Media: Sarah Palin's "thang for chocolate" Maybe Shows That African Americans Can "come in the tea party" (get it???)

In Joe McGinniss's awful-sounding new book The Rogue: Searching for the Real Sarah Palin, he includes this innuendo-drenched section suggesting–though never coming right out and saying–that a pre-marital Palin had sex in 1987 with then-college basketball star Glen Rice. Here's how the section reads:

Whether in her professional capacity as a sports reporter or simply as a basketball groupie who'd begun to find black men attractive, Sarah linked up with Rice during the weekend tournament. One friend recalls, "They went out. I suspect it was more than that. I can't say I know they had sex, but I remember Sarah feeling pretty good that she'd been with a black basketball star."

In one version of the story, Sarah's encounter with Rice took place in her sister Molly's dorm room at the University of Alaska Anchorage. "She hauled his ass down," a friend says, "but she freaked out afterward. Hysterical, crying, totally flipped out. The thing that people remember is her freak-out, how completely crazy she got: I fucked a black man! She was just horrified. She couldn't believe that she'd done it."

Glen Rice remembers the weekend quite differently. When I spoke to him by telephone in March 2011, he said, "I remember it as if was yesterday. She was a sweetheart. I met her almost as soon as we got out there."

Rice does not reall being in a university dorm room. "We hung out mostly at the hotel where the team was staying," he told me. "We just hit it off. In a short time, we got to know a lot about one aonther. It was all done in a respectful way, nothing hurried."

"So you never had the feeling she felt bad about having sex with a black guy?" I asked.

"No, no, no, nothing like that," Rice said. "Even after I left Alaska, we talked a lot on the phone."

The passage is unseemly enough, but the reaction it has produced is just rank. Consider Dave Zirin, the otherwise uber-sensitive sports commentator for The Nation:

Sarah Palin and Glen Rice: who says African Americans can't come in the tea party?

You stay progressive, Dave Zirin!

The CW's "Daily Buzz" show, meanwhile, was happy to report about Palin's "thang for chocolate":

And Fox Sports columnist Jason Whitlock, who is black, sarcastically lauded Palin for "playing blacktop basketball":

She makes me want to join the Tea Party. Who knows, maybe there are countless misunderstood Tea Party women of high moral character who secretly love basketball and hide their affinity on the down low?

After three years wasted loathing Palin and what I believed to be her willful ignorance, I'm now comfortable admitting I can see what Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and all other right-wing men see in the potential presidential candidate.

Thanks to Glen Rice, I can see Sarah Palin from my bedroom.

Probably my favorite aspect of this latest Palin spasm is that, once again, the authors truly think they have more evolved social views than the people they're trying to mock.

Nick Gillespie surveyed a bunch of Palin biographies back in the March 2010 issue.

Comments

[tarran]

I was going to ask how this is relevant to anything under the sun, then remembered that here at Hit and Run it's about Continuous News, Views, and abuse by the Reason staff.

Carry on then. 😉

[Clich? Cop]

+6'9"

[melman]

so the "scandal" is that she dated a black dude when she was single?

[Skip]

Shorter Version: Hey I love the darkies because I'm a nice lefty, but its those Tea Partiers who will hate her because of this!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Please tell me you were standing in the Barnes & Noble copying that passage, Matt, and didn't actually spend money on this book.

[Brett L]

Sooo. Do we have to pull Palin's racist tag, or does this just play into it? I'm unsure why I should care about who a woman slept with while single. Jesus, do I loathe people who think this makes some point about why I should care about Palin as a politician.

[PIRS]

It might cause her to lose some votes among the more puritanical of the Social Conservatives - not because he was black - but because she wasn't married to him at the time.

[teh rael o2]

...that AND because he was black.

[Drake]

Everyone on the left will have a great time with this. If she doesn't deny it, she's a filthy whore. If she denies it, she must be a racist and a liar.

I'll be waiting for MSNBC to ask Gabby Giffords how many dicks she sucked.

[Yes, I'm AM going to hell.]

You wanna do all four holes, don't ya?

[DB]

What's Gabby Giffords got to do with anything, asshole?

[Drake]

She's a liberal who's premarital sex-life would never make the news, shithead.

[Roman Polanski]

Well, she was not unresponsive...

[Drake]

You getting turned on?

