Pharyngula

Posted by: s | October 27, 2008 2:13 PM

color me unsurprised. even if everything else were equal, a lot of us Alaskans are less than happy with our governor right now

Posted by: Dutch Delight | October 27, 2008 2:19 PM

I hope I get to book her after she looses, imagine the crowds she'll attract in Europe!

Posted by: skyotter | October 27, 2008 2:25 PM

hmm, did i speak too soon? i can't find mention of the endorsement on the Anchorage Daily News site anywhere ...

www.adn.com

maybe it's tomorrow's edition or something?

Posted by: Karey | October 27, 2008 2:31 PM

She's the one who wanted to blather about funding projects that benefit the public good more than ones that benefit it less. I'm sorry to say that autistic individuals aren't as big a deal as the whole of our agricultural economy, so she loses by virtue of her own reasoning.

Posted by: Glen Davidson | October 27, 2008 2:33 PM

Yeah, but fruit fly research contradicts creation, so it's ipso facto contradictory to Truth®.

There's no equality supporting evolution just because the research works, and ID research doesn't.

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/2kxyc7

Posted by: S.Scott | October 27, 2008 2:36 PM

@ #5 - http://car54.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/hahahahaha/

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT, OM | October 27, 2008 2:40 PM

They want to play it off like she was commenting on earmarks, when it was obvious she was writing off the funding of science completely.

Yep. Hence the fruit fly / planetarium uproar.

Posted by: Quiet Desperation | October 27, 2008 2:42 PM

http://cbs2.com/local/Sarah.Palin.mannequin.2.849299.html

Posted by: SimonG | October 27, 2008 2:58 PM

It's sound-bite politics. Neither Palin, nor to a lesser extent McCain are interested in making substantive statements and defending their policies - such as they are. They're just hoping that people will hear their provocative statements and not look any deeper.

Posted by: scooter | October 27, 2008 3:08 PM

The Houston Chronicle has also endorsed Obama. The Chron is the only daily in Houston, a mostly conservative Hearst rag.

My brane fell out when I heard this last night.

So America's Oil Business Capitol has rejected drill baby.

Perhaps they don't want to pay the gouging prices to pump in the socialist state of Alaska, Venezuela is still a better deal.

Posted by: scooter | October 27, 2008 3:23 PM

I felt sorry for McPain, so I photoshopped a campaign poster image for him and sent it to them last night. Couldn't think of a caption, but his staff will come up with something like 'Still better than Socialism', or something.

I put the image at the top of my website. http://acksisoefevil.org

Posted by: Your Name's Not Bruce? | October 27, 2008 3:24 PM

Hey, if (when?) McCain & Palin lose, will she have to give back the fancy clothes, or will she get to keep them as a parting gift?

Posted by: CJ | October 27, 2008 3:28 PM

Big deal. Everyone knows Anchorage isn't the real Alaska.

Posted by: Tom L | October 27, 2008 3:40 PM

Republicans only support pest control that requires regular application of petrochemicals. Here these damned scientists are trying to make Nature take care of it! Where's the profit in that?

Posted by: chuckgeocke | October 27, 2008 3:42 PM

I consider the research into natural pest predators about the only realistic and useful way to un-fuck-up the problems caused by importation of pest species. Careful research is needed, so more problems are not created. International trade and travel is likely to cause more and more of this kind of thing, so the problem is going to get worst, not better in the future. More work for biologists, yeah!

Posted by: CW | October 27, 2008 4:02 PM

I'm of the opinion that there's only a couple of things that her mouth is good for. Speech is not one of them.

Posted by: howard hersheyh | October 27, 2008 4:14 PM

I also think it worth noting that Montpelier is not Paris. It is on the Mediterranean coast of France. That is some distance from Paris. Apparently geography (as well as science) is also not one of Palin's speech writer's strong points (nor her strength either; she obviously did not catch it because the only foreign country she knows is the one she sees from her window). It is clear, however, where the speech writer picked out this example: the group 'Citizens Against Government Waste', who gave it the "French Kiss Off" award last year.

http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/04/09/news/local/doc47fc6ca1ad0ee555305173.txt

Posted by: Steve_C | October 27, 2008 4:21 PM

HAHAHA.

LGF!! Really?

What a bloviating fool. Gonna send us to the Corner or Town Hall next?

