Sorry for the delay. Production issues arose. And the trip to Wasilla and Willow will have to wait another nonce. Because events have overtaken us. Titanic events.
Moosylvania quakes this day.*
Central Moosylvania
[* No, not the second-most tectonically-active spot in the USA, home to the 9.2 magnitude 1964 "Good Friday" quake in Anchorage, which I feel duty-bound to mention, since I wrote about the MOST tectonically active spot, the Salton Sink, in "The Doomed Land" and the "The Sinking Land" on June 8 and 9. Anchorage lies at the OTHER end of the same tectonic plate, but that is not why Moosylvania quakes.]
And let me be clear: by “Moosylvania,” I mean the Anchorage/Wasilla complex geographically — where 2 out of 3 Alaskans live — and Sarah Palin, psychologically. Moosylvania is ultimately a state of mind, and no aspersion is cast on the many decent and fine Alaskans who exist elsewhere in the state, and even in the Greater Moosylvania Metro Area.
The Anchorage Daily News reports* :
Despite protests, Palin visit raises record amount for school
CSU STANISLAUS: Event raises more than $200,000 for school.
By PATTY GUERRA
The Modesto (Calif.) Bee
Published: June 25th, 2010 10:35 PM
Last Modified: June 26th, 2010 01:40 AMTURLOCK, Calif. — Sarah Palin discussed civic education, freedom of speech and her infamous “bendable straws” demand at California State University, Stanislaus on Friday night.
[...]The gala brought in $450,000 gross. University officials estimated they spent $190,000 and got $50,000 in in-kind donations, such as drinks and supplies.
Black, gold and crystal table settings, white flowers, lights and gauzy drapes transformed the university’s cafeteria for the $500-per-ticket event. Swanson said the foundation sold about 370 tickets, in addition to several higher-priced sponsorships.
Guests dined on a five-course dinner that included buckwheat blini with smoked salmon, caprese salad, seared scallops and filet and halibut. They were greeted with a signed copy Palin’s autobiography, “Going Rogue,” on each seat.
Temporary fences manned by event staff kept protesters outside the interior of the campus. At one point, campus police trying to move some tea party supporters out of the driveway were met with resistance as people pushed on barricades….
* OK, picking up the story from The Modesto (Calif.) Bee, reporting on Sarah Palin’s speech in the Western Megalopolis and Font of the Arts and Culture, Turlock, California at the “University of California, Stanislaus.”
Originally called ”Stanislaus State College” and then California State University, Stanislaus, and now in the middle of yet another name change to University of California, Stanislaus [which I'll explain below], because the official website still says “California State University Stanislaus” founded in 1957, accredited in 1964 — noted, perhaps ironically, for their motto:
Vox Veritas Vita (“Speak the Truth as a Way of Life“)
“Obsequium* secures friends, veritas only enemies” (Obsequium amicos, veritas odium paret [Andria 68-69]).
An English example of the use of ”veritas” would be “speaking truth to power.”
[* According to Wiktionary's Latin section:
obsequium (genitive obsequii); n, second declension
Complaisance, yielding, compliance; deference, allegiance, obedience, obsequiousness.]
In this case, however, the final synonym isn’t merely the correct definition, but was defined from the root latin term. (click the link for the English definition).
- “2 + 2 = 4″ is not veritas, although it is true.
- “George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney ordered the use of torture, as they have admitted, which is a war crime and must be prosecuted as such if the term “rule of law” is to have any meaning to our nation and in the eyes of the world” is veritas.
But, speaking of obsequiousness, Cal State Stanislaus and veritas …
Last night, a rightie kerfuffle arose, screeched by the blogosmear, and then, in a monopoly action, “reported” as news by Faux Nooz — who, oddly, treat Sarah Palin as a legitimate national newsmaker when, in fact, she is a Faux Nooz employee. Any journalist with a shred of professionalism would note that fact, usually preceded by “full disclosure.” Regular readers know that I have been scrupulous regarding this canon of journalistic practice.
Oh wait. We’re talking about Faux.
