Alito is the New Wilson, and Palin is the Same Old Palin.
27 01 2010When it comes to breaching protocol, nobody does it like conservatives. The congress, and now the bench. We all remember Congressman Joe Wilson’s little outburst on the floor of the House when he yelled, “You lie!” much to the horror of his fellow congressional representatives and most of the nation. Difference of opinion must be tolerated, but that kind of breach of protocol was not. Wilson subsequently apologized.
Tonight, during the state of the union speech, the Republican side of the chamber sat on their hands stone-faced for all sorts of things, while the Democrats stood and applauded. My favorite GOP sit line was “Nobody should go broke because they want to go to college.”
But there IS something that says that members of the Supreme Court are not supposed to react to presidential addresses. It’s called “protocol.” Protocol dictates that members of the court be completely neutral always. That’s why, during every state of the union you see them sitting there like waxworks, never smiling, never laughing, never rolling their eyes, never clapping. They do blink every once in a while to prove they’re real, but basically they’re like the guards outside Buckingham Palace.
And then there’s Justice Alito, Dick Cheney’s hunting buddy. Tonight, when President Obama addressed the ruling last week that came from the court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, and that it overturned a hundred years of law, he decided for some reason it was OK to shake his head and say “That’s not true.” Neutral? I think not.
Talking head and blogger Sarah Palin spoke out on Fox News saying that Alito’s “Wilson moment” was OK, and that Justice Alito was just “calling him out.” She based her careful judgment on her longstanding and intimate knowledge of Supreme Court protocol. Oh, wait.
In other deep layer of Palin analysis, she went on to discuss health care “mandation.” What’s “mandation” you ask? According to Dictionary.com it means “No dictionary results.” Strange…
And finally, she described the entire state of the union from President Obama as being like “a lecture.” And we all know how she feels about lectures. Maybe that’s why she went through five different colleges.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:51 AM
Most enjoyable comments ever.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:52 AM
Maybe Ms. Payme had a thread lift and one of the threads broke. Could explain her cockeyed face. For a person who has given many speeches before huge audiences, she certainly acted nervous.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:54 AM
I think Sarah would be wonderful as a new cast member on the reality show, “Real Housewives of Alaska”. She’s got that look going on and she’s ditzy enough.
January 28th, 2010 at 9:57 AM
man-da-tion (man-day-shun) n… from ‘mandate’: an authoritative command or instruction… and ‘-tion’: suffix meaning ‘act of, process of, result of, state of’. Generaly misused term attempting to describe the action of enabling a mandate, or the carrying out of such. Gibberish term associated with yearling political commentators or those who believe they are.
Hey, if Stephen Colbert can get ‘truthiness’…
Snicker snicker!!
January 28th, 2010 at 9:58 AM
This cannot end well for Sarah. She’s playing on a free pass with an expiration date; the Fox guys will canibalize her just as soon as the TMZ and Enquirer buzzards land.
January 28th, 2010 at 10:04 AM
Greta referred to $P as Governor *twice* — Greta, did you miss something? She QUIT! Quittypants Buttercup should never be referred to as Governor. That honor is reserved for those who completed their terms, not for those who quit to “progress” their personal bank accounts.
January 28th, 2010 at 10:06 AM
I admit it, I have Restylyne and botox and I do NOT look like that because I had a talented professional in NYC do it.
Some salons do botox.
Wonder if Jessica is wielding that syringe?
January 28th, 2010 at 10:41 AM
lol, I need to watch the dang video just to see the awful face that sounds like a train wreck. Perhaps she and the make up artist don’t get on real well, perhaps she tried pulling a tantrum and wasn’t appreciated? ala sabotage? I hope so, lol. maybe they’ll butcher her hair or was that also bad? how about her clothing? oh heck, I just remembered reading she did it from Wasilla, so, lol, hmmm, did she do her own makeup? ha
Off to watch it uck and shudder, if I can, maybe it will make me laugh.
I thought our President was fabulous and I really admire the man. He kicked some butt, those who voted for him needed to see and hear exactly that. I need to watch it again, also, too. I love how he pounded home over and over that he will not QUIT, it was perfect and right on.
I thought it was great how he ’showed’ what common sense should look like, by putting forth actual solutions, common sense belongs to everyone. It’s not one parties brand. Hell, if we look at both parties record and behavior, Republicans show way less common sense and way more selfishness. I love the common sense idea of ‘posting on a politicians web site the money accepted from lobbyists’, I like that common sense transparency.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:12 AM
SayNO: I love him and I loved the speech. I really liked when he told the Reps that if they insist on 60 votes, then they have to be part of the solutions.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:17 AM
Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and those other two yokels = enemies of our democracy. One wonders how many hard stares they got when they waltzed in in their robes of office?