[Drake]

She's also the only woman Democrat I could think of off the top of my head who doesn't look like the back end of a horse.

[John]

It lets liberals get their racism on. And if you have ever seen Witlock, he is a fat repulsive toad. I seriously doubt he has ever seen any female from his bedroom black or white, at least none that weren't being paid by the hour.

[Southerner]

Case in point: Todd's racist post down below.

[John Thacker]

See also: Waxman (who is Jewish) talking about how many Jews only voted for the Republican in NY-9 because they wanted to "protect their wealth."

[John]

Or Tony below. "If you don't support our insane, destructive policies, you are a racist." My god he is a sick little bastard.

[John Thacker]

Also, can't forget the union workers complaining about African-American scabs by, that's right, lynching an inflatable monkey.

[teh rael o2]

no pic, didnt happen

[John]

Yeah just because the Police confirmed it and it is in the Houston Chronicle doesn't mean its true. You fucking retard.

[Kreel Sarloo]

In all fairness, the union bosses did denounce it.

OTOH, there's no sign that thisw sentiment is not widespresd, if not universal, in that local and that the bosses weren't simply shamed into repudiating it by the negative publicity it got.

[Todd]

I just think it makes the bigots in the Republican Party look bad. Look at one of your standard bearers having a hankering for Brown Sugar baby! I know this is irrelevant to policy, but for the pure schadenfreude...YEAH BABY!

[John]

Name one racist thing Sarah Palin has ever said? Provide a link for it. What reason is there to believe she is a racist?

Oh yea she is a republican or something. Take it elsewhere fuckwad.

[Tony]

What you will forever fail to realize is that what goes on inside a person's head is irrelevant to pretty much everything.

People aren't racist; actions are racist. Policies are racist. Outcomes are racist.

Sarah Palin supports the standard GOP platform of looting the safety net to hand over to billionaires, while completely ignoring any problems racial minorities have and doing everything possible to exacerbate them.

That's racism of the only kind that matters.

[John]

Jesus Christ you are a sick bastard Tony. What people think and their motives are irrelevant? And further, liberal policies like affirmative action and welfare have done more to damage minorities in this country than anything Republicans have ever done. And go look at black unemployment and poverty rates in the age of Obama. Is Obama a self hating black man? By your standard he is because his policies are so obviously destructive towards minorities.

You and your ilk and your socialist policies have pretty much made war on black America for 40 years. You only scream "racism" to hide your own guilt.

[Todd]

Affirmative action hurts inasmuch as it allors to ignore other issues, and creates way too many opportunities for patronage. It's harmful, but as omission, not commission.

Now welfare? Ah, the multitude of things that can be destroyed by "well-meaning" busybodies. 🙂

[Tony]

Person A makes 20 times more, on average, than person B.

Person A is 4 times more likely to inherit money than person B.

Person A's median inheritance is 10 times more than person B's.

The only variable? Skin color.

Making it so that everyone competes on the playing field of the status quo means minorities do much worse off and continue to do so in perpetuity. We can talk about the best policy solutions for this but "doing nothing and letting the market sort it out" or bullshit about bootstraps is not among them.

[PIRS]

Tony, that was starting to change until LBJ's "War on Poverty". The "War on Poverty" has been just as successful as the "War on Drugs".

[Kreel Sarloo]

No, Tony, skin color is not the only variable. But oversimplifying complex issues makes it easier for you to justify your simpleminded sociology and politics.

[Tony]

In my list, Person A is white and person B is black. Those are real statistics.

[Walter Peck]

Link please.

[Red Rocks Rockin]

In my list, Person A is white and person B is black. Those are real statistics.

Yeah, I'm sure the 70% illegitimacy rate amongst the black population plays NO part in that whatsoever, no sirree.

[Kreel Sarloo]

Real statistics from which you have drawn simplistic conclusions.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Discturbed and mathematically challenged Sockpuppet,

In my list, Person A is white and person B is black. Those are real statistics.

Which means a) You don't know what the term "statistics" means, and b) You don't know reality.

[Copernicus]

Hard to get an inheritance when you don't know your dad. What? Who said that? Ok, What?

[Fluffy]

Right.

For example, penniless immigrants from Southeast Asia.

They do much worse off than whites and continue to do so, in perpetuity.

Oh, wait...

[Matrix]

because every single white person in this country is more priviledged and has way more advantages than every black person in this country... asshat.

