A Conservative’s Case for Sarah Palin’s Genius: “I think liberals and those in the mainstream media fear her. Sure, they openly say she has no chance of beating President Obama — if she even runs, that is; but, inside, they must fear that she could very well beat President Obama in a one-on-one match-up.” [Tony Lee/Atlantic]

[NewScientist]

Detroit Free Press:

Arab Americans across metro Detroit cheered as Rima Fakih of Dearborn was crowned Miss USA tonight in Las Vegas.

“This is unbelievable,” said Rami Haddad, 26 of Livonia, one of Fakih’s biggest supporters. “It’s a dream come true. I can’t express my feelings.”

Fakih, of Lebanese descent, is believed to be the first Arab American and Muslim to become Miss USA.

Daniel Pipes:

This surprising frequency of Muslims winning beauty pageants makes me suspect an odd form of affirmative action.

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Meg Whitman has conducted the most imperial of campaigns for the GOP nomination for California Governor, refusing to speak to editorial boards, refusing to take questions from the audience at the few public events she has done, and plowing more and more of her money into her campaign ads that run ad nauseam on radio and TeeVee.  Her opponent, Steve Poizner, who was written off as dead in the water a few months ago, has pulled up with her in the polls. (On the back of endorsing Arizona’s SB 1070 and immigrant-bashing, but that is for another rant).

Whitman’s radio ads bashing welfare recipients are constant and continuous, even on my groovy progressive local San Francisco radio station KFOG.  So far I have been spared Whitman’s anti-immigrant ads playing in Sandy Eggo that torture Nojo.

Bashing the poor and voiceless has been a go-to strategy for politicians of both parties for generations, from Reagan to Clinton to Whitman, who to date has spent $64 million of her own money on her campaign.  While Clinton’s “End of Welfare as We Know It” in 1996 shows the equal-opportunism of campaigning by bashing the poor, the Cadillac-driving welfare queens have been the go-to boogieman in Republican primaries around the country for decades.  With the not-so-subtle coded racism and city-bashing imbedded in the attacks (nevermind that the majority of recipients of welfare assistance in this country are rural whites), it’s almost a cliché at this point.

Let’s deconstruct the ad, shall we? Read more »

We being here in Sandy Eggo, we only find ourselves thinking about illegal immigration when a political candidate takes the time to demagogue about it. The weather’s just too fucking nice here to break a sweat about undocumented Canadians taking the window seats in the coffeehouse.

Our casual disregard hasn’t stopped Meg Whitman, former CEO of an online garage-sale company whose name evokes a suspiciously Hispanic body of water, from running on the issue in her quest to be declared insane by spending $64 million on her race for California governator. Her television commercials and Web videos are now highlighting her dogged fight against foreigners who would dare mispopulate good American towns like San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, San Bernardino, and Daly City.

But just in case you’re not entirely sure where she’s coming from, Meg just scored an important endorsement:

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Do not know why I thought of this just now. Lying sack of shit:

This appears to tick every wingnut box there is: