That just about does it for Sarah Palin (cartoon)

Thepoliticalcarnival.net

Doonesbury lampoons Palin with a series of comic strips leaked from Going Rogue, a book that exposes Palin's infidelity with a black sports star, cocaine and marijuana use, hypocrisy, foolishness, illiteracy, racism, narcissism... When pregnant, unwed daughter Bristol Palin was rumored to be dating a black actor, the former governor of Alaska was steaming. Caribou Barbie has behaved in such a way that surprises no one in Wasilla, Alaska. Just ask Bristol's baby daddy's sister, Mercede Johnston.

• Doonesbury "leaks" excerpts from Sarah Palin bio
• Doonesbury: "Sarah Palin just isn't comfortable in the presence of dark-skinned people"
• Garry Trudeau's censored-all-week (by the Chicago Tribune) Palin biography (that provoked a rather violent Palin supporter) story arc is about over, and it’s still superb.
• The Rogue: Pity for Palin?
  

You’re not going to believe what I’m about to admit. I, um, ... I feel sorry for Sarah Palin. Not on a macro-level. After all, Palin is the moth to the flame of celebrity.

Madame President: Bachmann vs. Palin

Ashley Wells (Wisdom Quarterly)

Hopeful Michele Bachmann vs. has-been Sarah Palin, it's no comparison (latimes.com)

Whether it's narcissism, megalomania, or delusion, somewhere Donald Trump is combing his hair, and elsewhere Sarah Palin is telling Newsweek she can win the presidency. However the Tea Party, which is not a grassroots movement but an AstroTurfed one, is backing Michele Bachmann. After all of Palin's emails were released, embarrassing a misled and heavily manipulated mainstream media, who would be willing to back Caribou Barbie? And good ol' Hillary, who is probably not running, says she'll quit if Obama is re-[s]elected. Most people would sooner vote for the more honest, more endearing Bristol Palin, even if she drank during pregnancy while looking after her Downs Syndrome sibling. Oh that Sarah Palin, fighting Bristol on who she dates. If she's [s]elected to the White House, Washington will be business-as-usual, but reality TV will never be the same! I guess that leaves the US with a simple choice: more debt and war with Barack Obama...or even more debt and war with Herman Cain. In that case, maybe Palin wouldn't be so bad? It might seem that way, but according to the Los Angeles Times:

• "The [Newsweek] article, which revisits Palin’s political career in Alaska in some detail, appears to be part of a strategy in Palin’s close-knit camp to frame the potential contender within her more populist, independent political roots, as opposed to her more recent fire-breathing, Mama Grizzly, Christian conservative persona."
  
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Sarah Palin turns 47 (comedy)

Happy 47th Birthday Sarah Palin! (parody video)

Huffington Post

On February 11, exactly 47 years ago, a baby girl was brought into the world with no idea she'd someday become the governor of Alaska, which has been compared to being the principal of a home school. She also as a beauty pageant contestant never imagined that she would one day fail to complete her gubernatorial term or win a bid to become a vice-presidential nominee. Understandably, she is still not able to see that she is one of politics' greatest gifts to comedy.

To honor her 47 years, particularly the two in which she's enhanced the world of comedy, here are exactly 47 seconds of her best parodies. From Sara Benincasa, Liz Cackowski, Mercy Malick (co-host of goharrison.com), Tina Fey (SNL), Gina Gershon, and a doll, all showing how many ways one can transform an updo, eyeglasses, and a down-home accent into the funniest politician of our time. Source

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Palin: the threat that won't go away

Palin emerges in Asia with speech to investors
HONG KONG (AP) – Former VP nominee Sarah Palin, criticized for [for quitting her only elected position in government and] her lack of foreign policy experience, emerged in Asia on Wednesday to give a speech that could boost her credentials for a possible bid for the presidency in 2012....[She] addressed an annual conference of global investers in Hong Kong...Palin started off her speech — which was closed to reporters — with a light talk about the links between her state and the southern Chinese territory, then touched later on economic issues. More>>

• 7/26/09 file photo of then Alaska governor resigning (AP/file)
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Dick in a Dress: Sarah Palin

Palin’s Long March to a Short-Notice Resignation

ANCHORAGE (NY Times) — In late March, a senior official from the Republican Governors Association headed for Alaska on a secret mission. Sarah Palin was beset by such political and personal turmoil that some powerful supporters determined an inter-vention was needed to pull her governorship, and her national future, back from the brink.