But HOW it wended its way from Fox news 40 in Turlock to Fox News in Manhattan is instructive. That Invisible Hand leaves another Footprint.
Watch as the kerfuffle — pushing the David Weigel meme that the LIBERAL MEDIA actually can’t be trusted because they hold YOU in contempt; a case of psychological projection if ever there was one — as the kerfuffle soufflé rises and then falls:
This is the top of the page on Memeorandum @ 12 Noon on Saturday:
Ezra Klein:
On Journolist, and Dave Weigel — I began Journolist in February of 2007. It was an idea born from disagreement. Weeks, or maybe months, earlier, I had criticized Time’s Joe Klein over some comments he made about the Iraq War. He e-mailed a long and searching reply, and the subsequent conversation was educational for us both…
Discussion: BuzzMachine, Politics Daily, Verum Serum, Hot Air, The Corner on National …, Comments from Left Field, MattLewis.org, Big Think, Tony Comstock’s Kan of Silence, TBogg, Feministe, Raw Story, The Atlantic Online, Big Journalism, Riehl World View, The Moderate Voice, Pajamas Media, Balloon Juice, Suburban Guerrilla, Hugh Hewitt’s TownHall Blog, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Ross Douthat, Liberty Pundits Blog, The Reality-Based Community, NewsReal Blog, Hit & Run, The Daily Dish, Moe Lane, Outside the Beltway, The Politico and pandagon.net
( and ad nauseum down half the page)
Memeorandum @ 1 PM on Saturday:
Andy Alexander / Ombudsman Blog (Washington Post):
Blogger loses job; Post loses standing among conservatives — Post blogger Dave Weigel, who wrote about the conservative movement, resigned amid controversy today following disclosure of disparaging e-mails he’d written about some of the very people he was hired to cover.
The story is beginning to fade from the indices that Memeorandum samples to automatically determine the top blogging news spot.
Memeorandum @ 2 PM on Saturday:
Elizabeth Williamson / Washington Wire:
G-20: Obama Gives Press the Slip — Holed up with seven other global leaders in the woods of Muskoka, Canada, President Barack Obama gave the White House press corps the slip last night. — The president is attending the G-8 and G-20 summits with his global counterparts this weekend.
And now the whole David Weigel incident is falling off the front page. Slow news Saturday.
And again, an hour later.
Memeorandum @ 3 PM on Saturday:
Elizabeth Williamson / Washington Wire:
G-20: Obama Gives Press the Slip — Holed up with seven other global leaders in the woods of Muskoka, Canada, President Barack Obama gave the White House press corps the slip last night. — The president is attending the G-8 and G-20 summits with his global counterparts this weekend.
Discussion: The Hill, Taegan Goddard’s … and JammieWearingFool
And , a little further down, this spooky precognition of what’s about to happen:
Myglesias / Matthew Yglesias:
What Is Hidden and What Is Revealed — Something that pops up every time old/new media tensions emerge is the view—which I find, frankly, bizarre—common in the newspaper world that pretending to not have opinions makes your work better. One underlying presumption here is the odd notion …*
Here’s the rest of the paragraph:
the odd notion that the ideal reporter would be someone who actually doesn’t have opinions, as if “the facts” were purely transparent and could be merely observed, processed, and then regurgitated into inverted pyramid form without passing through the muck of “judgment” or “thoughts about the world.”
And then, it hits, like India ink dripped into a glass of clear water:
This is the top of the page on Memeorandum @ 4 PM on Saturday:
KTXL FOX40:
Statement Regarding Comments Overheard On FOX40.com Stream Following Sarah Palin Speech — SACRAMENTO – Thousands of people from California and around the world tuned in to FOX40.com to listen to a speech prepared by Sarah Palin Friday evening from the campus of California State University, Stanislaus.
Discussion: Tammy Bruce, Cubachi, Sister Toldjah, sisu, Raw Story, Rumproast, The Right Scoop and Anchorage Daily News
Now, watch the inky agenda of the kerfufflers spread and obscure all other points (e.g. the controversy regarding the speech, the California Attorney General’s investigation of the NON-transparency of the foundation organized to raise funds for the public institution, Stan State, the secret Palin contract etc. etc.)