January 28th, 2010 at 11:21 AM
If I correctly recall a couple of your posts from 8/08, she attended 6 colleges but only paid at 5.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:43 AM
Alito was probably daydreaming,
was awakened by the applause,
and thought President Obama said something like “The Supreme Court saved our a$$e$ last week”,
and chose to break protocol by objecting,
because his conscience got the better of him.
That is the only explanation that would keep me from feeling he should be kicked off the SCOTUS.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:48 AM
Oh, yeah, baby, it was a lecture delivered by our President of these United States. You, however, are completely unable to comprehend even in the most minute of ways just one of the topics; not even one, also, too.
January 28th, 2010 at 1:41 PM
Mandation is the complaint her children have with her……….
January 28th, 2010 at 1:47 PM
[...] quitter…". Palin's "mandation" comment is just after the 5 min mark, and AKMuckraker helps us out by noting: "What’s 'mandation' you ask? According to Dictionary.com it means 'No dictionary results.' [...]
January 28th, 2010 at 1:50 PM
Palin knocks someone about the scotus ruling but she is also calling the other justices liars and they are the ones who said it would lead to business from foreign countries taking part in our election process.Even the republicans see this at least some of them are worried enough about it to want to close loop holes.So it was not alright for president Obama to disagree with the courts decision but it is alright for her to call the rest liars.I think not.Does she not realise she contradicts herself in her statements about this?
January 28th, 2010 at 2:25 PM
Hyper-inflation is the Obama mandation. Configuration without compensation
is his compulation to have everything we own confinscatnation. No taxification without representation. Leave us be in a white nation so we
can obey on constitutation.
January 28th, 2010 at 3:00 PM
Sarah P is truly the most dim witted dolt to grace the airwaves. She belongs on Faux Noise where they never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
January 28th, 2010 at 6:24 PM
one thing i noticed immediately abou this sotu is that it was the most raucus and rowdy one i have ever seen. there was loud incomprehensible murmuring, laughing at inappropriate times, talking amongst groups of people. i am trying to figure out a reason why this is so without resorting to the race card. is it because obama is more casual? i don’t think he came off as caual last night, evem though he seemed at ease and spoke in easily understood terms. is it his style of speech, that recalls the rallies that were so high-spirited? all the rep’s have rallies, though, and they know the difference between a rally and a sotu address. is it that obama is sort of like a new or a substitute teacher who gives in too much to the kids in class and so creates an environment where they feel safe in going over the line? but these justives and rep’s are not obama’s students, nor are they kids (not agewise at least). so does anyone else have any guesses? is there a lack of respect for the president and if so, why? why these breeches in protocol? does it have something to do with race? i have a strong suspicion it does, but am having a hard time figuring out a diplomatic way of expressing it.
January 28th, 2010 at 7:34 PM
There has never been a word that she doesn’t try to improve by adding ‘-ing’ to the end of it. If the ‘-ing’ doesn’t work, she takes arbitrary syllables from other words, slaps them together and thinks everyone’s going to believe that she’s just so smart ’cause she knows all these fancy words that they never heard of.
That might work with some of the tea party crowd but it won’t fly with anyone who’s got more than a 6th grade ‘edumacation’. As a teacher, I would be SOOO embarassed to admit that she was my daughter!
January 28th, 2010 at 9:50 PM
[...] Some lines worth considering: [...]
January 28th, 2010 at 10:43 PM
@ 118 GrainneKathleen:
“one thing i noticed immediately abou this sotu is that it was the most raucus and rowdy one i have ever seen. there was loud incomprehensible murmuring, laughing at inappropriate times, talking amongst groups of people. i am trying to figure out a reason why this is so without resorting to the race card. is it because obama is more casual? ….. is there a lack of respect for the president and if so, why? why these breeches in protocol? does it have something to do with race? i have a strong suspicion it does, but am having a hard time figuring out a diplomatic way of expressing it.”
—————–
Yeah, noticed that too. Perhaps it was a way for the gallery to deal with their ‘jitters,’ an outlet.
One might say that it was good to see them reacting — compared with other SOTUs that have put us to sleep!