[Tony]

I'm talking about statistics. If you're born white, you have a better shot than if you're born black. Doesn't mean it applies in every instance, but surely you know that.

[Politically Incorrect Truth]

Actually, the simple variable of skin color would favor being born "black" since government racism favors "black" skin.

But... as we all know, being born "black" increases the odds of being born into a single parent family and a degenerate culture which glorifies criminal behavior and laziness. This hurts "black" children - not any imaginary racist obstacles. Unfortunately, liberal policies which encourage dependency and victimhood (while also blocking better education and higher employment in "black" communities) continue to strengthen this degenerate culture.

[Politically Incorrect Truth II]

When controlled for IQ, the income gap between whites and blacks disappears. High-IQ blacks make just as much as high-IQ whites.

[Politically Incorrect Truth II]

http://econpapers.repec.org/ar.....85-294.htm

[Old Mexican]

Re: Really imbecilic and ignorant Sockpuppet,

Person A makes 20 times more, on average, than person B.

Person A is 4 times more likely to inherit money than person B.

Person A's median inheritance is 10 times more than person B's.

The only variable? Skin color.

Translation: "I don't consider productivity or talent because brown people are too stoopid to have that."

Making it so that everyone competes on the playing field of the status quo means minorities do much worse off and continue to do so in perpetuity.

Translation: "Brown people too stoopid, they need charitable and guilt-ridden (and superior) white people to help them."

[Tony]

OM what you're saying is that brown people are 20 times less productive and talented than white people, and I'm making the racist claim?

[Old Mexican]

Re: Disturbed sockpuppet,

OM what you're saying is that brown people are 20 times less productive and talented than white people, and I'm making the racist claim?

No, I am saying YOU make the racial reference first as if it mattered, without considering other, more likely explanations.

[Tony]

If there is a measurable (and large) disparity between races, then it's something that has to be explained. What are you getting at here?

[John Thacker]

Making it so that everyone competes on the playing field of the status quo means minorities do much worse off and continue to do so in perpetuity. We can talk about the best policy solutions for this but "doing nothing and letting the market sort it out" or bullshit about bootstraps is not among them.

Yes, but the minimum wage and the Davis-Bacon Act is far worse that doing nothing or "bullshit about bootstraps." Those policies actually pull up the ladder and make it impossible for people who don't already have skills to get into an industry.

The Democrats and the Obama Administration are the ones reinforcing the status quo through their support of a higher minimum wage and for extending Davis-Bacon everywhere.

By Tony's measure, the Obama Administration and the Democrats are racist and hate blacks, as seen by the stimulus.

[Fluffy]

White people make 20 times more than black people on average?

Damn, I'm not pulling my weight. Sorry, my white brethren. I'm slacking.

[Coeus]

Damn, I'm not pulling my weight. Sorry, my white brethren. I'm slacking.

Get your ass in gear or get a tan. You're making the rest of us look bad.

[Pip]

Dig deeper into your family tree.

[Kreel Sarloo]

"White people make 20 times more than black people on average?"

I believe that in the survey that Tony is quoting from, and so superficially interpretting, the finding was that white people own 20 times more in than black people on average. I believe they were considering things like savings, investments, home equity etc.

Tony, of course, being simpleminded and superficial does not distiguish between income and wealth.

[Matrix]

Since the average income in America is 40k/year, does that mean that black Americans only make 2k/year?

[Mike M.]

Since the average income in America is 40k/year, does that mean that black Americans only make 2k/year?

Yeah, seriously, there is absolutely no way that this statistic can possibly be true.

Where in the world did you get this one from "Tony", you sick, deranged sockpuppeting asshole you?

[Tony]

Kreel is right, it's wealth not income.

So... what?

The point is that your success in life is hugely influenced by the success your parents and their parents had, and merely being born black means you are at a huge disadvantage.

In your free market paradise, are black people just required to work harder than white people?

[obv]

The point is that your success in life is hugely influenced by the success your parents and their parents had, and merely being born black means you are at a huge disadvantage.

Letting the government control opportunities will not eliminate the disadvantages of birth. It merely transfers the advantages to the children of the political class, who, with increasing governmental control will stifle economic mobility in order to protect their own positions. In a free market, there is greater mobility because no one is allowed the exclusive prerogative to control access to opportunity. Given the historical record, this is a point which should no longer even need to be debated.

