The odd lies of Sarah Palin 11

Andrew Sullivan is tirelessly cataloguing and regularly updating the "odd lies of Sarah Palin" ("odd" because unlike normal politicians' deceptions, they're not exaggerations or misdirections or fuzzy interpretations -- they're just flat out denials of settled, documented fact, easy to debunk with a google search).

Gristians may be particularly interested in lies four (endangered species), five (the oil pipeline), seven (climate change), and nine (Alaska's energy contribution).

Someday someone will write a book about Palin -- her personal background, her psychological profile, her political history, her interaction with the revanchist right base -- that will make sense of her. I look forward to it, as I admit to being virtually struck dumb. I just don't know what to make of it.

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

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  1. Bob Wallace Posted 3:52 am
    21 Oct 2008

    Sarah gets her chance...We've experienced several years of radio loudmouths telling Joe Sixpack that our elected officials were idiots and our "educated elite" stupid.
    Joe has been getting the message that he has more common sense and better ideas than the folks running our governments and our institutions.  Joe calls in with an ill-formed concept, largely devoid of facts, and is roundly congratulated for solving a complex problem.
    Joe's a natural genius.  Listen to Joe and our problems will be solved.
    Well, one of the "Joes" got a chance to demonstrate their superior ability.
    Perhaps Joe will now realize why the cream floats to the surface.
    Or not....

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  2. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 5:07 am
    21 Oct 2008

    She's an ambitious, ignorant, bumpkinand is already challenging McCain. The religionists want the Republican party back ; )

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

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  3. sindark's avatar

    sindark Posted 6:00 am
    21 Oct 2008

    Passing interest?Hopefully, when McCain loses, she will just fade back into the curious politics of her northern state.

    a sibilant intake of breath

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  4. Russ Posted 6:10 am
    21 Oct 2008

    polar bear op-edReading Sullivan's commentary reminded me of how a few weeks ago, going back through my ESA file, which I hadn't looked at in a long time, I found "Palin's" NYT op-ed from last January.
    It was funny re-reading it, because I remembered my impression back then. What I knew of Palin then was that she'd scuttled Murkowski's exceptionally criminal gas lease giveaway plans, so I pictured her as a less unreasonable kind of republican. Still bad, but not as bad as most.

    How wrong I was.
    But the NYT piece itself seemed unremarkable. Now I read it and ask, who really wrote it, because it couldn't possibly have been she.

    Not on account of the content - that's shallow enough. But nevertheless it is competently written.  

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  5. sindark's avatar

    sindark Posted 7:29 am
    21 Oct 2008

    TerminologyAs an aside, lies that are "flat out denials of settled, documented fact" may be more appropriately called 'blatant' or 'shameless' than 'odd.'

    a sibilant intake of breath

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  6. Delay And Deny's avatar

    Delay And Deny Posted 4:36 pm
    21 Oct 2008

    IPCC Not As Dumb As I Thought

    Was watching "Heat" on PBS tonight using the streaming web site (nice stream, I guess because of the low resolution) and I think I finally figured out what the IPCC is about.
    Basically India wants to grow.   The head of the IPCC is Indian.   What they basically did is put the whammy on the United States to try and spook us into cutting production so they could get a leg up on us!
    The whole Global Warming thing is even more of a scam than I could ever had imagined and Barry (aka Buddy Love) Obama and Al Gore played right into our competitors hands!

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  7. caniscandida Posted 4:59 pm
    21 Oct 2008

    anti-predator cultureGood point about the New York Times op-ed, Russ.
    Alaska state wildlife biologists seem to have gone too far, this past August, in "controlling" a population of wolves, in order to help along the local caribou:
    http://www.akwildlife.org/content/view/127/61/.
    Note that according to the Alaska Wildlife Alliance's linked page on predator control, the anti-predator prejudice, and especially the anti-wolf prejudice, shamefully existed in the governor's office before Palin took over.

    Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

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  8. vakibs's avatar

    vakibs Posted 8:59 pm
    21 Oct 2008

    jabailo's logic I hate to push myself into the mud with jabailo, but this pig needs to be badly whacked.
    Basically India wants to grow.   The head of the IPCC is Indian.   What they basically did is put the whammy on the United States to try and spook us into cutting production so they could get a leg up on us!
    Most of India's growth stems from service exports to the USA and Europe. If USA goes down, it will hit the hardest on developing countries such as India. Several Indian companies are downsizing to wither the global economic storm.
    To make things clear, none of this is because of the Indian workers' fault... nor the American workers'fault. Some idiots on the wallstreet got greedy and punctured holes onto the stock market, the ship sinks and takes everyone down with it.
    Now we have uber-idiots like jabailo complaining that it is all some Indian conspiracy - put an Indian scientist at the head of IPCC and viola, we are on the path to global domination.

    Let's think in terms of eco-dollars.

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  9. MAD MAC Posted 9:15 pm
    21 Oct 2008

    Picking Palin was a mistakeShe's dumber than a box of rocks. I personally know a number of people who are obviously more intelligent than she is. She's a pandering politician even worse than the norm.

    Victory in Pattani

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  10. amazingdrx's avatar

    amazingdrx Posted 11:40 pm
    21 Oct 2008

    Costanza effect"It's not a lie if you believe it."  LD hit the nail on the head.
    Sullivan operates on the very same principle.  He's not a good critic of this kind of self/mass deception.
    The Reagan revolution is built on this principle, Palin is the latest, greatest incarnation.  Bush being the last to actually get away with it.
    He burned through any possible credibility around 2005?  Even with joe and jolene 12 pack.  Soaring gas prices ended that.

    http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin

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  11. snedunuri Posted 1:11 pm
    25 Oct 2008

    Folks like jailaboare exactly the kind that the republican party can fool, and have been fooling quite nicely for some time. Incapable of reasoning things out for themselves they often jump to "conspiracy" conclusions and make thus easy prey for Republicans. As it happens the current head of the IPCC was selected by the Bush administration (8 wasted years of stubborn refusal to accept the facts on global warming) after toppling the previous head b/c he didn't suit their views. So even a Bush supported scientist has come to the conclusion that the evidence is real and is happening. Surprise! I wonder if there is something to the science after all. Unf numskulls like jailabo probably don't bother to listen to the science and base conclusions on facts. Heaven help us all if Obama doesn't win. With dumb broads like Bachmann and the rest of the "christian" right we will be truly screwed.

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