But wait, didn't she just… I… I'm so confused.

I guess I know what it feels like to be Sarah Palin. Help me God.

A confused Sarah Palin explains her resignation as governor of Alaska, to which we can only say - huh?

Threat from Palin's attorneys that they will sue any mainstream media outlet publishing stories about whether Palin is under federal investigation - all of which are laid out here in a four page letter…

We love Marta!

You can see other captions to this photo or make your own.

Thread? What thread?

When Sarah Palin used the media last week to express her "outrage" at jokes David Letterman made about her recent visit to New York, including what may have indeed been slightly tasteless references to her daughters, I became curious about this "thread permeating society" that "makes it okay" to make fun of "statutory rape" of underage girls, thinking it is "funny".

Now, I looked high and low for this thread to which she refers, and I'll be damned (some think I already am) if all I could find was another thread that thinks it's okay to make broad, unsubstantiated claims to cynically manipulate the media in an effort to stir up support from people barely able to think for themselves. To wit: "good ol'" Sarah Palin, stirin' up her base.

Following are some comments made by people that came out for a "Fire Dave" rally in New York. Reports are that more press showed up than protesters. Nonetheless, these stalwarts were vocal in their thoughts. I quote some highlights with my reaction:

• Everyone in the country is very, very frustrated and upset that he was allowed to make a rape joke about a little girl, fourteen years old, sitting on the sidelines watching of all things an American basketball game"

  - Okay, I'm not a sports fan, so let me see if I have this right: basketball is where they use a wooden stick to hit a ball thrown at them at about a hundred miles an hour. If they hit the ball, they get to run around in a big circle, ending up right where they began. And what's baseball again? By the way, did you actually hear this "rape joke" that Letterman told, or did you just hear about it from Sarah Palin?
  Ma'am, I've got one word of advice: research.

• He made A-rod a pervert too…"

  - Everybody knows that A-rod is just a horn-dog.

• I think he stinks, I'm a Jay Leno fan"

  - Fair enough, sorry Jay.

• At least Jay Leno has interesting people, this Schmuck has nobody… Do you know what schmuck means in Jewish?"

  - Do tell. (And you're right, Leno did get president Obama on his show. That's who you meant isn't it?

• I only watch Fox news channel"

  - Now that's just plain stupid

• …I believe his son was born out of wedlock, I believe there's a term for that"<'blockquote>
  - Does that go for Sarah Palin's grandson as well?

• …especially, you know, when he had a daughter out of wedlock as well"

  - What? Who? Lady, do you even read?

• …when he has a bastard son and a slut for a wife"

  - Now I'm really confused, are we talking about Letterman or making jokes about Palin's almost son-in-law?

• You think you're so smart, you think you know soooo much"

  - Well, I didn't until I saw you.

• Close the borders. Close everything down for the next twenty years. Clean your house and you'll see how this economy will come back."

  - Excuse me ma'am, the right wing-nut rally you're looking for is a few blocks over.

• Keep children safe from David Letterman's mouth! He will rape them with his mouth! He is a child abuser, he is a verbal pedophile! Wake up! Go home and take care of your kids! They could be next."

  - Lady, you're just freakin' scary. You have kids? Talk about abuse.

The Sarah Palin Pledge:
I, Chastise Man, do hereby swear that if Sarah Palin ever sets foot in the White House in any official capacity other than governor of Alaska, if she should ever be any closer in line to the presidency than what an entire disappearance of the president, vice-president, cabinet, and both houses of Congress would require to manifest, then I will leave the country immediately and move to France.

I do not deny the existence of an intelligent designer - God - a presence and influence evident with every breath we take.

Extremism (fundamentalism) demands of it an assuredness of belief that bestows the right of divine vengeance on others. That is where I draw the line.

That we should endeavor to speak for, or imagine to know the thoughts of such a presence, is original sin all over again. Imbuing oneself with authority to dispense divine retribution is The Downfall reign supreme.

I don't know, mind you, I'm agnostic after all, but I would guess that if Hell does exist, the quickest route there is to condemn others to it.

It is disturbing to get anywhere near such minds, charred as they are with ignorance, hatred, and unwavering conviction of their atrophied humanity. But it is instructive and necessary to look, if for no other reason than to understand the level of dysfunction in the human psyche, to recognize it when it creeps into the backwoods of our own mind, and to encourage the fortitude to resist it when it does.

—-
To the Extremist:

God didn't send the shooter; The murder of Dr. Tiller was not the will of God; God doesn't hate "fags"; You aren't an infidel if you don't believe as I believe (though perhaps not that bright); Democrats can be Christians (or any damn religion they choose - so can Republicans for that matter); And "praying" that Barack Obama will die (and professing such action in public media) is little more than cowardly and criminal.