Dumbass.

That reporter is just begging to be hired by Fox News. And her husband is a republican media consultant. Nice try douche bag.

I guess you forgot that McCain threw Klein off his plane.

Posted by: Steve_C | October 27, 2008 4:34 PM

I've seen the interview. I think they should shut out that station. Not for doing journalism, they were doing the GOP's job of putting forth bullshit arguments.

And McCain has no problem redistributing the wealth UPWARDS. Gee a tax cut to 95% of the population is redistribution? Yup. As it should be.

Posted by: Greg R. | October 27, 2008 4:40 PM

I also think it worth noting that Montpelier is not Paris.

And Paris is not Real France.

Posted by: Eric Atkinson | October 27, 2008 4:46 PM

I would have supposed you would have perfered The Daily Kos or the Huffington Post.

I must of missed these stories there.

Posted by: Steve_C | October 27, 2008 4:59 PM

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/240313.php

Oh and today the feds foiled a plot by skinheads to assassinate Obama.

I hit about 8 liberal blogs this morning, on of them mentioned McCain's "redistributing" meme. It might not of been TPM.

Posted by: Nick Gotts | October 27, 2008 5:11 PM

I have a friend who is very bright bordering on brilliant but she just loves Palin. - E.V.

No, sorry, you'll have to rephrase that, at present it looks as though you're saying you know an intelligent admirer of Sarah Palin. Come on, surely even intelligent rightists can see she's about as qualified to be VP as Tom Cruise. Or did you mean Michael Palin? But then, why the but?

Posted by: Katkinkate | October 27, 2008 5:28 PM

Posted by: Steve_C @ 35 "I guess you forgot that McCain threw Klein off his plane."

Goodness! I hope he waited till it was on the ground.

Posted by: Steve_C | October 27, 2008 5:36 PM

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/27/145024/36/995/643777

Plenty of links here that actually get into the, you know "facts", something that Drudge doesn't bother with.

Posted by: Norman Doering | October 27, 2008 6:06 PM

I've decided to pile on too:
http://normdoering.blogspot.com/2008/10/religions-war-on-science-part-2.html

I've also noted that Christopher Hitchens has an article on Slate called: "Sarah Palin's War on Science."

Posted by: Rey Fox | October 27, 2008 6:15 PM

Hey...I just figured out the title of this post! And I think I have one.

Posted by: Grumpy | October 27, 2008 6:34 PM

The Anchorage Daily News would have endorsed Obama regardless of McCain's running mate.

Posted by: Steve_C | October 27, 2008 6:56 PM

Ask McCain. He's asking himself the same question.

Posted by: JD | October 27, 2008 6:59 PM

BREAKING NEWS: Alaska Senator Ted Stevens Found Guilty on All Counts

(WASHINGTON) -- Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens has been convicted of lying about free home renovations and other gifts he received from a wealthy oil contractor.

The Senate's longest-serving Republican, Stevens was found guilty on all seven counts of making false statements on Senate financial documents.

The verdict throws the upcoming election into disarray. Stevens is fighting off a challenge from Democrat Mark Begich and must now either drop out or continue campaigning as a convicted felon.

So we all know Alaskans voted a twit like Palin into office, will they also elect a convicted felon?

Posted by: JD | October 27, 2008 7:07 PM

I've also noted that Christopher Hitchens has an article on Slate called: "Sarah Palin's War on Science."

Yes, here it is subtitled: The GOP ticket's appalling contempt for knowledge and learning.

The last paragraph is classic Hitch:

This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity.

Posted by: Eric Atkinson | October 27, 2008 7:18 PM

Nick;
To answer your question, Yes I do think you are going to be very pissed next week.

I'v been wrong before, but I still think Oboma will blow this election and that the Donks will not pick up 60 seats in the Senatorial races.

Call it wishful thinking or what have you.

Of course you know us rethugs have the election rigged.

It will be close I think.

Riots in the street if Obama loses.

If Obama wins..well there is aways 2010 and 2012.

Posted by: Eric Atkinson | October 27, 2008 7:26 PM

Steve...Its a good thing nobody made a similar one of Obama.
I'm sure it would be taken in the same Halloween spirit.
Sure.