Memeorandum @ 7 PM on Saturday [emphasis added]:
KTXL FOX40:
Statement Regarding Comments Overheard On FOX40.com Stream Following Sarah Palin Speech — SACRAMENTO – Thousands of people from California and around the world tuned in to FOX40.com to listen to a speech prepared by Sarah Palin Friday evening from the campus of California State University, Stanislaus.
Discussion: Breitbart.tv, Tammy Bruce, Riehl World View, Raw Story, Rumproast, The Right Scoop and Anchorage Daily News
RELATED:
Sister Toldjah:
Fox40, Multiple journo-dudes slam Palin after CA speech (UPDATE 8: FOX40 RESPONDS TO ST) — **Note – 12:56 AM: Please scroll to the bottom of this post for (ongoing) important updates. Just got done watching the speech Sarah Palin gave at California State University, Stanislaus …
Discussion: Cubachi, Hot Air, Pajamas Media, Tammy Bruce, The Right Scoop and Conservatives4Palin.com
“UPDATE 8“ Update … EIGHT? This must be either a VERY IMPORTANT STORY, or else somebody’s working very hard to make it so.
Memeorandum @ 10 PM on Saturday [emphasis added]:
KTXL FOX40:
Statement Regarding Comments Overheard On FOX40.com Stream Following Sarah Palin Speech — SACRAMENTO – Thousands of people from California and around the world tuned in to FOX40.com to listen to a speech prepared by Sarah Palin Friday evening from the campus of California State University, Stanislaus.
Discussion: Riehl World View, Raw Story, Rumproast, The Right Scoop and Whiskey Fire
RELATED:
Breitbart.tv:
REPORTERS CAUGHT ON OPEN MIC BASHING SARAH PALIN — Following a live feed of Sarah Palin’s speech at Cal State Stanislaus, reporters are caught openly trashing the former Vice Presidential candidate. The audio went out on the live feed supplied by Fox 40.
Discussion: Gateway Pundit
Sister Toldjah:
Fox40, Multiple journo-dudes slam Palin after CA speech (UPDATE 8: FOX40 RESPONDS TO ST) — **Note – 12:56 AM: Please scroll to the bottom of this post for (ongoing) important updates. Just got done watching the speech Sarah Palin gave at California State University, Stanislaus …
Discussion: Cubachi, Tammy Bruce, Pajamas Media, American Power and The Right Scoop
Patty Guerra / Merced Sun-Star:
Sarah Palin discusses education and freedom at CSU Stanislaus banquet
Discussion: Hot Air, Tammy Bruce and Conservatives4Palin.com
Jeepers. Now let’s see what’s happening at 11:55 PM Saturday night.
KTXL FOX40:Statement Regarding Comments Overheard On FOX40.com Stream Following Sarah Palin Speech — SACRAMENTO – Thousands of people from California and around the world tuned in to FOX40.com to listen to a speech prepared by Sarah Palin Friday evening from the campus of California State University, Stanislaus.Discussion: The Reaction, Raw Story, Tammy Bruce, Riehl World View, Rumproast, Whiskey Fire, The Right Scoop and Anchorage Daily NewsRELATED:
Sister Toldjah:Fox40, Multiple journo-dudes slam Palin after CA speech (UPDATE 8: FOX40 RESPONDS TO ST) — **Note – 12:56 AM: Please scroll to the bottom of this post for (ongoing) important updates. Just got done watching the speech Sarah Palin gave at California State University, Stanislaus …Discussion: Cubachi, Hot Air, The Other McCain, Left Coast Rebel, Tammy Bruce, Pajamas Media, American Power, The Right Scoop and Conservatives4Palin.comBreitbart.tv:REPORTERS CAUGHT ON OPEN MIC BASHING SARAH PALIN — Following a live feed of Sarah Palin’s speech at Cal State Stanislaus, reporters are caught openly trashing the former Vice Presidential candidate. The audio went out on the live feed supplied by Fox 40.Discussion: Gateway Pundit
First Things is a monthly ecumenical journal founded by Roman Catholic theologian Richard John Neuhaus, which is focused on creating a "religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society." [...] The journal’s official bloggers include Wesley J. Smith, Christopher Blosser, Steve Dillard, Sally Thomas, Joe Carter, Nathaniel Peters, Jim Hoft (the “Gateway Pundit”), Stephen M. Barr, and Elizabeth Scalia, more commonly known as The Anchoress….]