[Drake]

"it's wealth not income"

So you are saying they are (Edited)-Rich?

[Copernicus]

Everybody is required to work as hard as they need to for their needs/wants. What's so hard to understand? You do realize that crying "victim" distracts people from achieving their best results?

[Matrix]

I remember a summer job I had in college. We were working on a project for an insurance firm to image millions of their documents. They hired a bunch of us for this temporary work. We were white, black, and hispanic. There was a particular table of people who were loud and obnoxious. Everyone at the table but one girl was black. They did not do very much work, and they disrupted everyone else. That whole table, including the white girl, got fired. There were plenty of black folks who did not sit at that table, and they did not get fired. But we were out talking to these people right after they got fired. They looked at me and said, "well, you're lucky you're the right skin color. We got fired because we weren't." I wanted to punch them in the face. I only felt sorry for one of the guys who got fired because he did work, but he also talked too much to the ladies out on the floor.

Well, I thought their charge of racism was really terrible. Now, one might think that just by looking at the situation. But, remember, one girl was white who got fired. Plenty of other black folks stayed on. They were not in trouble at all. Also, the supervisor in charge, yes she was at least half white. I think she had some hispanic as well. But her husband was black, and she had at least 3 kids with him. So their charge of racism was extremely hilarious, but I still wanted to punch them all in the face for playing the race card.

[Bob Forehead]

Yes, since Obama supports the drug war, and seeing how particularly destructive it is to minorities, he must be a racist....actually there's something there.

[DDavis]

Wow. It looks like you're serious.

Congratulations on the wonderful self parody.

[Brett L]

She sure is wily, getting the NYT to report on her assault on crony capitalism whilst leading the looting of the poor to benefit the billionairz.

[PIRS]

"People aren't racist; actions are racist. Policies are racist. Outcomes are racist."

Well, in that case Obama is racist against black people. I can say that because as a result of his war there black people in Libya are being killed left and right. They are assumed to be former employees of the old regime.

[Joe R.]

Because only black people are poor, and wealth redistribution via government is the only way to help them.

[Old Mexican]

Re: Disturbed Sockpuppet,

Sarah Palin supports the standard GOP platform of looting the safety net to hand over to billionaires, while completely ignoring any problems racial minorities have and doing everything possible to exacerbate them.

Translation: "The brown people are so stoopid they need our white mon-ey. And anybody that don't like dat is racist!"

[John Thacker]

Policies are racist. Outcomes are racist.

Oh, if we go by that then, the minimum wage and the Davis-Bacon wage rates are racist. They were racist in conception, and racist in effect. They were designed to and still operate by making it impossible for the poor and less skill labor, especially blacks, from competing with skilled, primarily white, labor.

It's almost always possible to do a job with fewer highly skilled people or more less skilled people.

[Joshua Corning]

Policies are racist. Outcomes are racist.

Democrats are big supporters of smart growth zoning regulations....that makes them all racists.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Name one racist thing Sarah Palin has ever said?

She called Barack Obama "Sambo". Lucille the Waitress said so.

[Joshua Corning]

Oh yea she is a republican or something

Republicans freed the slaves, authored and passed the 14th amendment and fought Jim crow not only in the 1960s but in 1900, had a larger majority vote for the Civil rights act then the democrats did...so yeah they are definitely racist.

[Todd]

I'm a total faggot.

[Gus]

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that what you just wrote was racist.

[Todd]

Hey, I'm just saying. I'm on the libertarian program, but I find it hilarious that a) a lot of Republican men are ignoring policy for the one, ahem, pole that matters, b) a non-trivial part of this bunch tends to not like Black people, especially if they've hung out with other Black people outside of their family and c) a good number of them are offended by it.

This doesn't end the War on Drugs, shrinks the regulatory burden on businesses or get the government out of schools, all of which would help Black people.

But it's a good laugh. 🙂

[John]

So where is this evidence for Republican men not liking black people. Do you take polls on this? Do you hang out with white guys a lot and bring up the subject about how great it is not to have darkie around and see if everyone agrees?

Where does this shit exist except in your own mind?

[tarran]

I think it might depend on what region of the counrty you are in.

