Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla - from the NY Times

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The New York Times has eclipsed The Los Angeles Times as my must-read newspaper of the day, in good part because of the guest columnists they pick up.

A few days ago, they had a great piece by Dick Cavett, (the former talk show host), about the mangled syntax of former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin

This link will take you to the full original posting:

Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla

But here are some excerpts:
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"Electronic devices dislike me. There is never a day when something isn’t ailing. Three out of these five implements — answering machine, fax machine, printer, phone and electric can-opener — all dropped dead on me in the past few days

Now something has gone wrong with all three television sets. They will only get Sarah Palin."

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"What on earth are our underpaid teachers, laboring in the vineyards of education, supposed to tell students about the following sentence, committed by the serial syntax-killer from Wasilla High and gleaned by my colleague Maureen Dowd for preservation for those who ask, “How was it she talked?”"

"My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars."

And, she concluded, “never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or a continent, I just don’t know about this issue.”

(A cynic might wonder if Wasilla High School’s English and geography departments are draped in black.)


Dick Cavett

Sarah Palin says 2012 run for presidency unlikely

PHOENIX, AZ., USA - Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told CNN that she thinks its pretty unlikely that she will enter the presidential sweepstakes in 2012.

In a video interview (included in the link listed below) she talks about that, as well as working with Obama on energy issues.

This is the same Obama who she said was a pal with terrorists.

Maybe he'll forget what she said when they are working on those energy issues.

Here's the link:

Sarah says no bid for prez in 2012

Election fatigue - and the semester - taking a toll

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - Election day dawned sunny here in California, which predictably means even more people will flood to the polls today, arguably a good thing.

But even with that sunny-day beginning, the long drag of this election - coupled with the semester running short already, in terms of what needs to be covered in classes - has induced kind of early week ennui, as the French would say.

Isn't it nice to be about mention the French again and not be accused of being unpatriotic? I think I will have some Freedom Fries, er, I mean French Fries, with lunch today to celebrate that.

The election fatigue is in good part because teaching journalism requires very close attention to what is going on in the media (No kidding!) and in this case, trying to analyze how the media has behaved (or not) and how politicians and others have manipulated things.

This clip of a Minnesota Congresswoman - who seems to suggest we need to root out people she says are anti-American - is the kind of thinking (or lack thereof) that has me reaching for serious caffeine most mornings and room-temperature merlot in the evenings.



Here in California, the heaviest political action has been over Proposition 8, which would ban gay marriage.

Until recently, it appeared that the measure would be easily defeated. But in these final weeks, the campaign in favor has stepped up the rhetoric - and advertising dollars - to the point where it looks like it might pass. The proponents started using a familiar fear-based bogeyman - that the gay lifestyle will now be taught in schools unless the measure passes.

Numerous school authorities across the state have branded that as complete bullshit, but, well, the political advertising just keeps coming.

Over the weekend, I received four phone calls - on my cell phone - from people urging me to vote yes. And it appears that the pro-Prop. 8 forces also made a major buy of internet advertising. My web pages have been flooded with Prop. 8 ads.

For the record, I have no control over the Google ads that show up on those pages.

My students are exhausted by the political chatter, too - and frightened by the economic meltdown. While I worry about retirement income, they worry on the other end of the telescope about their ability to get a job when they graduate.

After today, perhaps we all can get some rest.

I am reminded of that old chestnut I've heard since the 70s:

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Amen to that.

And then there is the old adage from Chicago:

Vote early, vote often.

Christopher Buckley interview on Daily Show - must see

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - Christopher Buckley (son of the late William F. Buckley) was a great guest on the Daily Show this week, doing an interview with Jon Stewart that was hilarious at times, and revealing throughout.

Buckley gave up his column with the conservative National Review magazine after he posted a blog entry - on a publication edited by former New Yorker editor Tina Brown - endorsing Barack Obama.

Buckley's best line in the interview actually is a paraphrase of something Ronald Reagan said.

It's worth listening for.

Sarah Palin goes on Saturday Night Live - and is funny

NEW YORK, New York, USA - The governor of Alaska, GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin, made an expanded cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live this week, showing that she can make a joke.

Alex Baldwin only winced slightly when he got whacked pretty good with a carefully scripted retort from the governor.

Tina Fey's sketch - which precedes Palin's appearance - is priceless, as usual.

Here's the Fey-Palin portion of the show:

Sarah Palin videos are flooding the YouTube charts

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The YouTube videos about GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin are flooding the bandwidth of YouTube.

Every day some new video pops up; some are clever, some not so.

And every day, in addition to my scanning of news wires and YouTube and Google Video, I usually get emailed a few links.

The link to the video below was in my email box this morning and made me spray my Earl Grey tea on the computer screen when it got to the chorus.

Interestingly, I felt the same way during the McGovern-Nixon campaign in 1972.

Look how that turned out.

More on the Willie Hortonization of Barack Obama

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., USA - The San Francisco Chronicle's Joe Garofoli has been following the presidential race closely and has started writing about the not-so-subtle racism that is creeping in as the GOP forces find themselves behind in the polls.

And getting farther behind by the minute, attack by attack, it seems.

Here's what Garofoli posted today:



Another column, by conservative columnist Kathleen Parker took a look at what she calls GOP code, and how fluent GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin is at speaking in it.

Here's the link to that column:

GOP code and Sarah Palin

Joe Six Pack(s) debate the merits of Sarah Palin as VP

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The columnists of the world - and would-be film makers - as well as, I suppose, everybody else with a political ax, are writing and blogging and posting videos about the upcoming presidential election.

This YouTube entry - a couple of guys in a bar debating Sarah Palin's candidacy - should make most people (well, most Democrats anyway) laugh aloud.

It is long, but worth watching until the end.

The Sarah Palin wink - what are we to make of it?

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - The San Francisco Chronicle is running a guest commentary that suggests that Sarah Palin is actually trying to seduce Americans into voting for her.

No, it doesn't really suggest it - it comes out and says it for the most part.


Sarah Palin gives U.S. the 'wink'

The column does explain a lot about how Palin behaved in her debate with Joe Biden, and behaves on the campaign trail.

The nation's top cheerleader? Gosh. Maybe we should be voting on that.

Here'a a link to the column:

Wink if you like Sarah

Saturday night live skit with Couric and Palin

SACRAMENTO, Calif., USA - In case you missed the most recent Saturday Night Live skit with Tina Fey as Sarah Palin:

Anti-Palin signs from Alaska show real creativity

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, USA - The Daily Kos ran an article - with great photos - about the recent Sarah Palin rally, that was quite entertaining.

The signs were really the highlight of the whole piece. If you don't snort a few times and spray some coffee at your computer screen, well, you probably aren't drinking coffee.

Daily Kos link

In the same vein, I received the cartoon below from amiga Marcia Carlson Hein who lives in England.

What were the Founding Fathers thinking?