But under it all, I do think there are deeper reasons. Lack of respect, perhaps …….. although I certainly can’t see it from my point of view. Perhaps they all resent him because he has a strong agenda and won’t knuckle under to their games – Dem or Repub.
If it’s the race card, they won’t get anywhere with that! He’s too smart.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:30 PM
[...] same Alito clip here, and some hilarious analysis of the [...]
January 29th, 2010 at 12:34 AM
GrainneKathleen @ 118 & yukonbushgrma @ 120:
Excellent observation(s)… I, too, was rather taken aback by the lack of decorum during the SOTU. Then I got to thinking about ‘our’ behaviour –in general– in public places and spaces, and I think I detected a distinct ‘carry over’ onto the Hill from those places. I don’t know what it is, but people don’t seem to be aware of who or what is around them, anymore…don’t seem to be aware that they are in spaces and places *with* other people who can see and hear everything they are doing.
Movie theaters, restaurants, houses of worship, libraries, you name it, where once people were mindful of those around them, they don’t seem to be any longer. If they want to talk to someone, they do – no matter what *else* is going on.
I, personally, attribute this phenomenon to the advent –and now, transportability and affordability– of the cell phone. For some odd reason, folks figure that when they’re on their cell, no one else can hear them *except* the person on the other end of call. I think that figuring is carried over into their everyday attitudes and interactions ~ if *they* are engaged in a conversation with someone, it is a conversation *only* they (the ‘participants’) can hear…no matter where they are or who else is around. At times it seems as if they’re also under the impression that the cell phone gives them a measure of ‘invisibility’ — that no one *else* can see their ‘behaviour’, either.
I’ve had daggers eyed at me on more than one occasion for asking a cell phone be turned off. Even though the physical cell phone is turned off, though, the behaviour it has engendered [in the past few years] through its reassuring always-available ‘for private conversations’ and use, carries on without skipping a beat…oddly ‘contagious’ reassurance, too, it seems. And, to my way of thinking, very rude. beth.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:45 AM
thanks for your thoughts yukonbushgrma and beth! both very interesting!
yukon, i think you are right that in some sense it was a relief to see people passionate about what the pres had to say. i confess, i couldn’t watch bush sotu’s after a while for many reasons, one of which that they felt like they were sucking the life out of me. i think you are also right that they resent obama for his intelligence and his agenda and most likely believe that the only way to ressurect their sorry excuse for a party is to destroy him. and we know how single-minded and united the gop can be – i so wish we could use this “talent” for good. and i wish that the dems (whom i, as a progressive, have also been calling a sorry excuse for a party occasionally out of frustration in the past few months) would develop and use this ability once in a while.
and beth, i know what you mean about cell phone use and its effect on our culture. i went away to study abroad in ireland in the late nineties, right before the cell phone boom in the US. i was shocked to find lots of the irish walking around talking into cell phones in public places. i thought it was strange and funny and that it was a “european thing.” but when i arrived back to the US almost a year later, everyone was walking around with cell phones. public manners had changed in a heartbeat. as you observed, people walked around talking about anything and everything as if no one else could hear their conversation. this behavior has become acceptable. for me, a cell phone-less person, it has created a parallel universe. i still abide by the pre-cell phone manners yet live in a world where most people don’t. the cell phone and other inventions such as the lap top and the i-phone, the blackberry, the i-pod have, i believe, led people further and further into parallel narcissistic universes that occur side-by-side but never seem to unite or connect. perhaps the lack of dialogue between the parties is also an effect of the cell phone syndrome.
January 29th, 2010 at 4:00 PM
Well clearly Sarah Palin knows more about the Constitution then our President, who once taught Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago. But then Palin has always assumed that the proverbial wink-and-grin trumps actual intellectual capacity. And, from recent photographs, (this should really distress her whereas comments about her intelligence don’t) I am seeing a tad of aging in her face…a slight widening of the jaw. A slight drooping of the eyes. Yep….no more beauty-queen-runner-up for you Saracuda.
January 30th, 2010 at 5:58 AM
Thank u Thank u thank u, I have been missing my daily dose “This is your life stupid girl who thinks you are something”. And if you thought the pres was good at the sotu address, check him out at the GOP meeting. They thought they could trap him, HA. Score one for the good guys.
The GOP looked like the fools and morons they are, trying to debate with a true scholar, who stood there poised and confident, while they listed GOP talking points and he shot them down like the pheasants(friends) that Cheney shot. President Obama should do this every week. Excellent reality show.