Lessons from history: Meet the inventor of "Political Home Reality Shows" and the "Big Lie"

The new year has just begun and Sarah Palin is quiet - though certainly not for long. This "break" gives me the perfect opportunity for a look back in history. In this case, I am talking about the "dark" history of the 20th century, and there are some interesting and shocking details to discover.

Sarah Palin is a "phenomenon" which still is not easy to understand. Accordingly, mainstream America seems to be uncertain about how to treat her. On the one hand, she is widely considered to be a laughable, ignorant person, as an extreme political outsider without "gravitas", but on the other hand, the extreme nature of her political positions didn't stop a channel like ABC to feature her daughter Bristol (and at the same time, Sarah) on DWTS, and didn't stop TLC from producing a folksy family propaganda show about the greatness of Alaska and the greatness of Sarah Palin's family.

Commentators in the MSM usually shy away from some of the conclusions that seem obvious for almost anyone who closely examines Sarah Palin - in particular, the apparent narcissistic nature of her personality. Wikipedia remarks:

Although most individuals have some narcissistic traits, high levels of narcissism can manifest themselves as a pathological form as narcissistic personality disorder, whereby the patient overestimates his or her abilities and has an excessive need for admiration and affirmation.

I would definitely say that Sarah Palin has an excessive need for admiration and affirmation, and one of the best pieces of evidence for this claim is her "reality show" on TLC, and also the overly enthusiastic picture she constantly paints of her own family, in particular of her children.

Sarah claims to trump the competition in being a great hunter, fisherman, mother etc., and she also has no hesitation to praise her children as being role models, for example in "America by Heart" when she talks about Bristol on page 96:

It didn’t take long after that magical night, however, for both new parents to realize how much work—and how little fun—teenage parenting is. But my strong, beautiful Bristol reacted in a way that made me proud. She went to college. And worked full time. A nd took care of a needy, colicky baby through many, many sleepless nights, doctor’s appointments, and lonely, cold car rides to and from babysitters. She worked as hard as any young single mother could possibly work.

Well, I haven't seen the college that Bristol "went to", but it surely exists in Sarah Palin's mind, and that should be good enough for her fans.

According to Sarah Palin, the "courage" of Bristol in earning hundreds of thousands of dollars through speaking out to "pause" and/or to be "abstinent" is truly remarkable (p. 121):

Bristol has boldly and publicly acknowledged in ads for the Candie’s Foundation that abstinence is the only surefire way of preventing pregnancy. A nd for this, she has been accused of being a hypocrite. But to those critics I say this: Which is the more courageous course for a young, single mother: to sit down and shut up and avoid the critics, or to speak out in a painfully honest way about how tough single parenting is? I’m biased, of course, but given a choice of role models between Bristol and Murphy Brown, I choose Bristol.

Naturally, her son Track made Sarah Palin proud as well, as she explains on page 36 in "America By Heart":

On September 11, 2008, the brigade’s deployment to Iraq landed the soldiers in the Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad, fighting insurgents and helping to rebuild that war-torn country. Then, on September 11, 2009, he as scheduled to return home. Like all military families, his sisters, his baby brother, Todd, and I were overjoyed that Track is coming home safe. But at the last second, the family of one of the other members of the Stryker Brigade had a medical scare. Track’s fellow soldier had to get home fast, and there were no extra seats on the transport. So Track, God bless him, gave up his seat. He had to stay an additional month in the heat and sand and danger of Iraq for another available flight home. At first, he didn’t want to tell us about the reason for his delay. He still doesn’t like to talk about it, much less have his mom crow about it in print. But then I finally heard the story of what he did for his fellow soldier, I think I was prouder of my son than I had ever been before.

However, two facts stand in contradiction to this "report" by Sarah Palin about Track's selfless behavior in "America by Heart."

Firstly, the right-wing "Washington Times" reported on Friday, September 18, 2009:

"The Palins are expecting the return of eldest son Track this weekend from a yearlong deployment with an Army combat brigade in Iraq," Palin spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton told The Washington Times. "Mrs. Palin also has her first major paid speaking engagement in Hong Kong" in a few days, she added

Secondly, while this report is no final proof that Track did indeed return on the weekend of the 19/20 September 2009, we do know that Track "CJ" (cough, cough) Palin was already home on October 2, 2009, because that is the day when he received a speeding ticket in Alaska. So Sarah's account in "America by Heart" is a deliberate exaggeration, presented in order to make the behavior of Track appear "greater" than it actually was. In writing about these events in this manner in "America by Heart", Sarah in my opinion also somehow diminishes the altruistic nature of Track's act.

Sarah Palin is a complex person who seems to defy "simple explanations", and the regular readers of Palingates will know that we sometimes take the liberty to look back at extreme politicians in history, especially the Nazis in order to draw parallels to current events and in order to understand history and learn from it. While history doesn't repeat itself 100%, I believe that the during the 20th century people got more than enough insights into the minds and actions of totalitarian politicians. There are more than enough lessons to be learned from the past.

Recently I watched a new TV-documentary which was produced by the leading German magazine "Der Spiegel." This 78-minute long documentary reports about the conclusions of a new biography about Joseph Goebbels, written by the accomplished German historian Peter Longerich. In his body of work, Longerich focuses on the Third Reich and the Holocaust. He is currently the Director of the Research Centre for the Holocaust and Twentieth-Century History at the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, University of London. His new biography about Joseph Goebbels, with the impressive length of 912 pages, doesn't seem to be available in English language so far.

I didn't expect too much from this "Spiegel" documentary, which was distributed on DVD together with a weekly edition of the magazine, but then I was really taken aback by a whole "series" of apparent "parallels" between one of the darkest people in history, Joseph Goebbels, and the woman we usually write about.