You are no closer to God than any of these people, to me, or to anyone else. I'll see you in hell.

Of that I can be sure.

This guy is a messenger from God?

If it is true concern for the safety of all Americans, some gnawing bit of humanity, or grand conceit that forces him into the sunlight, I certainly cannot say. Nonetheless, bereft of a covert position to wield power, he is forced to come down the mountain of his own delusion of greatness in order to whip up a climate of fear, portending national tragedy unless we pursue a course of policy codifying the worst human tendencies for vengeance, cruelty, and barbarism.

Early after the attacks of 9/11, Cheney told reporters that finding the perpetrators of the attack would require a strategy of "operating on the dark side."

In his grand delusion he has become consumed by the "dark side."

Until now, Cheney has been an enigma. A slightly out-of-focus face standing behind the sharp glare of attention focused on George Bush. A menacing scowl adding weight to the former president's often incoherent words. Without the cover of Bush, Cheney is forced into the open to make his own disquieting case as more truth into the nature and extent of the use of torture begins to see the light of day.

His assertions that what was done was not only necessary but also legal, despite clear national and international law to the contrary, play into a veil of fear and our own private tendency to "the dark side."

Cross me, my friends, family, and loved ones, and I will, for a brief moment at least, wish upon someone to pay - dearly. I may even wish them dead. That gives me no right to wreak my own vengeance as I see fit. Greatness is never achieved in so doing. I become sullied by the very evil I wish to vanquish.

This must be true for nations just as it is for individuals. In the end it is one person torturing another, and no twisting legal logic laid out in a memo euphemizing torture as "enhanced interrogation" changes that. If we are a nation of laws, founded on ideals of basic humanity, the only real proof of that will come from our actions.

Dick Cheney is a man who lost his moral bearing years ago. For so many important issues facing the country this decade he has been wrong at best and deceitful at worst. There was no connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, no WMD's, the insurgents were not in their "last throes" in 2005, that was a man's face - not quail, we did torture. Why much credence should be given to anything he says now is the mystifying part of his resurgence into the public spotlight. He is incompetent in his analysis, conceived with a skewed worldview he feels should be bullied into weaker intellectual mortals than himself - "enhanced rhetoric", if you will, that is tantamount to psychic torture of a nation.

If terrorists seek comfort in the actions of American policy and leadership, they will find it in a man who would damage the soul of a nation in order to assert a false sense of security that rests in fear mongering and retribution.

Is evil required to defeat evil? That's a question I can't answer. I am not convinced humanity has ever really given the alternative a chance. There seems the ever-present risk, as in the case of Dick Cheney, of becoming consumed by that which you seek to exterminate.

It truly isn't about the terrorists but about us. Evil exists. We must therefore strive not to be evil.

If so, and if charges are ever brought against anyone involved in committing torture, the Obama administration has announced they will be defended by government attorneys.

Four Bush-era memos defending torture where released yesterday, the full text of these memos is available here (pdf).

Following is a statement from the Deparment of Justice:

In connection with ongoing litigation, the Department of Justice today released four previously undisclosed Office of Legal Counsel ("OLC") opinions – one that OLC issued to the Central Intelligence Agency in August 2002 and three that OLC issued to the CIA in May 2005.

"The President has halted the use of the interrogation techniques described in these opinions, and this administration has made clear from day one that it will not condone torture," said Attorney General Eric Holder.  "We are disclosing these memos consistent with our commitment to the rule of law."

Holder also stressed that intelligence community officials who acted reasonably and relied in good faith on authoritative legal advice from the Justice Department that their conduct was lawful, and conformed their conduct to that advice, would not face federal prosecutions for that conduct.

The Attorney General has informed the Central Intelligence Agency that the government would provide legal representation to any employee, at no cost to the employee, in any state or federal judicial or administrative proceeding brought against the employee based on such conduct and would take measures to respond to any proceeding initiated against the employee in any international or foreign tribunal, including appointing counsel to act on the employee’s behalf and asserting any available immunities and other defenses in the proceeding itself.

To the extent permissible under federal law, the government will also indemnify any employee for any monetary judgment or penalty ultimately imposed against him for such conduct and will provide representation in congressional investigations.

"It would be unfair to prosecute dedicated men and women working to protect America for conduct that was sanctioned in advance by the Justice Department," Holder said.

After reviewing these opinions, OLC has decided to withdraw them:  They no longer represent the views of the Office of Legal Counsel.

To me, this is the true sign of a fraud and a fake. Prove me wrong.

By Monday mid-afternoon, Washington was simply giddy with excitement. This happy couple reflects the general mood of the day.

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