Sarah Palin is leaving Alaska and getting ready to hike the Appalachian Trail in Argentina with Mark Sanford!!!!

There are mixed reports on this, but CNN and FOX are both reporting that she is leaving office at the end of the month. The reason is that Palin feels she can be “more effective outside of government”. Not really sure how that would play into a 2012 run. Not only that, but the timing is very curious. A Friday afternoon dump on a holiday weekend. I got a feeling there is more there than meets the eye.

UPDATE:

There’s a lot of speculation (and wishing) from the right that she is doing this so she can run for President in 2012. Let’s think about that for a minute. Governor is the only major office she has held and is quitting that to run for President. Now you can say that “well Obama quit to become President”, yet Obama remained in office as a Senator and ran his campaign. So did John McCain, John Kerry, Bill Clinton. The list goes on. If this is truly her motive then I would chalk it up there with John McCain “suspending” his campaign last year.

This is from an email authored by Sarah Palin that CBS has obtained:

"That's not part of their platform and he was only a 'member' bc independent alaskans too often check that 'Alaska Independent' box on voter registrations thinking it just means non partisan," Palin wrote. "He caught his error when changing our address and checked the right box. I still want it fixed."

“He” being Todd. Of course there is a problem with her excuse:

Palin was attempting to bend the facts ever so slightly to fit neatly into her version of events. In truth, the box that Alaskans have the option of checking when registering to vote states the full name of the party, "Alaskan Independence Party," not "Alaska Independent," which would make an error by uncommitted voters more plausible.

And that’s exactly the point. Here’s the Alaska voter registration form (pdf file) and check out where you select your party:

So is Palin lying or is the Governor of the state of Alaska not aware of the actual political party names in her state or how they are listed on their voter registration forms? Please oh please let her be the nominee in 2012.

And as always Dave Neiwert has much more on this.

My level of respect for this woman just went down some:

The real issue now is one of forgiveness. I am willing to forgive Mark for his actions. We have been deeply disappointed in and even angry at Mark

Mark Sanford publicly admits he doesn’t even love his wife, but that’s ok. She can forgive him. Yeah go ahead and forgive him. That just gives him a reason to go out and do it more.

I remember reading about Judge Alex Kozinski when news broke that he had been caught having pornographic images on his personal website. To me there was nothing wrong with it. The pictures were all of adults, so who really cares? Yeah I know – the religious freaks.

Well a judicial council decided to take up the issue and have released their findings:

A panel of judges assigned to investigate concluded Kozinski's "possession of sexually explicit offensive material combined with his carelessness in failing to safeguard his sphere of privacy was judicially imprudent." His actions, the panel wrote, "can reasonably be seen as having resulted in embarrassment to the institution of the federal judiciary."

He wasn’t disciplined, but their findings really perked my interests, particularly the “carelessness in failing to safeguard his sphere of privacy “ part. So it’s not what he did, it’s the fact that he got caught. I wonder if more judges will tell defendants that in court rooms.

Reading the latest interview with Levi Johnston something really caught my eye:

At the time, the Palins insinuated he’d have to move to D.C. if McCain won. “I ain’t never moving,” he says with a shudder, thinking back.

So the Palin’s were telling him where he and his bride would have to live? I don’t remember any other VP telling their adult children they would have to live in D.C. The only reason I can think of for such a demand would be keeping the “family appearance”. Palin just wants to show everyone she is some great family person, even if it means going against the wishes and desires of her family. In other words – everything is for nothing but show. Using your family in that way doesn’t make you anymore of a matriarch. Instead it makes you a user.

There has been a lot of talk today about a WSJ article talking about the totally insane rise of overseas trips taken by members of Congress on the taxpayers dime. If you read Ed at Hot Air you can quickly see where the problem is:

Democrats ran on the Culture of Corruption charge in 2006 and gained control of both chambers of Congress on the promise to clean up Capitol Hill.  The Wall Street Journal finds instead that Democrats have used their power to spend taxpayer dollars on high-priced global travel.  Taxpayer-funded Congressional delegation travel has increased by 50% since the Democrats took charge:

Sounds like the Democrats are just wasting away all our money – doesn’t it? Even the WSJ alludes to this:

Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That's a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.

But that isn’t the worse part. Let’s look at the actual graph the WSJ supplied:Sire

Sure the Democrats have increased the spending by 50%, but what about the almost 600% it went up under Republican control? Ed doesn’t seem to mention that. He also seems to not notice any of the Republicans mentioned in the article, like:

Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, took a cruise on the River Seine with defense-industry executives and elected officials from Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

Or how about:

In October, Rep. Bud Cramer (R., Ala.) spent two weeks in Europe on government business. Reports show that Mr. Cramer spent $5,700 on hotels, meals and incidentals. Mr. Cramer wasn't running for re-election and left office just two months later.

"Knowing that I was leaving with my 18 years of seniority, I wanted to conclude some issues that I was working on," Mr. Cramer said. He now works for a lobbying firm in Washington.

This isn’t a partisan issue like Ed tries to make it out. All lawmakers are taking advantage here. But for the hatred of the Malkin crew that’s not the point. “Democrats are wasting money” – that’s what they want to highlight. Just ignore the facts, because if they were paying attention then they would see that the cost of these trips went up about 800% while the Republicans ran the show. That’s right – the Republican controlled Congress saw a rise in travel expenses of 800%. That doesn’t make that 50% under Democratic control seem so bad – does it?