I today published a few minutes of this documentary in a clip on youtube, together with English subtitles. There is one particular fact I was never really aware about before watching this documentary: Apparently caused by a severe narcissistic personality disorder, Joseph Goebbels created a "public cult", not just around him, his upbringing and his home town, but especially around his family and his children.

For example, at some point during the 1930s after the Nazis came to power, Joseph and his wife Magda Goebbels started to commission professionally shot "birthday movies", which featured their six little children, who congratulated Joseph Goebbels and showed other scenes from their family life. Over the years, this became more and more excessive, and it is noted on several webpages that for example in 1942, the Goebbels children appeared on no less than 34 occasions in the weekly German national news reels ("Deutsche Wochenschau"), one of the most important instruments of cinematic Nazi Propaganda. The children served as the German (and Nazi) "model family."

The clip I made with excerpts from the "Spiegel" documentary gives you an impression. Please be aware that there are graphic images of the corpses of Joseph and Magda Goebbels and their dead children at the beginning of the clip. As most of you will know, Joseph and Magda Goebbels killed their six children before committing suicide in May 1945.

On Google video, you find another clip with 48 minutes (!) of footage with the Goebbels children, produced in 1942:

What stands out in looking back at this horrific exploitation of Joseph Goebbels' children is the increasingly excessive nature of the exploitation, which in my opinion cannot be explained by propaganda purposes alone. In addition, not shown in the clips above, Joseph Goebbels as the head of the German propaganda and the movie business also started to produce movies about his home town and the home in which he grew up, claiming that he had a happy, perfect childhood. In reality, as historian Peter Longerich points out, Goebbels' childhood was far from perfect, for example due to a severe deformation of his right leg which developed when Goebbels was five years old. In addition, Goebbels later was a mediocre student at University, obtaining a PhD with a low mark, however, on virtually every occasion in later life he made sure that he was introduced as "Dr. Goebbels."

History never repeats itself in identical ways, but we should all educate ourselves and try to learn from history.

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In addition, Joseph Goebbels "perfected" a technique that is still very relevant today - especially as far as Sarah Palin is concerned: The "Big Lie."

Alternet wrote on December 31, 2010:

The Big Lie theory goes like this: A gigantic, audacious lie is more likely to be believed by the masses than a small one if it is repeated often enough. First articulated in the pages of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler (who attributed the practice, of course, to Jews) and deployed as a tactic by Nazi master propagandist Joseph Goebbels, the Big Lie went mainstream in 2010, as its propagators on the Right were accepted by big media as respectable articulators of a legitimate point of view.

The "Big Lie" is the classic "Sarah Palin concept." She has embraced it like nothing else. Her "official" life story is full of these "big lies" that she repeats over and over and over again.

A happy family life? A big lie. A happy marriage? A big lie. Sarah Palin's "life-affirming" pregnancy and birth of Trig? A big lie. The list goes on.

Don't let a politician with a severe narcissistic personality disorder get into the White House, and don't give this person a platform. You all understand this, but unfortunately ABC and TLC and Fox News don't.

Oh, speaking about Fox News: Kathleen found something interesting today which hasn't been discussed on Palingates so far. It turns out that one of the main propagandists for Adolf Hitler before he got into power was - Fox News:

Observers of the current US election season have noted the prominent role of Rupert Murdoch’s reactionary Fox News Channel, which currently employs GOP and “Tea Party” partisans Sarah Palin, Glen Beck, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Sean Hannity, and others. Some have alleged that a television network carrying so many potential political candidates and propagandists on its payroll is unprecedented. But there is a precedent for large-scale Fox intervention into a political campaign.

In 1932, the German newsreel subsidiary of Fox News Channel’s corporate ancestor, Fox Films, intervened in national elections in Germany.

The candidate Fox supported was Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

The basic facts are available in German historian Hans Mommsen’s authoritative study entitled The Rise and Fall of Weimar Democracy, which is translated into English and widely available in over five hundred libraries in this country. Mommsen, one of the most distinguished postwar German historians, is now Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Bochum. In Mommsen’s account of Nazi propaganda techniques, we find the following: “There was nothing that escaped the ingenuity of Nazi propagandists. A case in point was the use of film. Under Goebbels’ influence the party had begun to exploit the potential of the political propaganda film to an unprecedented extent as early as 1930. Such films were shown mostly in places where Hitler and other prominent party leaders were not able to appear as speakers. For the manufacture of outdoor sound film, the NSDAP turned to an American company, Twentieth Century Fox.“

Scholar William G. Chrystal confirms this account and provides further important details in his 1975 article on “Nazi Party Election Films, 1927-1938.” Chrystal writes: “Support for two additional 1932 election films, Der Führer (The Leader), and Hitlers Kampf um Deutschland (Hitler’s Struggle for Germany) came from the German-based subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Tönende Wochenschau (Fox Weekly Sound Newsreel [i.e., Fox Movietone News]). In addition, they also supplied some mobile sound film vans to be used during the campaign. Thus at least part of Hitler’s support in that critical time was the result of Fox’s help. The background for this assistance is unknown since Fox Tönende Wochenschau records were destroyed during the war,” according to a July 9, 1974 letter to Chrystal from Joseph Bellfort, who was at that time the vice president of the Twentieth Century Fox International Film Corporation.

You might have thought that Fox News should have learned their history lessons by now.

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PLUS:

We already had our amazing yearly round-up by Blueberry Tart, but let me take a final look at our stats for 2010 as well.

The stats for Palingates in 2010 exceeded our wildest expectations:

- 5,222,981 pageloads

- 2,688,298 unique visitors

- 895,312 returning visitors

I don't know what the next year will bring, but I hope that we will get close again. ;-)

As usual at the end of every month, we would like to make an appeal for donations. Every donation, big and small, will help us to keep going.