For example, in central massachusetts, every racist I have met (N=2) is a Republican. In Boston, though, they are catholics that vote Democrat unless they are voting for someone like Reagan to teach the Dems a lesson about not pandering to them (N~10) and all the Republicans I have personally talked about race have been very tolerant (N=7).

[John]

I am not denying there are racists out there. I just don't see it as an R or D thing. They come in all varieties.

[Old Mexican]

Re: John,

I am not denying there are racists out there.

I, instead, deny it makes a fucking difference. What matters are actions, not feelings.

[melman]

every person i have met who openly supports racial discrimination as an official academic or governmental policy is on the left

[Gus]

No, you are a racist. And far too incoherent in your writing style.

[Kreel Sarloo]

Todd's being sarcastic. But he's doinf it clumsily so everyone is misreading him. Even the one's who agree with him.

[OO=======D]

Guess my skin color.

[Brett L]

Purple?

[Walter Peck]

I get it!

[Old Mexican]

Re: Todd,

I just think it makes the bigots in the Republican Party look bad.

That sounds about right - that such would be the only thought you could ever have.

Look at one of your standard bearers having a hankering for Brown Sugar baby!

My, my, my. Fixated enough?

[Kreel Sarloo]

I'm pretty sure that Todd was trying at sarcasm. Kind of clumsily, though.

[Pro Libertate]

Really, Joe McGinniss has had an impure obsession with trashing Palin for a long time. I doubt seriously that much of the innuendo has much basis in fact.

Not to suggest that there isn't dirt to be found, but this looks like pure tabloidism.

[John]

I think if there was dirt to be found, it would have been found all ready. The major media has been out to get this woman for two years now. And they have found nothing. That tells me there is nothing to be found.

[Pro Libertate]

I doubt there's nothing per se, but I bet there's nothing in the book that the mainstream media was willing to report as fact, due to a lack of proof. Jumping onto the "it's in the book!" bandwagon is a different story.

[kinnath]

The mainstream media can't report that Joe McGinniss fucks sheep without proof. But they can report that commenters at H&R claimed that Joe McGinniss fucks sheep.

Reportin the contraversy don't cha know.

[Pro Libertate]

This is correct, and it is a shockingly corrupt and dishonest practice.

I do expect that some of the allegations he makes are true, but I saw some of the claims, and it's simply got to be lots of spaghetti thrown against the wall.

[Joe Pile]

Save some for me!

[Fluffy]

So Rice is lying?

I await Palin's slander action.

[John]

What is there to sue over? She was single? So what if it is true? Why would she sue over that? Even if it were not true, you couldn't collect any damages and suing for libel would mean humiliating yourself by opening up your entire sex life when you were single.

Why are you concerned fluffy? Do you have a problem with a white woman sleeping with a black man? Is that how you roll on these things?

[Fluffy]

Not concerned at all.

But Pro Lib seems to think that McGinness is lying.

I'm just pointing out that since he directly quotes Rice, that would mean that Rice would be lying, too.

It's all well and good to claim that these stories are irrelevant. But that's different from them being made up.

[John]

The one with Rice probably isn't. But so what? The liberals who are making jokes about it are just showing themselves to be the repulsive human beings they are.

[John]

Assuming Rice actually said that.

[obv]

Black men Men never lie about sleeping with white women.

[John Thacker]

I'm just pointing out that since he directly quotes Rice, that would mean that Rice would be lying, too.

Well, not if he's lying when he quotes Rice. But of course someone can independently interview Rice for a confirmation.

[John Thacker]

Well, at least when he says "I remember it like it was yesterday." But, hey, maybe they did actually have some kind of meaningful relationship that continued with a bunch of phone calls after he left the state.

[Pro Libertate]

I heard he'd confirmed, so that may be one down. Hard to know for sure, though. Heck, he could be the source in the first place.

[Azathoth]

When you read the passage, here's what stands out. McGinnis reports that Palin may have had a relationship with Rice. Then McGinnis posits 'one version' of the story in which Palin's behavior is somewhat reprehensible. Then Rice says that the 'version' McGinnis put forward isn't true and that he and Palin had a decent relationship.

The red flag is McGinnis insertion of that other version even AFTER speaking with Rice. Rice says nothing like that happened--and this is first hand. Why report rumor or out and out lie?

Because people will remember the lie as sure as Sarah can see Russia from her house.

