- your final word on princesses and that we should visit south Bavaria, and see how they revere their favorite Wittelsbach, Elizabeth - touched my heart - because I was just in Munich this weekend and everybody always tells me how much I look like Sissi (Elizabeth) -

So you should 'pull for me too - (whatever I do):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi65lZTm400

- and after you have watched the iron boobs - don't you think I'm WAY hotter than Sarah?

(at least I'm blond!)

Roy's posted his Village Voice round-up on - what else - the Palin speech reaction from rightwingers.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/exploring_the_r/

I don't think that'll turn into a link. Anyway, if you thought our guys were delusional, his guys will make them seem downright perceptive.

Van Flein's actions remind us of one of the late I.F. Stone's favorite stories. He used to put out an annual list of the dumbest legislators in Congress. So he bestowed the honor one year on the perfect candidate.

So what does the congressman do? He holds a press conference to deny that he is indeed the dumbest. Stone pointed out that his Weekly had a circulation of about 4,000, if I recall, and the congressman went to the national print and television media to deny that it was true.

There were lots of problems with the Sports Complex in Wasilla, as any student of graft and corruption could tell you. The biggest one is that Sarah pushed it forward without getting clear title to the land that it was built upon.

Her own house was built in equally disturbing circumstances. She illegally expanded and encroached upon a neighbor's house in the place she unloaded, and permits and mitigation orders mysteriously disappeared, were ignored or removed, I think.

While only an audit of the bill of materials and the purchases of supplies would tell whether or not they were all paid for, the more serious question is whether or not people in the business contributed perhaps the majority of uncompensated labor for the new house. Wasilla, after all, has become an evangelistic community. We're not talking about a Mennonite community barn raising here. What did those industry people get in return for the free labor?

Sarah and Van Flein may have opened the door for those questions be put, and they certainly would be put in any discovery in a trial. Van Flein knows this, so his threats are likely "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Lastly, Curt Menard, a very decent sort, passed on last year, so there's no way to check the story with the principal Sarah names.

Are we allowed to acknowledge we know each other in this here forum? I think no one's saying much because there are more fun things to do in Vegas than to worry about Palin, especially knowing as I do how well you make out in those gambling towns.

I meant to say yesterday afternoon. How time flies in this city, having all this fun reading Salon letters in my hotel room.

The morning after Nixon's election, my then-teenaged daughters asked why I wasn't up like I always was before they went to school. I told them I wasn't getting out of bed until "that man" left office. Of course, I did----only to, eventually, be faced with worse: George W. Bush. I actually gave a liberal friend a button a couple of years ago saying "Bush makes me miss Nixon." Could it be that, if I live that long, I will have to find a button saying "Palin makes me miss Dubya"?

Frankly, I think she just threw a tantrum after the Vanity Fair article and then held that press conference to justify her quitting in a huff. But I repeat myself....

I do appreciate the data about the lawyer and his areas of practice. Made me chuckle. After all, one would have thought he was under contract from the State of Alaska...or, perhaps, Wasilla...and not just the Palin's personal attorney. (Do they have a lot of dental malpractice problems???)

Here's the most important question we need to ask right now, folks: How in the world did Palin manage to get a lawyer to write such a long letter, with all of those references, on a SATURDAY? Not just any Saturday, but on JULY 4th? (Do you think he's charging her double time for working on a weekend, perhaps ruining his golf game, and definitely cutting into the holiday barbeque?)

Just thought I'd enter into the dialogue. (Hi, friend! I arrived in Las Vegas this afternoon and have yet to find anyone wringing their hands over Sarah Palin's decision to quit.)

You must agree, or you wouldn't be reading this.

especially considering how Nixon is a personal tyrant. I was just reminding dadu that Nixon, in one area, hardly compares to Palin.

LBJ wasn't a very popular memory either for my family as I was growing up, which is was I was appalled when HRC made her LBJ/MLK comparison before the NH primary.

Before that I hadn't cared who would win the 2008 Democratic nomination, and had given donations to both HRC and Obama.

Just growing up the word "Nixon" evoked a lot of emotion and anger in my family.

try to reach out to a friendly ally. I've run into the one person in my entire life who doesn't agree that at least Nixon had a brain. I didn't say he had good judgment, mind you, but...oh, never mind.

I might also add another quote from the Sex Pistols, this time from one of their other members: "Oi fink it's awl a lo' o' Bow-shit."

And the only quibble I would have with the words:

"virtue001, you've just lost all credibility",

is the word "just."

?????

I guess it depends on your definition of intelligent.

Compared to Dubya or Palin? Yeah.

Compared to your average person? No.

Altho it's been said many times, many ways, at least Nixon was intelligent.

As for your dilemma re: smart people supporting Palin as she takes them over that proverbial cliff, I really believe the vast majority don't consider her intelligent at all but merely a a willing tool for their own designs (Kristol, et. al.) while hoping to persuade enough dumb ones she's the real deal.

And as for r2 being convinced she's his d2, he's in a category all his own.