Please donate via the paypal button below, or send me an email in case you would like to donate via check, money order or cash.

We hope that you all have a good start into the new year!

2011 will be the year which will decide the political fate of Sarah Palin. We will be "on the watch!" ;-)

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Sarah Palin goes on Greta and Hannity and grossly distorts the details of Willow's facebook insults, once again claims victimhood for the whole family

Sarah Palin causes outrage through unwarranted and unjustified attacks on a daily basis. It seems that Palin's only effective method of getting attention is to make outrageous statements, as she has not much else to say. However, mixing up North and South Korea is worth another headline, congratulations, Sarah!

Apparently Michelle Obama has also become a favorite target for the Quitter from Alaska who currently seems to be mad at anyone who doesn't share her idealistic vision of a nineteenth-century America, as described in "America by Heart": A country "as pure as snow" - abortion was illegal, healthcare insurance was unheard of and God was everywhere. (In addition, people were still allowed to serve cookies.) Simplistic views from a simpleton for simpletons.

Today I would like to highlight a fact which has not received enough attention in the media: The fact that Palin distorts the details of the recent "Willow-facebook-scandal" by presenting the real events in a bizarre way and declaring Willow to be a victim. She apparently believes that no-one will check her claims and accusations. She might be right in general! But here at Palingates, we get a real kick out of fact-checking Sarah Palin, ;-)

Sarah was on Greta Van Susteren's show on November 23 and gave her view of the situation:

The transcript can be found HERE.

An excerpt:

PALIN: But let me -- let me add this, though. When we talk about Willow, when we talk about Piper and watching some of their innocence and some of their naive belief that there's justice in society today, for them to see what shots are taken at their family and for them to have no defense -- look what happened to Willow the other day. Somebody had been blogging very, very negative things about the family, and Willow, finally, she'd had it up to here and she finally responded. Unfortunately, she used a bad word when she responded. And that became national news, Greta, her response, not the hatred, not the threats coming her way, but her response. So Willow's saying, Well, why can't I defend my family, Mom? That's injust. Why is that taken away from me? And I had to remind her we need to know how to pick our battles.

My kids are teaching me more than maybe I'm able to teach them in what battles to pick, by the way. And let me give you a quick sample of that, Greta -- quick example of that is Bristol having gone through "Dancing With the Stars." Bristol said, Mom, I'm going to be criticized anyway, I might as well dance. I'm, like, Right on! That's something that Mama and Daddy and everybody else can live with, too. We're going to get criticized, so might as well anyway do what we believe is the right thing to do for this country.

VAN SUSTEREN: You know, in that reference you made about Willow and her -- her reacting back at the -- at the -- at the postings, I actually sort of had a little different thought about it. I thought that -- you know, that we adults had become -- had so let ourselves degrade that we made it safe or OK for young people to act irresponsible and say -- you know, for this person to post nasty things about your family. I mean, it's, like, there are no consequences. And your child reacted back. I mean, they are basically reflecting upon what they are seeing us adults do in many ways. And it's not -- you know, that's not a pretty picture.

PALIN: Yes. You're right. But take that one step further. And my fault being for Willow to think that it was OK to use such a derogatory term in response, in defense of her family. But that wasn't cool. That wasn't right. She learned a lesson. I learned a lesson through that. And it makes me have to, you know, kind of guard my conversation a little bit more around my kids so that they won't think that it's OK to come back swinging like that.

On the other hand, you know, little Willow -- I wouldn't want to be messing with her as somebody's calling her little brother bad names, and you know, kind of doing all that they can to discredit the family. You know, I kind of don't blame her for wanting to come out swinging, but just not to use a bad word when she does it.

(...)

PALIN: Right. This is what I was trying to tell Willow last week. Honey, there's -- it's not just. There is injustice in our society and because man has fallen and there's that acceptance of this spewing of hatred and the attacking of the kids. It's a very sad thing, and that is the injustice that I was trying to teach Willow. But now it becomes a matter of, OK, so how do we react to those circumstances that are injust?

And for Willow, what she has to learn is picking her battles, knowing how it is that she can react. But beyond that, OK, adults, now it's our turn to debate this and to figure what is acceptable and what is not. And why are some politicians' kids targets and others, heaven forbid, you don't touch their kids, their background? Why is -- well, it's obvious. If you're a conservative, you're going to get clobbered. If you're a female conservative with children, you're going to get clobbered.

VAN SUSTEREN: Then -- well -- you know what -- I mean, I've seen some -- (INAUDIBLE) I saw Chelsea Clinton. You know, she got knocked around pretty badly when her parents first came to town. So she got -- she got some of it, too. But the thing that's most distressing is that people will laugh and go along when it's a political opponent, what's done. But they're scandalized if it happens to someone with whom they agree, instead of having -- you know, instead of taking the sort of moral right position, saying it shouldn't happen to any of these children and we shouldn't be doing any of this...

PALIN: True.

VAN SUSTEREN: ... it's, you know, which -- which side are you on? You know, shirts or skins, basically.

PALIN: Right. You're right. And Greta, here's the deal, too. When it comes to, like, me, I've already let people know, maybe unfortunately, what's my Achilles heel? It's you touch my kids and this mama grizzly is going to rise up, and I'm going to react sometimes in a caustic way, and that's going to get the left all wee-weed up and I'm going to give them what they wanted.
Now, unfortunately, that's the position that I have put myself in, in the last couple of years. So I need to, as my skin gets a little -- my skin gets a little bit thicker, I need to not react as much as human nature within a mama wants to react. But I do want -- as you're suggesting, I want the discussion to be about, Is it acceptable or is it not to come after the children? I do not believe that it's acceptable, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican. I think it's pathetic. I think it's immature and unprofessional.

