarah Palin, who vividly relates to Faux News anchor Greta Van Susteren her two monumental experiences standing in line for celebrity book-signings by literary rock-stars Herschel Walker and Ivana Trump.

Feel free to create your own punchlines… These days, with regards to Palin, I’m just speechless.

Update: But wait, there’s more! Oh, good grief… there’s always more.

This may sound kind of snobbish, but the dropped g’s really send me up the wall. Is it really necessary to say “puttin” as opposed to “putting” and so on?

Palinpalooza

Larry and the kids at Countdown provide an entertaining compilation of late-night comedians’ takes on the Goin’ Rogue media promotion.

Update: Martha Stewart speaking of Palin: She’s “a very boring person” and “kind of a dangerous person” because “she’s so confused… anyone like that in government is a real problem.”

Keith the Evil

That’s some darn good victimizin’ there, you betcha!

Flagrant lies and mewling self-pity… it’s what right-wingnuts do best!

The Thrilla in Wasilla

“Has Sarah Palin been palling around with drug dealers?”

On the subject of possible baby names for the latest Palin spawn, VH1’s Christian Finnegan suggests that Crystal is a nice girl’s name.

“A Heartbeat Away”

Aside from a bit of gratuitous fun at the expense of the “mavericky” Governor of Alaska, but doggone it, I just can’t get enough of DJ Madson’s hypnotic, wonderfully foreboding track running in the background.

You are just an illustration
This is just a simulation
Lines and pixels on a piece of paper
Is this the real thing?

Hey, Big Spender

Sarah Palin may not know what the Vice-President does, but gosh darn it, the Republicans have been breaking the bank making her look absolutely fabulous trying to become one!

A $75,000 shopping spree at Neiman Marcus? I’m sure that “Joe the Plumber” can relate to that, huh? And $4,716.49 on hair and makeup in the month of September! Didn’t the wingnuts blow a gasket about John Edwards’ $400 haircut? What a laughable bunch of hypocrites.

Ready, Willing & Able

Is it possible that Katie Couric is “saving the United States and perhaps the world” from Sarah Palin?

“She’s smart, she’s tough, she’s been in debates before,” McCain carefully said on Fox & Friends this morning. “The American people … the more they see of her, the more they love her, and I’m confident of that at the end.” I guess we’ll see tonight.

Meanwhile, on the Shouting News:

Trade Missions to Nowhere

A quick and thoroughly hilarious look at the some of the campaign buzz on the eve of the debate between the major American political parties’ vice presidential candidates.

Who could possibly have imagined that those “trade missions” Palin and McCain trotted out to substantiate her ludicrous claim of having foreign policy expertise were nothing but a bare-faced LIE? Shocking, I know.

Update: Presented for your viewing entertainment…

Chalk on a Blackboard

Tina Fey Meets “Fargo”

Call me a “liberal elitist” or whatever, but whenever I’m hearin’ Sara Palin talkin’ it makes my flesh crawl, and not just because she’s an ignorant, god-bothering nitwit who’s manifestly unqualified to potentially be “leader of the free world” (yes, try to meld those two things in your mind without drowning in massive amounts of cognitive dissonance), but more simply because she’s annoying as all get-out to listen to:

But again, I could just be on the entirely wrong track here. What do I know? After all, back in 2000 and 2004 people just adored George W. Bush’s “folksy” Texan patois (completely phony as it was). Aside from his pantomime brush-cutting antics, it was the ultimate mark of authentication on his otherwise completely ludicrous, counterfactual claim to be a “man of the people” who regular/average/X-percentile of the demographic “folks” would just love to share a beer with… right? And what could have possibly gone wrong with that?

So now we’ve got this Palin character providing “folksy” cover for John McCain (who’s too crippled up to effectively wield even a girly-man chainsaw on a phony “ranch” in some desiccated patch of rural Texas — now being sold as it’s expended its public relations value, by the way).

Update: Some more in-depth observations about Palin’s accent.