[Alex]

I wonder if Clint Eastwood and Leo are upset that the people are being "distracted" by this kind of stuff?

[John]

And of course if someone wrote this kind of a bio of Obama, the media would give it a full respectful hearing up to and including a review in the NYT. There were rumors that Obama had a thing for cocaine and black men back in 2008. And those rumors were never touched because there was no real evidence. It is nice to see them give Palin the same respect by cracking racist jokes.

[Fluffy]

Obama admitted he tried cocaine.

[Pro Libertate]

He should start using it again, the way things are going for him.

[John]

He didn't admit he tried black men.

[DA]

I've tried thousands of black men.

[Sarah Palin]

Oh, he should have!

He really, REALLY should have!

[ola]

I don't give a rip about her going down on some 6 foot 7 seven Anchorage oddity. I'd like to get her opinion on the drug part, whether she still supports putting people in prison for doing something she did (allegedly).

[John Thacker]

It's not allegedly, at least when it comes to pot, she's totally admitted that.

And if you really care, she has given her opinion on that.

"I think we need to prioritize our law enforcement efforts," Palin said. "And if somebody's gonna smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody else any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in and try to clean up some of the other problems that we have in society."

She added that marijuana use "relatively speaking" is a "minimal problem" in the country.

Palin has admitted to smoking when it was legal for personal use in Alaska, saying she "can't...say that I never inhaled."

[ola]

I'm talking about the yeyo. And besides, her response to the pot laws is fucking absurd and she needs to be called on it. I saw her on I think the judge's show when she talked about priorities for law enforcement. Just making it a low priority is fucked. Leaving the prosecution up to local prosecutors or police chiefs when they have nothing else to do is wrong and the judge needed to follow up with the obvious conflicts that policy would lead to.

[John Thacker]

Just making it a low priority is fucked.

Oh sure, I agree with you. She's no better than the President.

[obv]

Leaving the prosecution up to local prosecutors or police chiefs

Yeah, that whole "community standards" notion is so yesterday.

[.]

It ought to be.

[Marty Feldman's Eyes]

*sigh*

This is just reminding me of a time when Michigan basketball was worth more than two shits.

Sarah who?

[creech]

Why not spend an equal amount of time and effort researching the life and times of someone who may actually become president, or is, say, already president?

[Tony]

It's easier to go after pretend villains than actual ones, the actual ones may still be able to harm you.

[Pro Libertate]

No kidding. Perhaps the nadir of the modern history of the American media was not doing any digging into Obama's past before he got into office. How is that not relevant with someone who had had such little experience? Pathetic. A little dirt might've saved us from such a horrible president.

[John]

It might have. And don't forget they were also propping up John Edwards and keeping him in the race by ignoring the Hunter scandal. This split the anti-Obama vote and did as much as anything to make him President.

Thanks to their stupidity and refusal to do their jobs, we got a failed leftist community organizer as President. The only just thing in the whole matter is that Obama is going to end up damaging the Democratic Party for a generation or more, which is something I don't think the media really want to see happen. Oh well, karma is a bitch.

[Fluffy]

If they hadn't dropped the ball on the Edwards story, Hillary would be President.

I somehow don't think that would have worked out any better.

[John]

We will never know. But Hillary would have at least been half way competent. I think she would have not let Pelosi and Reid turn the stimulus into pork fest and I think she would have had the good sense to back off of healthcare when she realized she wasn't going to get any Republican support for it.

I don't think Hillary would have been a good President. But she would probably not have been as uniquely horrible as Obama has been.

[Pro Libertate]

You know, we couldn't win in 2008. Clinton had no less business even running than Obama or Edwards did. From an experience and a know-your-candidate perspective, it may have been the worst slate presented by a party in quite some time.

McCain helped by sucking, as did Bush in tainting his party's brand.

[John]

The Republicans were spent force. It was very likely a Democrat was going to win. That is why the Democrats going insane in the 00s was a bad thing for the country. Eventually they were going to come back to power. And they had nothing but insanity to offer. If only there had been a single sane, qualified, Democrat to pick up the torch. Even if they had been a liberal like Bill Bradley, it would have been better than this.

[Pro Libertate]

There were more (apparently) moderate, experienced options. Like, say, Mark Warner. Or even Bill Richardson, though his star later fell greatly with the pay-to-play scandal.