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In addition, Sarah Palin was interviewed by Sean Hannity on November 22, 2010, and had more accusations (at the 6:10 mark of the interview):

"People probably think that my greatest frustration is the lies that are told in the tabloids and on hateful blogs full of anonymous sources about my family…and there are constant everyday lies that we have to read that are out there in the public. But my family and I…thick skin…we can take it, you know…we can take what the haters say despite the fact that there’s injustice in the situation. I mean, look at the other day…Willow, finally, my 16 year old…she had had it up to here with somebody saying very very hateful things about the family and saying mean things about her little brother Trig and Willow finally responded and she used a bad word when she responded in defense of her family. And her response became national news, even hard news copy it turned into, so that’s ridiculous and I had to explain to her…Willow, there is no justice here but you have to just zip your lip and let’s move forward."

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So, Sarah Palin, wait a moment. Somebody "blogged very, very negative things about the family", and Willow "had it up to here" and "finally responded?"

Somebody said "very very hateful things about the family" and "mean things about Willow's little brother Trig?"

No, Sarah, that is NOT what happened. In fact, this is a complete invention!

Sarah, can you at least TRY to make a statement which is not a complete distortion of the inconvenient facts? Your family members were NOT victims in this incident.

What happened is the following:

A teenager called "Tre" wrote the following sentence on his own facebook:

"Sarah Palin's Alaska, is failing soo hard right now."

There is nothing wrong with this statement. Tre commented about Sarah Palin's reality show, not about her family. It's called freedom of speech. Sarah Palin is being paid about $ 2 million for her laughable reality show and is therefore open for criticism.

In this statement, Tre DOES NOT:

a) Say "very, very negative things" about Palin's family

b) call Willow's "little brother bad names"

c) say "mean things" about Trig

c) and Tre is also NOT a blogger, but just wrote one sentence on his own facebook page.

But Sarah Palin, the person who wants to become the most powerful person of America and of the world doesn't understand that, and most likely doesn't even care, because the real version of events doesn't show Willow and Bristol in a good light.

This whole incident also has nothing do with "justice in society"...or has it?

Let's take a further look at the details of this incident:

After Tre wrote this sentence, it was not Willow who responded, but Bristol. Unfortunately, this facebook conversation has been misreported in the media right from the start, despite the fact that TMZ made the full transcript available immediately when they published their story.

It was not a "Willow incident" - it was a "Bristol and Willow" incident, and Bristol is not a "little" teenager any more, but is twenty-years-old, appears on national TV-shows and gives speeches. So Bristol should have some manners. But the facebook conversation shows that this is not the case.

It was Bristol, not Willow who immediately responded to Tre and insulted him:

"You are running your mouth just to talk shit.."

Tre answered:

"hahahahaha, the show fails I think, just opinion, but so do other people."

That's a fair comment, is it not? Tre is not trashing the family or individual family members, he simply voices his opinion about a TV-show.

What the follows is a barrage of ugly insults from Bristol and Willow - see the full transcript HERE.

Excerpts:

So, Willow and Bristol are not victims here, it's not a case of "injustice." Such a claim by Sarah Palin is pure fantasy. The whole Palin family seems to develop into a bunch of bullies - just like Todd, who was caught on tape.

Willow and Bristol also didn't just write "a bad word." They reacted with a whole, unwarranted barrage of insults.

As far as "justice in society" is concerned, it's Tre who receives an unjust treatment, not Bristol and Willow.

Thankfully, through the publication of the screenshots, the world got the see another glimpse of the real face of the Palin family.

Also, what does Sarah Palin mean by the following statement:

"And it makes me have to, you know, kind of guard my conversation a little bit more around my kids so that they won't think that it's OK to come back swinging like that."

Does that mean that Sarah Palin herself uses these insulting terms at home as well?

Another bizarre statement by Sarah:

"My kids are teaching me more than maybe I'm able to teach them in what battles to pick, by the way."

So, the future President of the USA is taught by her rowdy kids which battles to pick. The same kids who are apparently utterly useless in this respect?

As far as I can see right now, there is only one solution:

Get in the Supernanny for Willow, Bristol and Sarah and teach them manners! Unfortunately, the Supernanny will have to start from scratch.

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Sarah Palin rails against imaginary "corrupt bastards" at KTVA - Plus: The backlash against Sarah Palin within the GOP has started - UPDATE!

We are privileged to witness events which are long overdue: The decline of Sarah Palin has finally begun. Palin, who loves to hurl wild insults against anyone who seems to challenge her competency and authority, has annoyed too many people. She made too many enemies. It's apparent that the situation has changed fundamentally, and I don't believe that there will be a turning back.

But let's first take a look at how Sarah made a complete fool of herself - again. She identified the "corrupt bastards." They are sitting at KTVA, the Alaskan CBS-affiliate which in my memory has never distinguished itself with investigative reporting regarding Sarah Palin (note: KTVA is not owned or operated by CBS, but airs CBS-programs and uses their logo). Please correct me of I am wrong.

Palin shot off a series of tweets yesterday, for example:

On Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, she could hardly contain her anger:

“We have the tape that proves it”...“We have the tape!”

The tape that proves it all - finally, it all makes sense! Everyone is out to get her and her allies! Always has been! The proof, Andrew Breitbart has the proof:

So...that was it? Barely understandable snippets of a conversation, of which the context is unclear?

One of most interesting aspects of this episode is how desperate Sarah Palin is to find evidence for the "great media conspiracy" against her. Even though this clip doesn't even deal with her, according to Palin, that's what she "had to put with during the last two years" - lying, plotting, journalists, "out to get her."

If Sarah Palin sounds like the inmate of a mental asylum, then this is no coincidence - because that's exactly where she belongs.

