Wickersham's Conscience

WC has posted a photo of Panchito before; this one is a little better, if only because it was processed on a bigger monitor with better noise reduction software.

Jocotoco Antpitta

Panchito is a Jocotoco Antpitta, one of the world’s endangered species. There are perhaps 600 left on the planet. Sadly, the bird wasn’t even discovered until 1997, and because it has very specific habitat requirements, it is unusually susceptible to human threats. There are just five known, undisturbed habitats remaining.

WC thinks the world will be a much poorer place if as charismatic a species as the Jocotoco Antpitta is lost. So WC is doing something he rarely does: providing a link to a charity. If you agree the species is worth saving, check out ways you can help.

It’s usually called “The Exploding Whale,” but it’s more accurate to call it “The Exploded Whale,” because it was the Oregon Division of Highways that did the deed. WC knows. WC was there.

WC was a underclassman at the University of Oregon, struggling with an overly-ambitious load of classes when word reached the U of O Biology Department that a dead whale had washed up the beach at Florence, west of Eugene on the coast, an hour or so along U.S. 126. So WC, a buddy with a Volkswagen Beetle and a coed premed student blew off Tuesday classes and drove out through the Coast Range to Florence. It wasn’t until we got to a coffee shop in Florence that we found out that the Oregon Division of Highways planned to blow up the whale that very day. So of course we drove out to the beach to see the big event.

WC and his buddies drove out to South Jetty, found a place to park among the 25-30 other autos out there, and climbed out of the Beetle. The smell of the whale was God-awful, even at South Jetty Road. We climbed up to the top of the big sand dune and there, 200-250 meters away, near the breaking waves, was a dead Sperm Whale. The wind was relatively weak for the Oregon Coast in late autumn, but was carrying the stunning stink right to us.

There was a small bulldozer moving away from the whale, half a dozen guys in hard hats and, lined up along the crest of the dune, two TV camera guys, perhaps 50 people and a guy with a bright sliver plunger box connected to two wires leading to half a ton of explosives packed under the dead whale. There was considerable delay as the crowd was moved back, and it was cold standing up there in the breeze. WC got his Navy stocking cap out of his pocket and pulled it down over his ears.

While we were waiting, a big guy a little older than WC introduced himself as Bruce Mate. He was a graduate student based out of Coos Bay, and he was pissed that they wouldn’t let him get to the whale to take tissue samples. He was also pissed that everyone was calling it a Pacific Grey Whale; it was an adult male Sperm Whale, he said. That’s Dr. Bruce Mate now, a world expert on whales.

After about 30 minutes or so, a guy way north up the beach raised a red flag on a stick. When he brought it down, the guy with the silver plunger box pushed the plunger down and, an instant later, the whale exploded.

Even though we ran at full speed down the back of the dune for the car, along with everyone else up there, we were splattered with a steady rain of rancid whale shrapnel. Mists of rotten blood and whale oil blew over the dune. Chunks of whale from the size of B-Bs to recliner chairs rained down. The smell was overwhelming; several people were sickened to the point of vomiting, which did nothing for the smell, either. We wound up leaving our coats and my hat in an overflowing trash can. And it was still a mighty smelly ride back to Eugene in the Volkswagen. WC had to throw away all of his outer clothes and his shoes; you simply couldn’t get the stink out.

The premed coed never spoke to WC again.

WC has been around some foul smells since. Feed lots. Sugar beet plants. Sulfur-process pulp mills. An unplugged freezer full of rotten moose meat. But nothing has approached the chokingly awful stench of the Exploded Whale.

There’s a book on it, a Dave Barry column and uncountable copies of the video. But none of them do an adequate job of reporting the indescribably awful stench. Trust WC, he was there.

It’s time to take your anti-nausea drugs, put on the break-up boots and wade in to another month’s worth of hypocrisy:

• Sarah Palin has the unmitigated gall to opine on Obama’s birth certificate. The night before, she is quoted as saying:

 I think the media is loving this because they want to make Birthers as they call people who are just curious about the President of the United States and his background, and his associations, and his consistency with what he says today versus what he said in both the memoirs that he wrote, or Bill Ayers or whomever wrote. Uh the media is, is loving the fact that some curious Americans are actually asking the questions, and they’re trying to make those curious Americans sound kind of crazy so the media is loving this issue and they’re perpetuating this issue trying to make it sound really worse than it is.