By Brandon Mercer (News Director) & Matthew Keys (Online News Producer) FOX40 News, June 25, 2010
SACRAMENTO – Thousands of people from California and around the world tuned in to FOX40.com to listen to a speech prepared by Sarah Palin Friday evening from the campus of California State University, Stanislaus. During that stream, other reporters in the media overflow room were heard on our microphone, due to the unusual circumstances of how we managed to bring the live feed.
First, FOX40 News was the only station streaming a live signal from CSU Stanislaus during Sarah Palin’s presentation. Friday, we were told by officials organizing the speech that we were not permitted to beam a live signal direct from the dining hall where Sarah Palin was presenting.
Which was exactly how the Eugene appearance was handled. This media whore will not allow any media that she — OK, her handlers — do not carefully control. Listen to this next part. It’s Dickensian …
Instead, we were offered the opportunity to aim a FOX40 camera at a projection screen inside a room for assembled media several hundred feet from where Sarah Palin was speaking. They would not allow us to get a direct feed of audio, so we had to hold a mic up to their speakers.
Seriously. “May I please have some more, sir?” Who does this Caribou Barbie, Princess of Moosylvania think she is?
To affect the (unlawful) media hauteur of George W. Bush, who was willing to say that the American people elected him, but would not allow the American people to attend any of his events, ejecting anyone not pre-screened to applaud on command — creates the effect of American Royalty, which bizarrely contrasts with the “populist good old mom” image the Professional Media Consultants are minting with all the care and attention to detail that went into the creation of Ronald McDonald.
But, seriously, isn’t she more Mayor McCheese? OK: More the Hamburglar PRETENDING to be Mayor McCheese. It continues:
Our choice was either to not carry a speech of local and national interest due to the low-quality video and audio options, or to provide a signal by any means necessary. It was with the public interest in mind that we opted for the latter.
While our cameras pointed at the CSU screen, showing the CSU camera, several reporters for other stations walked in front of our camera. Also, again, since CSU did not offer us a direct audio feed, we had to put a microphone in front of their sound system. Other reporters were overheard on that, despite several warnings that we had a hot mic, and several thousand people watching.
Following Sarah Palin’s address from CSU Stanislaus, several reporters were again heard making comments about the speech that some viewers considered inappropriate and unprofessional. …
Shit, lady, if those bullshit limitations were placed on media in my town and I had a professional need to cover that event, you can be sure I’d have been a hell of a lot less complimentary than they were. I mean, when someone’s calling YOU the “lamestream” media, you have a right to make comments off the record.
This isn’t a court of law. These are reporters who give us the précis of the event. And, if you will read the Alaska/Turlock reporter, who was forced to watch the event with Fox 40 FILMING it, and telling you to shut up while they held a microphone to the speakers, she neatly summarizes the newsworthy aspects of the event. There is no editorializing.
Look, the mainstream media may be lame, but they do get us a big chunk of the facts. Facts that Americans are famous for digesting and coming up with a gazillion different interpretations. Except that the blogswarm seen above doesn’t care about any of the rest of that. By the time it has transitioned from a Saturday afternoon blogswarm into a Sunday Fox News story, and an on-air story, complete with audio of the horrible, awful things said about Her Royal Hineyness, the context has been jettisoned.
STATE & LOCAL
Reporters Caught on Tape Mocking Palin Speech
Published June 27, 2010 | FOXNews.comSeveral people were caught on an open mike mocking Sarah Palin for delivering a “roller coaster”-type speech after she addressed California State University, Stanislaus on Friday.