Posted by: Nick Gotts | October 27, 2008 7:30 PM

Of course you know us rethugs have the election rigged. - Eric Atkinson

Well, I know you'll do your best, but unless you've got much more efficient at it, it'll be nowhere near enough. Without significant cheating, Obama will win at least comfortably, and I'd say 60 senate seats for the Dems might be a fair bet at evens.

If Obama wins..well there is aways 2010 and 2012.

True. Probably not if the rethuglicans win though: Ms. Golly Gee Wilikins will have got us all noo-cu-lar-ly raptured before then.

Posted by: Eric Atkinson | October 27, 2008 7:38 PM

Democrats making sure only they steal the election:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122506752884870663.html

Posted by: Xenocles | October 27, 2008 8:07 PM

I am shocked - shocked! to hear that a newspaper endorsed a Democrat for an elected office.

Posted by: Mike | October 27, 2008 10:10 PM

For the love of FSM, the conservatives are so stupid I can't even fathom how dumb they are. That's saying something.

Once upon a time there was a great Republican Party. They had values and issues that they really believed in and so did a lot of Americans. They talked of a balanced budgets, limited foreign adventurism, privacy and rights of all Americans and they really meant it. That party had men in it like Goldwater and Eisenhower. Even when I disagreed with how they wanted to get there, I never had any doubt at all that in their hearts they wanted the best for America just like I did.

That party has been hijacked, pirated away, by neoconservatives, nothing more than ideologues and modern day fascists, and Christian right wing lunatics, begging for a bloody judgement day set off with a nuclear war, with us as its victims. Here's hoping the real Republicans are the ones who can rise from the ashes of this debacle and the rest of us can set about trying to fix the damage to America that the hijackers and parasites have wrought.

It would actually be nice to see a real Republican Party again. They've been gone for at least three decades and I miss them.

Posted by: Sauceress | October 28, 2008 12:10 AM

#63 Eric Atkinson

If Obama wins...

Well then that would be part of Gods plan wouldn't it Sarah? Hello? Sarah??

Posted by: Quiet_Desperation | October 28, 2008 1:07 AM

Because McCain is not only already dead, bits are falling off him and he's beginning to stink.

I've always had the impression that he's melting.

Posted by: Arnosium Upinarum | October 28, 2008 4:54 AM

Eric Atkinson #40 says, "Most in the news media have done more research on joe the plummber, [sic] in the last two weeks

that they did on Obama in the last two years. Wonder why."

You're a liar.

Wonder why.

You are so concerned with the facts? Okay, here's a general outline: McCampaign is into the snidest and sleaziest image-engineering ever seen in a national campaign. It's not about the actual issues, it's entirely about appearances, looking good by making the other guy look bad, wherever possible (as in, for example, leaping into the economic crisis to look as if he's really a hand's on kinda guy in order to give everybody the chance to see him fix things as Obama twiddles his thumbs, right?...and promptly put his foot in his big mouth. He didn't even know that his own party had weaseled up an alternative plan to Bush's, and he stormed out of there red-faced and with fists clenched ready to bounce heads. The man is truly a Grade-A Jerk).

We are asked to identify with the likes of Joe the Plumber, Joe Six-Pack, and hockey moms. They're a cheezy image of "REAL Americans", you damned well know it, and yet choose to ignore it. It's a SPIEL. It's all crap. You fall for it and give it currency. That makes you a liar along with them. REAL Americans don't need to be coached on who they are and who to identify with. Most of them already know who they are.

Don't you get it? I DO NOT WANT a "maverick" who prefixes every other line with "my friends" with the alacrity of a con-artist, pretends to be a "straight-talking" regular guy with common sense up the wazoo, whines about the importance of qualifications and experience, claims superior leadership and decision-making abilities...and avows "Amerca First". Then that geezer turns right around and selects a friggin' dingbat for a running mate who could place this country in serious jeopardy. Experienced decision-maker? America First? You jmust be out of your friggin' mind. And I haven't even touched on his eratic behavior and the fact that he looks as if he's about to give himself a stroke every time he speaks.

He doesn't give a shit about the country. He's out for Number One, and always has been.

Nope. I don't need that kind of slimy shit anymore to run my country. I decided that. ME. Like MOST Americans will decide for THEMSELVES. That's how it works, okay? Do you mind?