—

• Any number of physicians appear to have engaged in a conspiracy of silence surrounding torture at Guantànamo Bay. The Hippocratic Oath, notwithstanding.
  —
• Anything – absolutely anything – from serial bankrupt, serial philanderer and fright wig-wearing Donald Trump. Oh, wait, that’s actually his hair? Trump has made an art out of wiping out his investors’ equity while avoiding personal liability. The art of the deal, indeed. Not what WC looks for in a president. As just one example of this clown’s hypocrisy, he bashes China as “raping America,” but his “Donald J. Trump Signature Collection” of clothing is in fact made in China.
  —
•  Sean Parnell, for at a time when Alaska has a huge budget surplus, threatening to veto projects of state senators because they refuse to rush to judgment on changing ACES.
  —
•  Big oil, for claiming that they can’t make enough money in Alaska, at a time when crude oil is over $100 a barrel, and that there’s not enough obscene profit here to even preserve the infrastructure.
  —
• The Alaska Redistricting Board for its proposed ludicrous gerrymandering of Senator Joe Thomas’s seat. The overwhelmingly Republican Board can’t stand that a Democrats hold two Interior Alaska senate seats. Once again, the Alaska Supreme Court will have to write the final redistricting plan.

There’s much, much more but WC can’t afford the liability exposure for readers retching on their keyboards. We’ll hope for more honesty in May.

(If readers have examples they’d like to add, feel free to put them in comments or use WC’s email address.)

The Dead White Male, Donald Trump, has shifted ground:

In the April 27 press conference, Trump voiced new doubts about the validity of Obama’s education qualifications. Said Trump: “I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard? I’m thinking about it, I’m certainly looking into it.” Trump called on Obama to release records from Occidental College, which Obama attended during the 1979-1981 period.

All right. Let’s turn it around:

In an April 28, press conference, Wickersham’s Conscience voiced new doubts about the validity of Trump’s educational qualifications. Said WC, “I heard he was a terrible student, terrible. I heard he was expelled from The Kew-Forest School, Forest Hills, New York, and got sent to the to the New York Military Academy as a result. And all he did there was play sports. How does a bad student go to Fordham University for two years before transferring to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania? WC is thinking about it, WC is certainly certainly looking into it. WC calls on Trump to release records from The Kew-Forest School.

What does this possibly have to do with the grave issues facing the United States? The issue isn’t the President’s birth certificate, or his grades, or whether as Editor of the Harvard Law Review he was qualified to be admitted to the law school (a question that answers itself). This is really about racism. It’s really about affirmative action. It’s really about the unspoken white male premise that a black man can’t succeed on his own.

The Donald is a fat, philandering, serial bankrupt with bad hair, playing the race card for all it is worth. It’s appalling that the Republican party is doing anything but hooting him off the stage. He’s Lester Maddox in an Armani suit. He’s contemptible.

And by the way, in any debate on the issues, President Obama would destroy him.

Among neoconservatives, there is a movement to characterize the United States as “exceptional.” We are different. We are special. With an emphasis on its divine origin (Christian gods only need apply). In a series of irregular posts, WC will examine the various aspects and credibility of this claim. WC next will examine Guantànamo Bay in the context of this claim.

The Bush-Cheney years gave America massive debt, two land wars in Asia and a gravely damaged economy. And they marked the end of the rule of law in America. The concentration camp  America created at Guantánamo Bay is a permanent stain on any claim that America is a nation of laws, that we subscribe to human rights conventions, or that we don’t engage in torture of prisoners. America will solve the debt crisis. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – or at least our involvement in them – will eventually end. But Gitmo’s stain on our honor, on our claims of loving freedom, that stain is likely permanent.

When faced with the challenge of 9/11, we abandoned the right to claim we are exceptional. We turned out to be no different than a tin pot dictator. We engaged in torture. We kidnapped persons we suspected, without proof, to be terrorists and delivered them to real terrorists, like the secret police in Egypt under the euphemism “extraordinary rendition,” for torture by proxy. We have held political prisoners for almost ten years now, not charged with any crime.

The U.S. Courts, for the most part, have preserved some shards of the law by refusing to admit evidence obtained by torture. But in the situation that Bush-Cheney have created and by the twisted logic of Guantánamo Bay, that actually makes it worse. We don’t know if it is safe to release the concentration camp prisoners or not; they are surrounded by haloes of fuzzy, suspect data, half-truths, statements obtained by bribery, statements obtained by torture. The government can’t bring them to trial for fear they’ll be acquitted. The courts have said they won’t stand for the “show trials” of military tribunals.