While I am not a psychologist, I do know for a fact that Sarah Palin has more skeletons in her closet than any person most of us will ever encounter. I also know for a fact that she has a mental disorder, which could very well be that she is bi-polar. This has been reported from sources close to the Palin family in Wasilla.

Sarah Palin knows very well that the "full attack mode" is the only way she stands a chance to survive. Once people start to take a serious look at her various skeletons, it will be all over quickly.

But it's my opinion that the "full attack mode" is not going to save Sarah Palin's political future.

It quickly turned out yesterday that the "corrupt bastards" accusations about KTVA were a "non-starter." Even Fox News had to acknowledge that previous reporting by KTVA was in no way biased, as can be seen by this interview by Matt Felling from KTVA with Joe Miller last Thursday:

Interestingly, the initial bold statement by Palin that "we have the tape that proves it" led some observers to believe that there has to be more than Breitbart released in the above clip. For example, David Brock from Media Matters wrote under the headline ""Media Matters' Brock challenges Palin to release tapes":

"Sarah Palin has made serious accusations of journalistic malfeasance. Either Palin accurately described the tapes, or she did not. America's news consumers need to know the truth about these serious accusations. The public in Alaska needs to know the truth so they are fully and correctly informed before they cast their ballots Tuesday. Palin has a responsibility to release the full, unedited tapes publicly and to all media."

But there wasn't anything else. That was it. That was Palin's big proof. Andrew Breitbart published in an update the following statement from the Miller campaign:

Now the media has gone from trying to create stories to openly lying. The audio was pulled directly from the voicemail message. Nothing was altered. “Everything that was recorded on my phone is what we released without change,” said Randy Desoto.

That WAS everything!

No wonder that KTVA had no problem with rebutting Sarah Palin's claims.

It won't take very long before the last observer in the media will realize that Palin is nothing but a mental case.

Please also note the extensive reporting by "Media Matters" about Andrew Breitbart's long history of distorting facts.

I would like to step out of Palin's mental asylum for a moment and try to put things in context here. Sarah Palin not only received "help" here from discredited smear merchant Andrew Breitbart and re-tweeted his tweets, but she also works for Fox News. This station, as it's widely known, is not a legitimate news station. It's a Republican news outlet which reports the "facts" purely from a Republican perspective. This has been demonstrated over and over again, for example in the documentary "Outfoxed" by Robert Greenwald.

During the previous years, several internal memos of Fox News have surfaced, in which for example News Editorial Chief John Moody instructs his staff with the "line of the day." Reading some of these memos, I believe that that "Pravda" in the times of the Soviet-Union hasn't operated much differently. Here is an example which Huffington Post published in 2006:

"And let's be on the lookout for any statements from the Iraqi insurgents, who must be thrilled at the prospect of a Dem-controlled congress."

Media Matters in 2004 analyzed 33 internal Fox News memos and exposed the obvious bias which is contained in these memos.

Even more Fox News memos HERE.

If you look for biased reporting, you have to look no further than Fox.

Back to the daily Palin-lunacy:

Politico, who already made it on Palin's enemy list after publishing "Hurricane Sarah", struck again, under the headline "Next for GOP leaders: Stopping Sarah Palin":

Few, if any, Republican officials want to challenge Palin's credentials in public, but most speak dismissively and condescendingly about her in private.

There is rising expectation among GOP elites that Palin will probably run for president in 2012 and could win the Republican nomination, a prospect many of them regard as a disaster in waiting.

Many of these establishment figures argue in not-for-attribution comments that Palin’s nomination would ensure President Barack Obama’s reelection, as the deficiencies that marked her 2008 debut as a vice presidential nominee — an intensely polarizing political style and often halting and superficial answers when pressed on policy — have shown little sign of abating in the past two years.

"There is a determined, focused establishment effort … to find a candidate we can coalesce around who can beat Sarah Palin," said one prominent and longtime Washington Republican. "We believe she could get the nomination, but Barack Obama would crush her."

This sentiment was a nearly constant refrain in POLITICO interviews with top advisers to the candidates most frequently mentioned as running in 2012 and a diverse assortment of other top GOP officials.

Nearly all of these interviewees insisted on keeping their views on background, fearing the wrath of conservative grass-roots activists who are enthralled with the former Alaska governor and who have made plain that the establishment’s disdain for Palin and her devotees is mutually reciprocated.

This would represent "a strong counterweight to some kind of guerrilla effort Palin might try to launch." This leader said the party needs to create a unified job creation theme to offset the "cult of personality" that is Palin. "You deter someone by creating stronger opposition."

Well, it looks like the love-affair is finally over.

It's also obvious that Palin's vicious Bots from C4P and other sites have seriously turned-off a lot of people in the GOP leadership - which was foreseeable. Palin's "cult of personality" apparently is not seen as the way forward for the GOP.

Sarah Palin shot back immediately on Greta Van Susteren's show:

"I don't think the paper that we just printed this article on, you know, it's not worth even wrapping my King Salmon in."

"I'll just ignore this crap."

The full conversation with Greta Van Susteren can be watched HERE, in which she also calls the Politico-journalists a "joke."

Queen Palin's empire is crumbling. It's unlikely that there will be much good news during the next weeks. Having said this, I hope that everyone has pre-ordered Geoffrey Dunn's book "The Lies of Sarah Palin: The Untold Story Behind Her Relentless Quest for Power", which is due to be published in February 2011. I am sure that there will be many surprises in there.

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BONUS ADDED: Sarah Palin starring in "Repeal it now!"

Some of our readers noticed yesterday the crazed look that Sarah Palin gave when she said in the short interview below about the healthcare reform at the end: "Repeal it now!"

In case you missed it, I made a little clip. Get your daily dose of crazy!

Needless to say that it's almost impossible to count the lies about the healthcare reform she tells in this clip.

The next President of the United States, Ladies and Gentleman...?