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The official, the association’s executive director, Nick Ayers, arrived with a memorandum containing firm counsel, accord-ing to several people who know its details: Make a long-term schedule and stick to it, have staff members set aside ample and inviolable family time to replenish your spirits, and build a coherent home-state agenda that creates jobs and ensures re-election.

Like so much of the advice sent Ms. Palin’s way by influential supporters, it appeared to be happily received and then largely discarded, barely slowing what was, in retrospect, an inexorable march toward the resignation she announced 10 days ago. More>>

Why Palin is Resigning

Hillary must be laughing. Why did President-to-be Palin resign? Greed, hubris, ambition, and costly ethics investigations are part of the reason as are offers to feed a narcissistic personality disorder.

• Poll: Does America love Palin?
• Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Mary Pemberton (AP)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Levi Johnston, the former fiance of Republican Governor Sarah Palin's 18-year-old daughter, says he thinks he knows why she is resigning — concerns over money.

The 19 year old, whose wedding to Bristol Palin was called off earlier this year, says he believes the governor is resigning over personal finances. Johnston says he lived with the Palin family from early December to the second week in January. He claims he heard the governor several times say how nice it would be to take advantage of the lucrative deals that were being offered, including a reality show and a book.

• Slideshow: Sarah Palin loser, quitter
• Video: Palin's future a mystery (Reuters)
• Where is Palin the outsider going next? (Time.com)

"I think the big deal was the book. That was millions of dollars," said Johnston, who has had a strained relationship with the family but now says things have improved. Palin has a book deal, but compensation details haven't been disclosed. The governor has said she is facing more than $500,000 in legal fees. "It is interesting to learn Levi is working on a piece of fiction while honing his acting skills," Palin family spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Johnston made his comments at a news conference Thursday at the office of his attorney, Rex Butler. He came forward, Butler said, because Alaskans want to know why Palin has decided to resign. She made the announcement last Friday. Johnston is also pursuing his own book deal. He is working as a carpenter while also pursuing a movie deal. Source

Bye, Bye, Caribou Barbie! (Palin quits)

Palin to resign as governor
In a surprise announcement, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin says she is stepping down on July 26, 2009. Raising speculation

• Watch Palin's announcement
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Making Female history: from Sangha to Superpower leadership

• 9/28/08 UPDATE: The Real Palin Revealed VIDEO (3:11)

In this Dec. 13, 2007 file photo, Alaska Republican Governor, Sarah Palin, poses in her office in the Capitol, in Juneau, Alaska. John McCain tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate, two senior campaign officials told The Associated Press on Friday. A formal announcement was expected within a few hours at a campaign rally in swing-state Ohio (AP Photo/Chris Miller, File).

• VIDEO 2

McCain, on his 72nd birthday, has chosen a female running mate, conservative Republican governor of Alaska Sarah Palin. A female caller on NPR's Airtalk called this a "transparent act of desperation" on McCain's part, countering Republican hype that this V.P. candidate leveled the playing field with Barack Obama.

• Female heads of State

In 1940 Khertek Anchimaa-Toka of Tuva became the first female head of state. Benazir Bhutto was the first woman to be elected leader of a Muslim state; she was recently assassinated by exiting Pakistan president Musharraf.

The first female head of state of a Buddhist country (Sri Lanka) was Chandrika Kumaratunga in 1994. US Democrats have done a great deal to shatter this glass ceiling in America in 1984 by running Geraldine Ferraro and, more prominently, with the recent efforts of Hillary Rodham-Clinton.

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The Real "Juno"
McCain's veep choice is historic and hardly known
Steve Quinn and Calvin Woodward (AP)

JUNEAU, Alaska - In two short years, Sarah Palin moved from small-town mayor with a taste for mooseburgers to the governor's office and now — making history — to John McCain's side as the first female running mate on a Republican presidential ticket. More >>

• VIDEO 3

(BBC)

The choice of a female candidate is excellent news because it ensures that with either side winning, the inherent sexism and racism in the US, the world's only superpower, will be challenged -- just as it was challenged by the Buddha when he brought the Sangha and his Dispensation to fulfillment by ordaining nuns. (See history and critique of Theravada bhikkhuni Sangha).

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Although criticized for subordinating them to monks, the Buddha's paramount interest was preserving the Dharma while making this radical social move, which was far more radical 25 centuries ago. Buddhism was the first world-religion to fully include women. Prehistoric buddhas had also had fully ordained female disciples (bhikkhunis, bhikshunis), taking an enlightened view of sexual equality.

(NOTE: In India, Mahavira is said to have preceded the Buddha by ordaining women, and even today Jainism has more female monastics than male).

An American ordination:

"Why I became a Buddhist nun"