And because some few who have been released have committed terrorist acts after release, we are paralyzed by fear that more will. Of course, if you hold a man prisoner for years, torture him (or subject him to torture by proxy), deny him basic civil rights; well, you can’t expect him to love you when he’s freed.

The recent release of secret records to the New York Times and National Public Radio underscores the mess. A prisoner may be held based upon supposedly credible statements from another prisoner, but that prisoner’s own record may in turn say he is not credible, or has been driven insane by his treatment. Another data point: just 8 prisoners’ testimony is the basis for detaining an amazing 255 other prisoners, even though several of the 8 appear to have been tortured to obtain their statements. Prisoners have been tortured to death there. One prisoner, Abu Zubaydah, who was was cited in an extraordinary 127 detainee files, was reported to have been waterboarded at least 83 times. His attorney, Brent Mickum, recently told McClatchy that “he provided tremendous amounts of information that was worthless.”

What the law requires is that the accused be brought to trial or set free. But the law has little weight in Guantánamo Bay.

The information on Wikileaks makes clear that the supposed standards used to judge who to detain and who to release are shockingly subjective, selectively interpreted and applied, and sometimes vague to the point of being meaningless. If the “Threat Matrix”  the Times published is accurate, it is a damning indictment of the U.S.’s ability to discern and evaluate danger. “Refusal to cooperate” – we call that the Fifth Amendment – is evidence of guilt.

Andrew Sullivan says “the stain of Gitmo” will be with us for a long time. WC thinks it will be with us forever.

The Dred Scott case.

The internment of the Japanese on the west coast in World War II.

Gitmo.

It will have to be a fairly narrow definition of  ”exceptional.”

Obama birthers and the deeply cynical politicians who encourage them are exceptionally strange creatures, even for the strange times in which we live.

A delusion is a fixed belief held in the presence of strong contradictory evidence. This is a hallmark of the paranoid, who suspects, without sufficient basis, that others are harming or deceiving him. There is no evidentiary basis for thinking President Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii, just as his certificate of live birth says. But birthers cling to the fixed belief he wasn’t born in the U.S., despite strong contradictory evidence. The birther position is delusional.

That doesn’t make birthers, individually or collectively, paranoid. But it is a hallmark of paranoia. Some polls show 45% of Republicans question whether President Obama was born in the United States. 45% of Republicans have hallmarks of paranoia.

There’s a thorough discussion of the phenomenon in a recent New York Times piece, offering several perspectives. But WC thinks there is a better explanation than those advanced by the distinguished columnists contributing to the Times piece. Consider this:

In reading the history of nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities; their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first. We see one nation suddenly seized, from its highest to its lowest members, with a fierce desire of military glory; another as suddenly becoming crazed upon a religious scruple; and neither of them recovering its senses until it has shed rivers of blood and sowed a harvest of groans and tears, to be reaped by its posterity.

Charles Mackay, in his remarkable book Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds clear back in 1852, demonstrated that nations and segments of a nation could, essentially, go insane, obsessing over issues that objectively were nonsensical. The South Sea Bubble, the Tulip Mania of the Dutch, the repeated credibility of fortune tellers and prophets; the phenomenon is not new, as Mackay ably demonstrates.

It’s a political science issue, not a psychology issue. It’s not new, only a new manifestation. Undoubtedly, the issues the Times columnists identify contribute to the origins of the phenomenon. And it’s equally clear to WC that the particular insularities of the internet also contribute. But a few years from now, WC thinks scholars will look back on the episode, nod wisely, and say, “Mackay.”

UPDATE April 27: President Obama today posted his “long-form” birth certificate. WC had no idea his influence reached so far. The Donald is claiming credit, saying that “I feel I’ve accomplished something really, really important.”

Typical.

WC is a lawyer. He knows doublespeak when he reads it or hears it. Telling someone to abjure obfuscation is doublespeak.

But WC also recognizes that all WC’s readers may not have the skills so, as a service to long-suffering readers, WC offers this link to

Unsuck It

This handy tool will help you understand what management is saying, what the marketer is babbling about and what the accountant is trying to avoid telling you.

Some samples:

Rightsize = Fire a bunch ofpeople

Screw the pooch = A major mitake

Suboptimal = Bad

You can see this tool will be useful.

And if you’ve heard a really bad one that isn’t in Unsock It yet, you can always add it.

Random quote to show make this look scholarly:

The accountant had the world-weary air of a ferret that had been up so many trouser legs that life held no more surprises.