PLEASE RE-TWEET:

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/29399703967

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UPDATE:

We are used to Sarah Palin making "over-the-top" statements, but this time she stepped well out of the box. She knows who it is who she is reaching out to, and exactly what it is what stirs them up.

The Daily Caller reports:

“The ‘reporters’ who continue to cite ‘unnamed GOP-insiders’ as hard news sources are deemed impotent by the American public as we rise up and say, ‘The state of journalism today stinks. Let’s clean it up and expect some accountability’,” Palin wrote in an email to The Daily Caller.

Palin also mocked Politico’s use of anonymous sources, saying, “I suppose I could play their immature, unprofessional, waste-of-time game, too, by claiming these reporters and politicos are homophobe, child molesting, tax evading, anti-dentite, puppy-kicking, chain smoking porn producers…really, they are… I’ve seen it myself…but I’ll only give you the information off-the-record, on deep, deep background; attribute these ‘facts’ to an ‘anonymous source’ and I’ll give you more.”

(h/t Wanda)

It looks like she is losing it, and the media hasn't even touched her various skeletons yet!

For Sarah Palin, the person who shouts the best insults has won in politics.

Re-pill her now!

(h/t Free Trig)

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UPDATE 2:

INTERESTING UPDATE IN THE"DAILY CALLER":

Politico executive editor Jim VandHei responded to Palin’s criticisms, saying “We have promised since the earliest days of Politico to pull back the curtain on how Washington really works and to let readers inside the conversations taking place among the people in power. Sometimes that requires extensive use of anonymous sources.

“This is what GOP insiders in this city are talking about and their concerns are widely known, if not publicly discussed. None of these Republicans would speak on the record for obvious reasons: they fear the backlash from Palin and her very passionate supporters around the country.”

So, does that mean that nobody is speaking out because they fear attacks from the Palinbots?

Or what does "backlash" exactly mean?

Is Palin as the Presidential candidate now unavoidable because everyone is afraid of speaking out about her, due to her fanatic followers? Does she start to rule through intimidation?

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We at Palingates are very happy to present strong stats again for October 2010:

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Palingates monthly appeal:

As usual, the time has come for our monthly appeal for donations. All donations, big and small, are welcome, and it's the donations which make it possible for us to run this blog.

Thanks to dusty for the graphic! :-)

You can donate via paypal, but donations via check or money order are now also possible. Please contact me at patrickpalingates@gmail.com if you would like to donate via check or money order.

Paypal button:

Let's all together make Sarah Palin history!

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PLEASE RE-TWEET:

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/29394190148

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/29385859355

http://twitter.com/#!/palingates/status/29385951173

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Fox News reports about David Kernell's trial: The fair and balanced Trig Truthers - what the fox? - Bristol Palin's testimony - UPDATE!

The jurors in David Kernell's trial have finished their deliberations, and the situation, according to knoxnews, looks as follows:

KNOXVILLE — A federal jury this afternoon convicted Sarah Palin e-mail intruder David C. Kernell of felony destruction of records to hamper a federal investigation and misdemeanor unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer.

The jury acquitted Kernell, 22, of felony wire fraud.

U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips declared a mistrial on the fourth charge, felony identity theft, after the jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked.

The records charge carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence, while the misdemeanor maximum sentence is one year.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Weddle said federal prosecutors would decide next week if they would retry the former University of Tennessee economics major on that charge.

Phillips said he would set a sentencing date after prosecutors make that decision.

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Therefore, we have to wait and see what happens next. Of course is a positive development that David Kernell was only found guilty on one of the felony charges, but it's too early yet for a final assessment.

Fox News is also on the case. This is an excerpt from their current report:

OK - a report like all the others, isn't it?

Wait, let's take a closer look:

"Bristol Palin said she was distressed to find pictures of her newborn son in the public eye after he mother's e-mail was hacked."

Wait a moment! What the fox...?

Did she REALLY say that?

Or is it just a "gaffe" by Fox News, a misinterpretation, a false report?

When Sarah Palin's yahoo account was illegally accessed by David Kernell on September 15, 2008, the only baby that had been born recently was - Trig.

Tripp, Bristol Palin's "publicly acknowledged son", was born on December 27, 2008.

The two pictures from this yahoo-account which afterwards were leaked to the public also show Trig.

Picture 1 from the yahoo-account:

Large version of this picture HERE.

Picture 2 from the yahoo account:

All available screenshots from Sarah's yahoo account have been published by Gawker HERE.

So what happened regarding this Fox News report? Could it be possible that Bristol made a slip?

Remember, Palinbots: Fox News always speaks the truth! ;-)

Funnily, we just published a shiny new post about the "mysterious" parentage of Trig a few days ago. It's still not too late for the Palinbots to educate themselves!

(huge h/t to yellowgirl!)

In case this report on Fox News is changed, I saved a PDF-copy of it HERE.

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Off-Topic:

Our brilliant reader "mrsgunka" has just sent us an amazing PDF-document with a detailed hypothesis regarding the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig accident in the Gulf of Mexico, together with shocking pictures! You HAVE to see this:

Download HERE.

In case this link doesn't work, there is an alternative link HERE. But please try the other link first.

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UPDATE:

Thanks to the efforts of our brilliant Palingater ella, we now have access to all documents which have been filed about the David Kernell trial in the Tennessee court database.

Therefore I started rummaging through the documents and made some interesting discoveries. I was looking in the first place for the transcripts of the Sarah and Bristol Palin's testimonies, and I found out that it may take several months before they will be published. However, the good news is that we will definitely receive in the near future PRECISE word-for-word transcripts of the proceedings and the testimonies. And there is not one darn thing Sarah can do about it.

There are some very interesting documents for everybody who wants to start digging deeper into the trial. I have collected them all in THIS FOLDER and they are ready for download.