UPDATE:

Thanks to OsborneInk for pointing out that Bud Cramer is actually a Democrat. It looks like the WSJ got that wrong. What I do find interesting is that the WSJ failed to mention all of Tom Delay’s little trips. Or how about Bob Ney? These two names were synonymous with abuse of tax payer funds when they were in office.

That is how much a new healthcare proposal would cost – one that would cover 97% of the country:

The plan carries a 10-year price tag of slightly over $600 billion, and would lead toward an estimated 97 percent of all Americans having coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office, Sens. Edward M. Kennedy and Chris Dodd said in a letter to other members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The AP obtained a copy.

We can expect the right wingers to balk at that prices, but lets put it into perspective. Basically this cost would be about 1/3 of the we pay per year to fight our two wars. It would also be around 1/10th of our annual defense budget, and the Republicans never complain that we spend too much on defense.

The bill also puts some of the burden on employers, but not that much:

Additionally, the revised proposal calls for a $750 annual fee on employers for each full-time worker not offered coverage through their job. The fee would be set at $375 for part-time workers. Companies with fewer than 25 employees would be exempt. The fee was forecast to generate $52 billion over 10 years, money the government would use to help provide subsidies to those who cannot afford insurance.

There’s only one of two reasons an employer wouldn’t offer coverage – either they are greedy or the insurance companies are just too damn expensive. This bill will help alleviate the later by giving the insurance companies some real competition, another thing the Republicans will complain about.

Hopefully with the addition of Senator Franken we can see a real momentum to get this through the Congress in the next few months. We have the highest healthcare costs in the world and the quality is faltering to other industrialized nations, who offer care to their citizens. If America wants to succeed then we need this reform and we need it yesterday.

But what is to be expected from a person who wants to secede from the union. Sullivan points out this picture:

Then in another post he points out that her display of the flag goes against all etiquette. What kind of shit storm would Malkin, Reynolds, Drudge and FOX make if that was a picture of President Obama?

These people are sick and Rupert Murdoch is the enabler to them.

Could you imagine the right if someone like Keith Olbermann was saying last year that bin Laden should attack our country again? I can and its not pretty.

It’s amazing to hear Sanford now admit he had “crossed the line” with more women. So Sanford stood before the people of his state last week and lied while begging forgiveness. He even has been invoking God on his lies. This man is a plethora of sin.

But if that isn’t enough, this part really got me:

During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he's trying to fall back in love with his wife.

Now we have a man who is putting his political future before his family. Growing up in a family where your parents are no longer in love is not fun, and becomes stressful. Sanford isn’t thinking about his wife or his kids. He wants to put on some charade just so he looks politically viable. And any Republican who supports Sanford’s will to remain in office are every bit as guilty as he is. If people like Lindsey Graham and Joe Scarborough are truly friends of Sanford then they would tell him he needs to either resign or let go of his family. Let Jenny move on and stop prolonging the inevitable pain his children will go through. This isn’t about politics, its about human lives.

Now that the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Al Franken there is a lot of expectation that Governor Tim Pawlenty will sign the certification and Al will be on his way to the Senate. One problem though:

Pawlenty, a Republican, has said he would sign the certificate if ordered to do so by the court. The court's ruling stopped short of explicitly ordering the governor to sign the document, saying only that Franken was "entitled" to it.

I could see this being the very kind of bullshit technicality a Republican would use to try and keep Franken out of the Senate. We are in an era of seeing Republican presidential front runners doing very stupid things, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Pawlenty isn’t next. Not signing the certificate would be the very kind of stupid thing I am talking about.

I guess most of this will depend on what Coleman says in about 5 minutes.

UPDATE:

Coleman has just congratulated “Senator Al Franken” and said he will live by the decision. Sounds like he is giving in – FINALLY!

I’m not a religious person, but I got a funny feeling this is a pretty major sin:

When Trig was born, Palin wrote an e-mail letter to friends and relatives, describing the belated news of her pregnancy and detailing Trig’s condition; she wrote the e-mail not in her own name but in God’s, and signed it “Trig’s Creator, Your Heavenly Father.”

Even if it isn’t a sin, its at least chalked up to “creepy as hell”. This is the star of the GOP for 2012 and what little we really do know about her is something that could work its way into an M. Night Shyamalan flick.

This is rather amazing:

A new national poll suggests that nearly three-quarters of all Americans support the plan to withdraw most U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities and towns, even though most believe that the troop movements will lead to an increase in violence in that country.

But nowhere near as amazing as this:

"This plan has widespread bipartisan support," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Seventy two percent of Democrats and 74 percent of Republicans favor this move."

Republicans support the drawdown in Iraq more than Democrats do. The difference is within the MOE, but it does put a big crimp in Cheney’s claims that Obama is making us less safe.

Oh and Iraq is really going down hill. I mean look at this violence:

The only ones that want us there is Dick Cheney and the rest of his war-mongering, draft-dodging friends.

Limbaugh just loves showing his racist beliefs:

In Venezuela, we had a soul shake, or whatever -- that black handshake he has that he had with Chavez. We had a soul shake.

And the GOP wonders why they are losing the black and Hispanic vote? What do you expect when you got a racist being you mouth piece?

But I don’t blame Limbaugh alone in this. He has done this kind of crap for years. Last year he was referring to then candidate Obama as a “spade” and Hillary Clinton as a “ho”, and there was no outrage over it. Where was NOW, the NAACP, Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton? They constantly give this fat wind-bag a pass. That’s why I didn’t care that much about Don Imus. They went after him, but totally ignore Limbaugh. I guess these groups are just scared of the fat man.

(h/t Cesca)