Winston Churchill described a fanatic as someone “Who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”  The Trig Truthers, to WC’s sorrow, are falling into Churchill’s definition.

For example, while WC deeply appreciates Gryphen’s otherwise fine work over at Immoral Minority, he is showing unmistakeable signs of fanaticism, as Churchill defined it. If there was any doubt about who Trig’s mother is, it would seem to be resolved. See, for example, Salon’s Trig Trutherism: The definitive debunker. At this point the purtative conspiracy simply involves too many people, some of them – Sam Bishop, for example – very smart people.

Occam’s Razor applies: that razor has sliced to ribbons claims Palin wasn’t preggers.

In this case, the truth doesn’t make a very flattering portrait of Palin. The Quitter is a woman willing to sacrifice her health and her unborn child’s health by getting on a long jet ride while in labor. She’s a woman who will risk inconveniencing all of her fellow passengers by an emergency landing. This is a woman who will drive by the biggest, most sophisticated hospital in Alaska while in labor to get to a more remote, less sophisticated hospital in Wasilla. It’s execrable judgment no matter how you look at it, and in more than one case. And it’s still more evidence of her incredible narcissism.

And once you recognize that narcissism, that appalling need for attention, then Palin’s refusal to produce Trig’s birth certificate even makes a sick kind of sense. By keeping even a tiny bit of the “controversy” roiling, the TTWF serves her narcissism. Caribou Cathy’s narcissistic needs are so great that even negative attention fills the need.

The truth about Palin’s conduct in the hours before Trigs’ birth is so awful, so appalling, as to make her utterly unsuitable for any elected office, let alone the Presidency of the U.S. Ironically, clinging to a debunked theory of paternity undermines the Trig Truther’s overall credibility.

And that serves The Quitter, not the truth.

WC’s first date with Mrs. WC was to a ballet: one of the Russian ballet troupes came to Fairbanks under the auspices of Fairbanks Concert Association. Rather than a formal ballet, we saw a “Greatest Hits” sequence which included the final scene from Camille Saint-Saëns’ “The Dying Swan.”

In memory of that first date, and to belatedly celebrate the Easter season, here’s a much better, much more modern brilliant re-interpretation of that scene by Yo-Yo Ma and Lil Buck, courtesy of Spike Jonze.

.

And, yes, this is WC’s way of saying thanks again to Mrs. WC for accepting WC’s invitation.

If you don’t read Andrew Sullivan’s The Dish, you should, although WC is the first to admit that it is nearly a full-time job. The King of Bloggers resists all effort at pigeon-holing, and his eclecticism is an on-going inspiration for WC.

While he doesn’t explicitly say so, Sullivan has identified the cause of the current recession: Angry Birds And The Cognitive Surplus – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast. 200 million minutes/day…

WC and Mrs. WC headed down to Delta to check on the status of 2011 spring migration. We found a lot of birds: 54 Rough-legged Hawks, 3 Red-tailed Hawks, 6 Northern Harriers, a Bald Eagle, a Peregrine Falcon (!) and a Northern Hawk Owl, as well as 17 Buteos we couldn’t identify with confidence. One of the Rough-leggeds had a radio transmitter antenna dangling from its tail; if WC can run down information on that, he’ll post it. The swans seems to be just starting to arrive, mostly Trumpeters, with a few strings flying through and some small flocks down in the fields. Decent numbers of Canada Geese but nothing like what will be in over the next two weeks. No passerines at all, except for one Dark-eyed Junco.

But mostly it was windy, ranging from breezy to gale force. So where WC was able to get close enough for photos, there are a lot of ruffled feathers. This Sharp-tailed Grouse photo, taken in the maw of the Black Rapids wind tunnel, shows even at ground level, it was blowing pretty good:

Sharp-tailed Grouse Hen (Photo by Mrs. WC)

A lot of the raptors were holing on the ground, generally out in the middle of fields. Those who were roosting in trees didn’t seem to be getting a lot of rest, as this Rough-legged Hawk shows:

Rough-legged Hawk

Bottom line: a very enjoyable day but not a lot of opportunities for photography.

Among neoconservatives, there is a movement to characterize the United States as “exceptional.” We are different. We are special. With an emphasis on its divine origin (Christian gods only need apply). In a series of irregular posts, WC will examine the various aspect and credibility of this claim. And WC will examine health care costs and quality next.

Can we look at health care costs from the perspective of a claim of being exceptional?