Some of the most interesting documents:

- Transcript from June 30, 2009

- Transcript from July 16, 2009

- Original indictment - long version

Here we have some brand-new items:

- Verdict of the jury - April 30, 2010

- Mistrial declared on charge 1

The verdict of the jury is incredibly interesting, because what I hadn't realized so far that the jury had the CHOICE regarding charge 3 between a more severe and a lesser charge - and the jury opted for the lesser charge!

Screenshots:

Also, there is a very exciting affidavit in the documents by David T. Jones, Senior Assistant General Attorney of Alaska (download here).

From this affidavit we learn that we will receive thousands and thousands of more emails from Sarah Palin's administration in the near future! I would call this very good news. :-)

Screenshot:




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Websites which link to this post:

www.memeorandum.com

Sarah Jones - politicususa

www.newsvine.com

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God talks to Glenn Beck, Rupert Murdoch loves Communists, Comedy and a Volcano - UPDATE: Sara Hickman sings "Palin' By Comparison"!

UPDATE!

Texas strikes back!

Some citizen's of Sarah Palin's "favourite state in the lower 48" are sick and tired that Sarah seems to spend more time in Texas these days than with Trig. ;-)

Sara Hickman, the reigning "State Musician of Texas", created an awesome song: "Palin' By Comparison". The video has just been published on youtube a few minutes ago - we received the message via speed dial from Texas! ;-)

Enjoy!

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Start of main post:

So many things are happening right now in the USA and the rest of the world, that there is no shortage of material for Palingates - which is reflected in the various topics I intend to touch in this post.

First of all, Glenn Beck found God, finally. "Media Matters" reported yesterday that in an emotional message to his listeners of his radio show, Glenn explains that God has given him a plan, that there are no coincidences etc. etc., and he basically says that from now on only God will rule his world. Unfortunately, Glenn Beck in this clip doesn't go on to thank God for the $ 32 million he earned last year, which I think would have been an appropriate thing to do.

This clip really is worth listening to. Glenn Beck sounds like the "male Sarah Palin".

Well, maybe Glenn Beck should now start to pray with THIS MAN...

...as this apparently is Glenn's "gig" now.

By the way: I don't know exactly when the above picture showing Sarah Palin's new friend James Dobson and some of his followers was taken. I found it once on a blog where it was posted in 2006.

Please don't miss Phil Munger's excellent post about Sarah Palin's highly controversial comments regarding the separation of church and state - a separation, which, in Sarah's opinion, shouldn't exist.

Interestingly, the Palinbots over at creeps4palin were apparently not happy at all that one of their own fans had posted Sarah's complete "Women of Joy" speech on the internet, which partly caused the controversy. After all, if Queen Sarah bans the media, she knows what she is doing! (Which is, of course, trying to conceal her REAL extremist views from the general public.)

From the C4P comments:

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Or maybe we shouldn't take Glenn Beck too seriously?

After all, he recently said to Forbes magazine: "I could give a flying crap about the political process. We are an entertainment company."

If you also would like to become a right-wing demagogue on Fox News and then as a result hopefully as stinking rich as Glenn Beck, you should obey the following rules:

• First of all, you have to be white. You can't be a black or a Mexican and become a right wing radio TV zealot for Fox News. You must be white, the whiter the better. So white, you practically glow in the dark.
• Next, you need to be chubby. You need to have the kind of face that looks like chipmunks are storing acorns in your cheeks. In a medium that stresses slimness, beauty and glamour, you need to be pudgy. Don't ask why. Just over-eat.
• You must never serve in the military. In the history of Fox, no right wing zealot commentator has ever served in the military. You don't need to, after all, you'll be accusing everybody else of treachery and subversion, while at the same time promoting war, the ultimate perversity. Time in the military is time wasted, a sucker game, not for you, making it harder for you to work your way up from that obscure radio station to the big time as a professional broadcast fanatic on Fox News. Instead, stay in college and get started broadcasting over the college radio, spewing lies about the alleged perverted sexual practices of fellow students. This will develop in you a thick hide and a disregard for the suffering of others and the truth, necessary attributes to be a right wing zealot commentator at Fox.
• Next, learn to ignore history, while twisting the little you actually know. I didn't say study history. Just twist it to suit your ends. This is simple to practice in your college dorm room. Simply stand in front of a mirror, and verbally rehearse disagreeing. Have someone say to you, "the sun came up yesterday." Now say, "No it didn't." Now say, repeat after me, "black is white, square is round, up is down." Look if not forceful, then mean. This will scare some people in your future audience and convince them you know what you're talking about.
• Develop a prospectus, a list of lightning rod issues where it's legitimately one argument against the other, but that you can exploit to whip up fear and hatred, like abortion, or gun control. Write out and memorize mindless statements that condemn the opponents of your position by idiotic inaccurate historical comparisons that seem profound, but really aren't, such as, "Hitler believed in gun control, and so does Obama, so Obama is Hitler." The more of these moronic parables you can commit to memory, the better.
• Never agree to appear on any TV or radio show that is not your own and with someone you know to be intelligent, glib and in opposition to your views. Never, but never.
• Practice looking smug. Fat white cheeks, and smug. Look in the mirror. Are you smug? Remember, as smug as you think you are, you're not that smug on camera. You have to be really smug. Practice it over and again.
• Even though you feel like it, never use the N word to refer to African Americans. Instead, call them the safer "socialist, communist, Al-Qaeda-lover, traitor, subversive, liberal, Bush-Cheney-hater." Constantly be on the lookout for new smear labels. This deflects from the issue at hand and keeps the focus on you and your personality.
• Once you become a success, if you reach a saturation audience rating, in other words, a lot of angry 22-year-old white men named Billy Bob Ray Floyd are listening to you, ask Rupert Murdoch for a raise.
• These are but a few of the principles I outline in my new CD kit and booklet, You Too Can be An Ass. Only $79.95 while supplies last.