So do yourself a favor and shut the f-ck up. Nobody wants to listen to a liar, and nobody wants to vote for one.

Posted by: saint | October 28, 2008 5:31 AM

Still can't admit you were wrong. Still trying to justify your mouthing off without even a shreck of evidence in the first place.

Palin singled out specific earmarks

Thompson defended his fruitfly earmark this way:

The Olive Fruit Fly has infested thousands of California olive groves and is the single largest threat to the U.S. olive and olive oil industries," he said. "I secured $748,000 for olive fruit fly research and irradiation in the (fiscal year 2008) appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA will use some of that funding for their research facility in France. This USDA research facility is located in France because Mediterranean countries like France have dealt with the Olive Fruit Fly for decades, while California has only been exposed since the late 1990s. This is not uncommon; the USDA has several international research facilities throughout the world, including Australia, China and Argentina."

But both the fruit fly research and the narcissitic Public Service Center Palin mentioned - also made it into the Pig Book produced by Citizens Against Waste.

To qualify for the Pig Book, a project must meet at least one of these standards:
it was requested by only one chamber of Congress;
was not specifically authorized;
was not competitively awarded;
was not requested by the president;
greatly exceeded the president's budget request or the previous year's funding;
was not the subject of congressional hearings;
or served only a local or special interest.

I'm thinking this bit of fruit fly frou-frou would meet more than one of those standards.

The olive fruit fly affects the olive oil industry in California (the only olive producing state), a boutique industry that was worth $32 million in sales in 2002. We have indidivual boutique breweries here that make more than that in a year. And it's not like there aren't other control measures available. Oh wait, what's this:

"We felt like a poor stepchild, because we are a small industry," Erickson said. "But it would have been nice to get a little money thrown at us."

Snouts in troughs.

Want to make a case for arguing this was appropriate for a federal earmark? Where's the evidence of even a competitive tender? Why doesn't the industry fund it? Why don't the Californians fund it since it's for a local boutique industry? Or do you have a few Democrat donors owning your little boutique farms in the Valley like the do the vineyards?

And hey, if you can't grow olives successfully why not try growing something else. We'll send you our olive oil and we do quite fine with fruit fly control.

You just can't admit it was just Palin-hatred and anti-religious bigotry that prompted your hysteria over the fruit fly research rather than any rational reason based on hard evidence and clear argumentation.

She's gonna kill the Drosophila! It was for autism! No, they canned it because of francophobia! It's the end of science! Run it's Armageddon....now it's what? Vital world saving research?

You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.

ROFL

Posted by: windy | October 28, 2008 11:27 AM

You just can't admit it was just Palin-hatred and anti-religious bigotry that prompted your hysteria over the fruit fly research rather than any rational reason based on hard evidence and clear argumentation.

Moron. Sarah Palin herself implied that the problem was with fruit fly research in France, so of course people are going to ask if she has something against fruit fly research. If Palin had wanted to use clear and honest argumentation, she could have said "some of this money is going for studying a pest threatening the olive oil industry in California, I kid you not".

...now it's what? Vital world saving research?

Yeah like that earmark for studying harbor seal genetics. Are you against that one, too?

Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp, KoT, OM | October 28, 2008 11:36 AM

I wonder what state is listed as the #1 pork per capita state in the Pig Book?

Posted by: Steve_C | October 28, 2008 11:48 AM

Oh noes! Palin is a socialist!

http://www.jedreport.com/2008/10/oh-no-sarah-palin-is-a-sociali.html

She certainly redistributed wealth to her little town of Wasilla.

She got over $4000 per capita in earmarks for the meth capital of Alaska.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin employed a lobbying firm to secure almost $27 million in federal earmarks for a town of 6,700 residents while she was its mayor, according to an analysis by an independent government watchdog group.

There was $500,000 for a youth shelter, $1.9 million for a transportation hub, $900,000 for sewer repairs, and $15 million for a rail project -- all intended to benefit Palin's town, Wasilla, located about 45 miles north of Anchorage.

In introducing Palin as his running mate on Friday, Sen. John McCain cast her as a compatriot in his battle against wasteful federal spending. McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, hailed Palin as a politician "with an outstanding reputation for standing up to special interests and entrenched bureaucracies -- someone who has fought against corruption and the failed policies of the past, someone who's stopped government from wasting taxpayers' money."