Via: Medical Billing And Coding

WC can’t possibly add anything to this excellent graphic, and will not try. WC will grant that it demonstrates America is indeed “exceptional,” but perhaps not in the sense that neocons trumpeting American “exceptionalism” intended.

Fairbanks was lucky enough to have Eliza Gilkyson and John Gorka live on stage last night. Two of the best of America’s folksingers, and two-thirds of the folk supergroup Red Horse, they gave us a fine show.

John Gorka and Eliza Gilkyson

Gorka’s dry wit and Gilkyson’s intensity work very well together, complementing and blending much like their vocals. They each did solo sets, and most of the second half of the show had them singing together on each other’s songs. Gorka’s songs can have you laughing at the beginning and crying at the end; they’re that good. And Gilkyson’s intense lyrics and superb voice are among the very best in folk music today.

Together with Lucy Kaplansky, they recorded and released the eponymous Red Horse in 2010, as a folk music super group. The sets included about half the cuts from that album, including the superb “Wild Horse” and “If These Walls Could Talk.” But they also did songs by Neil Young, by Curtis Mayfield and two songs by Gilkyson’s father, Terry Gilkyson (The Weavers, The Easyriders), “Greenfields” and “Memories Are Made of This.”

It was an excellent concert, a wonderful captstone to Acoustic Adventures‘ 2010-2011 season. WC thanks Trudy and Mase for another excellent year, and, in particular, for an excellent show. And if you are in Fairbanks and aren’t attending Trudy and Mase’s excellent shows, well, you’re making a mistake.

One of the first group of spring migrants are the hawks, the Buteos, most commonly Rough-legged Hawks and Red-tailed Hawks. These big raptors don’t all get as far as Fairbanks, but the agricultural fields down by Delta Junction usually have them in decent numbers.

Rough-legged Hawks don’t breed in Interior Alaska at all; they move through on their way to their breeding territories on the North Slope. They are famously skittish and difficult to approach. But WC had pulled over to the side of the road to pour a cup of coffee from his thermos to his travel mug, and this handsome devil flew in for lunch on a fence post less than fifty feet away:

Rough-legged Hawk with Prey

After chowing down on the Red Squirrel, he rested, did a bit of preening and then gave WC an exceptionally dignified pose before flying off. Dignified, at least, if you ignore the bulging crop.

Rough-legged Hawk II

The photos are not perfect. A careful eye will see a bit of softness around the head, and there could be more detail in the whites. But WC will keep them even so.

Spring is officially under way.

Former Governor Sarah Palin
1140 West Parks Highway
Wasilla, Alaska 99645

Dear Former Governor Palin:

You may not know it, but President and Ms. Obama have released their 2010 federal income tax return. According to the Los Angeles Times, they earned about $1.73 million in gross income, and paid federal and state income taxes of more than $453,000. They also gave 14% of their income, or $245,000, to charities, spreading their donations among some 36 organizations. Posting your tax return would be statesmanlike.

You, of course, are notoriously, obsessively private about your personal affairs. The whole story about Trig’s paternity stems from your unwillingness to make public the child’s birth certificate. So it’s hard to envision you releasing your tax return.

But it would be instructive, wouldn’t it? You certainly made more money in 2010 than did the First Family. After all, you get to charge $100K a pop for your speeches, while the President and First Lady give theirs as a part of their job. WC would bet a designer coffee at River City Deli that your charitable donations as a percentage of your gross income are embarrassingly small, too. Or non-existent.WC would love to be proven wrong.

But there’s no danger WC will have to pay on the bet, because your obsession with your privacy, and especially control of your privacy, means you will never, ever release your federal income tax return. Your obsession with control continues to hurt you in any number of ways. It’s one of many ways you make yourself look foolish.

And releasing your financial information would also give the lie to the “hockey mom” persona you affect. You’ve portrayed yourself as something you aren’t, which makes it still harder to let go of that particular obsession.

If you or your storm trooper supporters have read this far in this letter, then WC urges you to also read Craig Medred’s essay in Alaska Dispatch as well. Just to show you that WC isn’t the only one who thinks you’ve got some issues.

WC would wish you the best, but he’d be lying.

/Wickersham’s Conscience

Tim Easton did a fine benefit show for the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theater April 20 at the old Empress Theater. The photos are far from WC’s usual standard: the hazards of having nothing but an iPhone for photgraphy.