As the former Alaska governor stepped off stage at the sold-out dinner fundraiser and the sound of applause faded away, voices identified as reporters in a viral video could be heard one after another cracking jokes about the speech.
“Oh my God, I feel like I just got off a roller coaster, going round and round, and up and down. Sh-t flying out … everywhere,” one said, as someone else made whooshing sounds.
Another one chimed in, comparing the address to the work of a sloppy college student.
“When you’ve got to write a report as a college student and you just try to jam as many quotes in as possible … That’s what I got,” he said.
Someone else added: “She didn’t finish a statement.”
Then another voice could be heard cutting through, saying: “Did she make a statement, because I didn’t catch that either.”
Funny: the context of contemptuously ghettoizing reporters in front of a TV set has completely vanished. Now, only the “reporters mocking Palin” information is “reported.” Funny. Those reporters in that room didn’t distort THEIR stories by suppressing all uncomfortable facts. Gee. And Fox News is criticizing … what?
Sure, they made human and understandable comments about being treated like cattle. You would have, too. But it didn’t stop them from doing their jobs, just as facts don’t get in the way of Fox “News” doing ITS job.
Of course, when it comes to the actual reality of news reporting, one can understand why Faux Nooz™ might have difficulty in understanding the issues involved. Theory is rarely an acceptable substitute for actual experience.
If you think that reporters don’t have opinions, you haven’t been paying attention since birth. Of course they do. How could you not watch history and not have opinions on it? But that has never stopped good reporters from doing their jobs. Walter Cronkite did his job admirably for many years without anyone ever knowing HIS personal views. Turns out that he had them, and they weren’t milquetoast. Just like judges do their jobs, reporters do their jobs, no matter what their personal views, and try to get it as right as they can. Some are competent and some are incompetent.
You know, like the ones covering the event at “The University of California, Stanislaus.”
CNN’s blog referred to it that way, but they’ve “sanitized” the story without comment. And that is the scary part. This kind of electronic media can make history go away and supplant it with a NEW history. Here’s the screenshot:
But, if you click on the link, story is 404 not found. It’s been REMOVED. And that’s a bigger breach of journalistic ethics, perhaps, than anything the “bullpen” said during their time in the Media Ghetto at Cal State Stanislaus. Certainly with more chilling implications.
To err is human; to expunge and replace is arrogating divinity. And THAT is much scarier than the fact that the reporter got the name wrong. A whole slew of blogosmearians did the same thing. (Google ”The University of California, Stanislaus” and you’ll see).
And that’s as scary as the footprint of the Rovian Hand: they throw this inky crap into the rhetorical waters until you can’t see anything else, and then it’s off to the next talking point, fake kerfuffle, new story manufactured in the rightiesphere and dutifully reported by the press.
The footprint of the Rovian Hand
And it takes days to track down the “facts” — by which time, the flying monkeys are off on another wild tangent, creating controversies out of thin air. In debate we used to call it the “shotgun” case or the “spread” case: you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance, so baffle ‘em with bullshit, and throw it so fast that nobody can respond.
And so on and so forth and scooby dooby do wah. Just ask David Weigel, who got to share the meme, if only by Murdochian osmosis. So, dutifully, I clicked on the link and listened to those awful, terrible comments by those “unprofessional” reporters.
In order to hear those terrible, awful comments made about The Princess of Moosylvania and her grand oration, I had to download and watch the speech itself. Just as if I were trapped in an anteroom while fat cats dined off of crystal at a “fundraiser” for less than four hundred of Stockton, California’s conservative hoi oligoi.
There is, of course, the howler that Keith Olbermann underlined yesterday, as the Moosylvanian potentate launched into a fervent osculation of the posterior of St. Ronald of the Ray Gun, cluelessly stating that Reagan had graduated from Eureka College in [Eureka, implicitly] California. And, therefore, his California experience naturally followed.