[Tony]

The only concern that this country is going to face over the next couple generations is just how long it's going to take to clean up the destruction Republicans have brought to it.

[Matt Damon]

"A little dirt might've saved us from such a horrible president."

No it wouldn't have. Hank Paulson elected the Democrat, who happened to be Obama.

[Resto Druid FTW]

I dunno, maybe it's just me. I find there is a certain hotness for that 80's look in the pic. >:)

[Clich? Bandit]

I love 80s hair...and leg warmers.

[Arcaster]

Agreed. BTW, resto druids are a pain in the ass in arenas.

[Copernicus]

I was going to say "it's only you" but apparently it's not.

[Sarah Palin]

It's not about white or black for me.

I just love me some cock.

Cock, cock, cock.

[Bristol Palin]

Me too!

I knew I got it from somewhere!

[Sams]

''The thing that people remember is her freak-out, how completely crazy she got: I fucked a black man! She was just horrified. She couldn't believe that she'd done it."

Sara Palin is a RACISTTTTTTT !

[obv]

That is the best part, an anonymous quote that lets everyone know that Palin really is a racist even if she slept with a black man. JG can't bring himself to credit Palin with any liberal virtues.

[ola]

Let's see, salacious sex and possible drug scandal ivolving former governor, vice presidential candidate, reality tv host, who is already fodder for late night tv, and who makes political pundits go apeshit and nothing on DRUDGE? Oh, that's right she's a republican.

[Alex]

Too bad I saw this story through a link on Drudge YESTERDAY.

You fucking jackass.

[ola]

bullshit

[ola]

Go to the website and search his archive for palin and the latest story was on the 13th about crony capitalism. Looks like you suck alex.

[Alex]

My bad, I thought I saw it from Drudge. I may suck, but you're still an asshole.

[ola]

thanks

[Sy]

Probably because this doesn't even come close to being considered, you know..news.

[jtuf]

So Sarah Palin and Obama's mother have something in common. What's the big deal?

[Gus]

"So Sarah Palin and Obama's mother have something in common."

They both hated Barack? Because his mom dumped him with the grandparents.

[Dan Mage]

As much as I personally dislike Ms.Palin and the pseudo-libertarian rhetoric she and her TP playmates spout, I have to agree that this story is BS. Her sex-life is her own business, Joe McGinniss is a sensationalistic "True-Crime" writer, and is pandering to the racism and misogyny of the consumers of such crap, apparently with great success.

[Fluffy]

You know the funny thing about that picture up there?

She's hotter now.

The 80's were dark days.

[John]

It was the big hair. Pretty much no woman looks good with big hair.

[Fluffy]

The clothes of that era weren't helpful either.

[SIV]

The shiny lycra spandex was cool.

[Pro Libertate]

Dolphin shorts.

[Anonymous Coward]

Shoulder pads FTW.

[GILMORE]

Dave Zirin, the otherwise uber-sensitive sports commentator for The Nation:

....WTF??

The Nation has a sports section?

(shudder)

Thats the only detail of this post worth looking into.

Named of the UTNE Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World", Dave Zirin writes about the politics of sports for the Nation Magazine. He is their first sports writer in 150 years of existence

Uh, yeah... no shit. It makes about as much sense as Foreign Affairs covering Rap Music... and I'm sure is equally insightful.

His most recent book is Bad Sports: How Owners are Ruining the Games We Love (Scribner). Shock Doctrine author Naomi Klein called Bad Sports "an original and scathing look at how America works."

Right. Let me guess: Capitalism.... bad? Just going out on a limb here. You never know with Naomi Klein, and her diverse intellectual oeuvre...

I looked up the list of the 49 other UTNE Reader 'Visionaries'...

http://www.utne.com/2008-11-13.....World.aspx

Holy mother of god.

....

I think I can be confident saying very few of these 50 people are going to change a fucking thing, ever, in their lives.

example of the Visionary peers =

This Land Ain't Your Land
Ariel Luckey, performance activist

In the 19th century, U.S. forces displaced American Indian populations, often violently, before white homesteaders moved in to claim "free" land. "If you look at who owns land in this country, the pattern that's here today was established in the 1860s," says Oakland-based hip-hop artist and activist Ariel Luckey. To get people seeing the roots of that privilege, he created Free Land, a candid solo show about coming to terms with homesteading in his family's history. With dance and song, Free Land cuts to the heart of inherited privilege with more resonance than 10,000 self-conscious liberal arts students could ever muster?and in doing so, opens the door for genuine national introspection.