Tim Easton Live

The two-hour show featured cuts from his new acoustic CD, some from his older releases and some oldies. Some of the lyrics on the new albums are outstanding. For example, in “Northbound” from the new album Porcupine, he sings:

I’m not depressed, I’m just in L.A.
I’m not depressed, I’m just in L.A.
I’m not depressed, I’m just in L.A.
I wish I was northbound

He’s a fun act, and gives a lot of energy as well as some fine singing and playing. With his drummer Cliff, he can play excellent blues, rock the house down and  then do a tender love song, back to back. And he can make a point, as he did in a cut from the album Since 1966, called “The Weight of Changing Everything,”

The only thing I want to change
Is everything.

A fine show for a great cause. He’ll be back in Alaska at the Loon in August. Catch him there if you can. Highly recommended.

On April 15, the U.S. House made the mistake of treating the symptoms of the problem, not the disease. We’ll have to hope that doesn’t kill the patient, because that’s all of us who don’t have Congress’s health insurance plan.

The symptom is that Medicare costs are rapidly increasing, far faster than inflation, aggravating the deficit. The Republican majority in the U.S. House “treated” that problem by ending Medicare. They voted to offer instead a voucher program which will subsidize only a fraction of the cost of health care. In an amazingly cynical political move, the Republicans delayed the termination as to anyone who is 55 years old or older. They assume the middle-aged and older are as cynical as the Republicans are, and don’t care about the impact on their children. So the “treatment” will not only poison the patient in the long run, but won’t be started for ten years or more.

The “treatment” does little or nothing to control soaring health costs, which are the real problem. The Republicans are not treating the disease. Of course, there is a plan in place to control health care costs, passed by the last Congress. It’s the health care reform act. But the Republicans are inalterably opposed to it, and are even seeking to defund and repeal it.

So the disease – spiraling health care costs – will continue. The treatment – termination of Medicare by a thousand cuts – will aggravate the disease, because the vouchers will pay only a fraction of the cost of health insurance. The uninsured and underinsured will delay treatment until it is an emergency. The few who have insurance will subsidize the late, unnecessarily expensive treatments. And health costs will continue to spiral up.

Of course, in another sense the “treatment” is really just a cynical excuse by the House Republicans to cut taxes further, making the rich richer. The “trickle down” theory – that giving the rich more money will make everyone richer – has long since been established as a fantasy. This is really about the Republicans paying back the richest 1% of Americans whose very generous campaign contributions got them re-elected.

And the Republicans have the unmitigated nerve to claim this is a good idea.

It turns out even Fox and CNN have Palin saturation points. They seem to be very high saturation points, but they have finally been reached.

Palin flak Rebecca Mansour launched a Twitter crusade again the mainstream media for failing to pay attention to The Quitter’s recent screed in Wisconsin, the one where Caribou Barbie was shrieking over the booing. WC can’t make this stuff up. This is the same Ms. Mansour who, ghosting on Facebook for the TTWF, said last month,

And let’s be encouraged with a sense of poetic justice by knowing that the ‘mainstream’ media isn’t mainstream anymore. That’s why I call it ‘lamestream,’ and the LSM is becoming quite irrelevant, as it is no longer the sole gatekeeper of information.

But that was then and this is now. If they weren’t important, if they were irrelevant, Ms. Mansour wouldn’t be tweeting them.

Mansour tried to spin her spin, claiming she was “tweaking” the media. But if that makes sense to you, if you see even a germ of logic there, WC is afraid you must be a Palinista.

But the best part of this non-story are the public comments. The comments to the Media Matters story are particularly good.

Is it too much to hope that the rest of the country is finally learning what Alaskans had to learn the hard way?

Sarah Palin = Sharia Plan
Todd Palin = Did Plan To
Bristol Palin = Loin Lips Brat

Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Make your own.

Readers will recall that WC hosted the first-ever poll here at Wickersham’s Conscience to determine the best metaphor for Alaska’s Shame.

It started with a call for the perfect metaphor for Caribou Barbie. Too many of the suggestions were obscene; understandable, WC supposes. But WC winnowed the best non-obscene proposals and put them in a poll so that WC’s long-suffering readers could cast their preference. After all, The Quitter can’t complain about polls or democracy. Well, she can, but it would be hypocritical. Wait a minute…

So the results are in. The metaphor of choice is

Sarah Palin is the turd that won’t flush no matter how many times you try.

A bit sophomoric. It sounds like something a high school sophomore might come up with, but that’s hardly inappropriate.

As the late Mayor Daley would say, after the Chicago Machine delivered the mayorship to him yet another time, “Da pippul has spoke.”

Inquiring minds, concerned about the scientific accuracy of this poll are advised to re-read the notes following the poll itself.