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Speaking of Glenn Beck's employer Rupert Murdoch: Are we too harsh on him? Isn't he just a businessman, doing his job?

Well, yes, he is. He loves his company so much that on the other side of the globe, in China, Rupert Murdoch has no problems whatsoever to snuggle up to Communists, if it helps his profits. He even goes so far as to condone the Communist party's censorship.

Esquire reports:

However, there is still one powerful American who has extensive connections with communists — not just some communists, but some of the most powerful communists in the world. According to an extensive report in the New York Times, this man has "flattered Communist Party leaders and done business with their children," met repeatedly with senior members of the communist Politburo, "cooperates closely" with communist censors and propaganda networks, and "cultivates political ties" with communists in the hope that they will "insulate his business ventures." Not only that, but he "often supports the policies" of communist leaders and "attacks their critics."

It gets worse. This powerful American has control of a large number of media holdings, and he attempted to curry favor with said communists by ordering one of his book publishing units to release a volume of communist propaganda glorifying Deng Xiaoping, the heir to Chairman Mao.

Another time, he killed a book deal with the last British governor of Hong Kong because of rumors that it would be critical of his communist business partners. When the story broke, the businessman denied it. Then Business Week uncovered internal memos that spoke of "corporate worries" that the book would threaten his business interests in China.

And it gets worse still. This powerful American businessman also owns a Chinese television network called Star TV. Once it carried news programming from the BBC. But after the famous incident when communists attacked unarmed civilians in Tiananmen Square, Star TV's BBC affiliate repeatedly showed the spectacular video clip of a man facing down a tank alone. The communists complained. And the powerful American businessman — who makes a great deal of noise on these shores about being a champion of freedom and free speech and the free market — asked the BBC to stop showing it so often. But the BBC kept airing the clip and the communists kept complaining and finally the businessman ordered his Chinese network to drop the BBC news channel altogether. He insisted this was a business decision and that politics had absolutely nothing to do with it, of course — and, also, the BBC reporters really wanted to spend more time with their families. But subsequently, the supreme leader of the communists praised him for his "objective" approach to Chinese political news.

As I said, this American businessman is a vocal champion of freedom in this country. He owns the Weekly Standard, which supports Bill Kristol and many other influential neoconservatives who are passionately committed to spreading democracy to all oil-producing countries. He put all of his media power behind the Iraq War. He cheered George W. Bush as "a man of great character and deep humility." And he's famously touchy about any criticism of his politics — when The Simpsons ran a parody of Fox News that included headlines like "Do Democrats Cause Cancer?" he threatened to sue the creators of the most successful show in the history of his network.

But his friendly relations with overseas communists have proved lucrative. After killing Star TV's BBC affiliate in order to ingratiate himself with China's communist propaganda ministers, he established a contract to help design a Web site for CCTV, the giant official Chinese TV network that Time magazine called "the key propaganda arm of the Communist Party." He also helped launch the Web site of the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, The People's Daily. He helped the communists develop a television encryption system, which will doubtless prove useful in suppressing dissent in the future. His Chinese version of MySpace obeys all communist censorship laws, even including a built-in link for reporting "inappropriate information" to the authorities. And to smooth the skids on his new ventures, he signed employment contracts with the son of the national propaganda chief and the leadership committee of the Communist Youth League.

Oh, and he also does business with the communist nation of Cuba, which harbors one of the many tax havens where he has hidden cash to avoid American tax laws.

This powerful American friend of communists is, of course, Rupert Murdoch — the man who signs Glenn Beck's paychecks.

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Thanks to the constant propaganda, manipulations and lies of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News network, the polls in the USA are starting to look pretty ugly. In a recent large survey, the participants were asked what they think about President Obama. These were the results of ALL participants:

The actual percentages of adults who believe these things are true about President Obama are as follows:

* He is a socialist (40%)
* He wants to take away Americans' right to own guns (38%)
* He is a Muslim (32%)
* He wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government (29%)
* He has done many things that are unconstitutional (29%)
* He resents America's heritage (27%)
* He does what Wall Street and the bankers tell him to do (27%)
* He was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president (25%)
* He is a domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitutions speaks of (25%)
* He is a racist (23%)
* He is anti-American (23%)
* He wants to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers (23%)
* He is doing many of the things that Hitler did (20%)
* He may be the Anti-Christ (14%)
* He wants the terrorists to win (13%)

Well, of course there is always a certain portion of the population that is poorly educated. However, when 20% of all Americans think that Obama is doing many things that Hitler did, when 25% think that he is not eligible to be President and when even 40% believe that he is a socialist, then you know that there is something seriously, seriously wrong.

By the way:

Did you know that pre-nazi Germany, the "Weimar Republic", had their very own Rupert Murdoch? His name was Alfred Hugenberg, he was a fanatical right-winger who built up a huge media conglomerate in Germany in the 1920's. With newspapers, magazines, news agencies and Germany's largest film studio this man heavily manipulated German public opinion and proved invaluable in bringing Adolf Hitler to power - it was Hugenberg's publications which made Hitler, "the nobody", known to the general public. I found an excellent overview in English language HERE.

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After so much depressing news, we need a good laugh! The comedian Dorothy Bishop published very funny parody clips about Sarah Palin. The first one is a parody of Madonna's song "Vogue" and the second one is also a real treasure: The mockumentary "Sarah Palin lost in New York".

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BONUS:

A reader sent me this unbelievably beautiful collection of pictures, published by the "Boston Globe", regarding the vulcano eruption in Iceland that has been disturbing us so much here in Europe. Planes finally took to the air again today after a break of about one week. TAKE A LOOK!

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