Except that Reagan, from Dixon, Illinois, graduated from Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois. But we’re dealing with a fact-free zone here. That shouldn’t surprise us. From Faux Nooz to Palin’s Views, nary a fact pollutes the azure-blue skies of the Wonderland that they seem to inhabit. So many castles; so little air.
No: the three things that struck me were, first, just how LOUSY a public speaker Palin is, how much like that Miss Teen Carolina contestant vamping on an answer to a question that she honestly has no idea about or answer for.
Listen to Palin sometime and pretend that she’s a beauty pageant contestant and see if you don’t find yourself thinking, “I sure hope she cleans up on points in the swimsuit and evening gown competition, because this contestant is dumber than a box of rocks.” A bad performer. The Paris Hilton of politics, this Princess of Moosylvania.
It’s like she’s been asked a question that she doesn’t want to talk about, or, more often, doesn’t know the answer to. Like, “What periodicals do you read?”
“All of them.”
The sheer dumbassitude of that reply reverberates through the halls of history like a loud fart at a funeral.
But, like stoopid people everywhere, she can’t admit that she doesn’t know (and isn’t interested in doing her homework, and the McCain campaign team made clear after the election in 2008). For some reason, ignorant people are desperately afraid of not appearing to know EVERYTHING, which is, itself, the hallmark of ignorance. As Socrates noted, the more one knows, the more one realizes that one knows comparatively nothing.
And the hallmark of intellectual honesty is being willing to admit that you DON’T know something. Very often, it leads to learning quite a lot about that which you admitted you were ignorant about.
The second thing was how Spiro Agnew snarky she was. She doesn’t just disagree with people, she hates the people she disagrees with, and her snottiness is exceptionally disagreeable. In any polite company, regardless of party, she’s flat-out rude.
The “No sleight too slight not to launch a retaliatory strike” shrike.
No: the the third and most important thing that sticks with me is, well, let’s put it this way:
About 40 minutes in, she says this:
“I’m a commercial fisherman.”
The way you or I would say, “I’m hot,” or “I’m tired,” or “It’s late.” Just an unquestionable fact, a verity as inescapable as the rising of the sun and the setting of the moon.
That’s like somebody who took the pony ride who now claims to be a jockey.
And not just any pony ride: the pony ride where the ponies are yoked on a wheel, and a handler walks beside the child on the pony. Like the old one at Griffith Park, in Los Angeles, near the Carousel. Or the one where the Beverly Center Shopping Mall is now.
It happened to me when Sarah Palin said “I’m a commercial fisherman,” after all those whoppers that those reporters were commenting on.
There was an audible click in my brain.
And that was when the needle on my old analog BullShit Meter™ jammed so hard into the red zone that it’s actually stuck there and busted.
Now I’ve got to go and get another one.
(Maybe this time an LED, digital BS meter. I think the analogs are discontinued.)
Damn.
Vox Veritas Vita.
Courage.
==================
NOTE: This is part V of a series of VIII.
The other installments are:
- I. North to Alaska, or, Back From AK, 17 JUNE 2010
- II. Back From AK 2: Moosylvania is Saved, 19 JUNE 2010
- III. North to Alaska: Into the Belly of the Moose, 24 JUNE 2010
- IV. North to Alaska: Moose of Darkness 26 JUNE 2010
- V. Moosterious Interlude, or, Strangers In The Right, 29 JUNE 2010
- VI. North to Alaska, 2010- A Moose Odyssey 2 July 2010
- VII. North to Alaska: How Moose Was My Valley 4 July 2010
- VIII. North to Alaska: The Moosterious Stranger 7 July 2010
- (appendix) Mudflats Flaps Back? Tries To Declare Moosetrial 10 July 2010
What an extraordinary site! Wonderful just looove the silly manipulated images. I do a blog on the political families of America who act as an oligarchy so a lot of what you have (especially those graphs on inequality) I might lift (with credits to yourself? I like Palin too – no actually thats sarcasm!
You might find some of my musings fit with yours I am at http://theoligarchkings.wordpress.com
Love it!
David
How creepy is it that people with that kind of donation money support this kind of person?