Yes, a white kid doing a Rap Opera about the Native American diaspora. Introspection ensued.

Im going to go throw up now.

[GILMORE]

Sorry, I also just want to re-highlight some of the UTNE prose...

Free Land cuts to the heart of inherited privilege with more resonance than 10,000 self-conscious liberal arts students could ever muster

... 10,000x0>...?

Unintentional irony, always appreciated.

I also assume "self-conscious"="UTNE Reader subscribing".

To be fair, 10,000 Reason-subscibers probably could throw a much better party, but as has been noted, probably don't have the national-introspection generating capacity of the White-Guilt-Rap-Opera either.

That thing is so fucking a mockery of itself it warps the space-time continuum.

Sample it if you dare

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dxYJkFv4XY

1:28-1:50 drove me into a tear-generating laughing fit. OMG. Please... go watch it... just that bit if necessary.

I can imagine an American indian throwing a spear at him and going, "I paid $5 for this shit??!" Or Chuck D demanding Rap be repatriated from the White Man immediately to prevent further atrocities like this.

[Lord Humungus]

gee, my wife-to-be had a black boyfriend about a year before I met her. She's more conservative than me... so therefore she's implicitly racist. Or something.

[Kreel Sarloo]

Person A makes 20 times more, on average, than person B.

Person A is 4 times more likely to inherit money than person B.

Person A's median inheritance is 10 times more than person B's.

The only variable? Skin color.

All about as meaninful as producing a statistic like:

Person A is 4 times more likely to become a high paid NBA star than person B.

and to then draw the conclusion:

The only variable? Skin color.

Such a thing would automatically get the mockery it deserves, but in Tony's circle the simplistic interpretation of the first example gets approving nods as evidence of one's superior intelligence and compassion. Whereas it is really merely vacuous.

I actually have no idea if 4 times is the right number for the greater likelyhood that a black person will become a high paid NBA star over a white person but its a multiple somewhere around that.

[Tony]

I am talking about averages.

[Kreel Sarloo]

So am I.

[Max]

How is anything about this story innuendo, Welch, you stupid cock sucker? It comes right out and says that Sarah Palin fucked Rice, and he remembers fucking her. What the fuck?

[creech]

Glenn Rice, you lucky bastard.

[GILMORE]

For the record, there is no evidence Matt Welch sucks cock.

Judge Napalitano...? The jury is out. (bah dum tiss x 2)

and it *was* a hung jury

"boooooooooo!!!" (tomatoes thrown)

[Brandt Hardin]

Who says Tea Partiers are racist? Turns out Sarah's as liberal as they come and likes to dip in the chocolate! Don't be ashamed Sarah- at least you didn't do it for the money. A lot has changed since '87 and she'll show us all the goods for the cash now. See what I mean with this racy picture at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.....in_15.html

[?]

I'm talking about the yeyo.

As a, let's say, "professional" cocaine user, I don't think any other user who's sufficiently "professional" that she'd try to load up out in a cold snowy waste off an oil barrel would be, let's say, "unprofessional" enough to try to load up out in a cold (shit don't absorb right) snowy (i.e. wet) waste (where the wind is) off an oil barrel (which, whether metal or plastic, is not a smooth enough surface not to lose your shit in).

The story is the not truth.

[GILMORE]

You bring new meaning to the term "Blowhard"

bah dum tiss

[Matt Damon]

How soon before someone claims Track is not really Todd's son?

[DDavis]

Anyone else notice the tiny tiny discrepancy in the story?

"
I can't say I know they had sex, but I remember Sarah feeling pretty good that she'd been with a black basketball star."

... a friend says, "but she freaked out afterward. Hysterical, crying, totally flipped out. The thing that people remember is her freak-out, how completely crazy she got: I fucked a black man! She was just horrified. She couldn't believe that she'd done it."

[Coldtype]

"Thanks to Glen Rice, I can see Sarah Palin from my bedroom."

I'm sorry but that's damn funny.

[Dan]

I'm so f-ing sick of Sarah Palin.

She is starting to remind me of Kim Kardashian.

[Chocolate Gift]

hey, I thought this was an articles about chocolate. lol. I love it too.