I do have one question, however.  At what point does her regular American schtick become just as transparent to her followers as it does to me?  The average American working 40 years would need to earn an average of $300,000 a year to make $12,000,000 in their lifetime.

Very few people I know make $300,000 a year.  These are people who work hard everyday to support themselves, their families, and their communities for, hopefully, a tenth of $300,000 a year.  They’ve lived their lives the right way–stayed out of trouble, gone to college if they could afford it, given back to their communities.  To me these are the “Real Americans” that Sarah Palin likes to talk about ad nauseum.

INGRAHAM: Would you agree to a debate with Al Gore on this issue?

PALIN: Oh my goodness. You know, it depends on what the venue would be, what the forum. Because Laura, as you know, if it would be some kind of conventional, traditional debate with his friends setting it up or being the commentators I’ll get clobbered because, you know, they don’t want to listen to the facts. They don’t want to listen to some reasonable voices in this. And that was proven with the publication of this op-ed, where they kind of got all we-weed up about it and wanted to call me and others deniers of changing weather patterns and climate conditions. Trying to make the issue into something that it is not.

INGRAHAM: But what if it’s an Oxford-style, proper debate format. I mean, he’s going to chicken out. I mean, if you challenge him to a debate, do you actually think he would accept it?

PALIN: I don’t know, I don’t know. Oh, he wouldn’t want to lower himself, I think, to, you know, my level to debate little old Sarah Palin from Wasilla.

And Sarah, no, I doubt that VP Gore would want to lower himself to talk to a known liar whose concept of reality consist only of what comes into her mind in any given moment.  It’s sad, really.  I would love to see someone of reason and learning debate Gore over climate change.  I really would.  It would be fabulous for a great many ideas and concepts to debated rationally in the public arena.  However, a rational debate requires rational actors.  Sarah and most of the current “conservative” movement are not rational, but rather cynical and emotive.  They have no interest in the truth–whatever that may be in the case of climate change–but only winning the debate.

Opponents of Cecil Bothwell are seizing on that law to argue he should not be seated as a City Council member today, even though federal courts have ruled religious tests for public office are unlawful under the U.S. Constitution.

Voters elected the writer and builder to the council last month.

“I’m not saying that Cecil Bothwell is not a good man, but if he’s an atheist, he’s not eligible to serve in public office, according to the state constitution,” said H.K. Edgerton, a former Asheville NAACP president.

Article 6, section 8 of the state constitution says: “The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.”

Rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution trump the restriction in the state constitution, said Bob Orr, executive director of the N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law.

“I think there’s any number of federal cases that would view this as an imposition of a religious qualification and violate separation of church and state,” said Orr, a former state Supreme Court justice.

In 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Maryland’s requirement for officials to declare belief in God violated the freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Additionally, Article VI of the U.S. Constitution says: “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

I don’t know too much about this situation other than it seems cut and dry.

1) Bothwell won the election.
2) It doesn’t matter what the North Carolina’s Constitution says because Article VI of the US Constitution states that there should be no religious test for public office and that federal law supersedes state law in instances where they conflict. Obviously, North Carolina is a signatory to the US Constitution.
3) Clayton Bigsby H.K. Edgerton could, quite possibly, be mentally ill.  This is Mr. Edgerton:

Mr. Edgerton was also on the Board of Directors of the Southern Legal Resource Center which has strong ties to the League of the South–an extreme right wing neo-Confederate organization.  Just in case you are unfamiliar with this group, here is information pulled off their own site:

‘The League of the South asserts that Southern society is radically different from the society impressed upon it by an alien occupier. American society today is egalitarian and Marxist and is devoid of any grace or charm.“

egalitarian-”asserting, resulting from, or characterized by belief in the equality of all people, esp. in political, economic, or social life.”

Doesn’t seem like such a bad thing to me. I don’t know…maybe I am crazy. Of course, the lack of “grace or charm” is on the same level as Marxism to these people. So maybe their priorities are off kilter.

“To be truly free and self- governing, the South must throw off the yoke of imperial oppression. Therefore, The League of the South advocates the secession and subsequent independence of the Southern States from this forced union and the formation of a Southern republic.“

Treason.

“It is The League of the South’s assertion that the system of fiat currency, fractional reserve banking, unfair trade agreements, outsourcing of jobs, and confiscatory taxation imposed by the American Empire have reduced considerably the Southern people’s standard of living.”

You are telling me that since 1971(when the US went to a Fiat currency from the Bretton Woods system) that the economic quality of life hasn’t improved throughout the South….especially in the urban areas of Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, Spartanburg, Northern Virginia, Houston, Dallas, etc. I’ll give you that Memphis and New Orleans have been stagnant at best, but overall, our tax system has been more beneficial to the South than to other parts of the country. Especially when you consider that the Southern states are net beneficiaries, monetarily, from our current tax system.

[emphasis is mine]

[hattip: BoingBoing and New Left Media]

“Columbus go home!!!!”   This is what happens when lemmings with no idea about their country’s history get together.  Idiocy.

Its no secret that with an invasion of immigrants, comes waves of crime.  We see them involved in massive theft, in murder, and bringing diseases like smallpox, which is responsible for the death of millions of Americans.  These aren’t new problems though, they have been going on for hundreds of years, and continue to this day.

I say its time for us to say enough is enough!  Are you with me?  Are you with me?  Lets send these European immigrants back where they came from!  I don’t care if they are Polish, Irish, English, Italian, or Norwegian!  European immigrants are responsible for the most violent and heinus crimes in the history of the world, including genocide and slavery!  Its time to restore the sovereignty of people native to this land!  I want more workplace raids, starting with the big banks downtown.  There are thousands of illegals working in those buildings, hiding in their offices, and taking Dakota jobs.  Let’s round them up and ship them out.  Then we need to hit them at home where they sleep, I don’t care if we separate families, they should have known better when they came here illegally!

Context–She is upset over Rep. Cao(R-LA) voting for Obamacare, or Pelosicare, or Hitlercare, or whatever the Teabaggers call it these days.

I don’t agree with a public option at this time.  Make COBRA coverage available and realistic. End the insurance companies’ ability to limit coverage based on pre-existing conditions.  Allow insurance companies to compete state to state with one another.  These ideas I can support and these ideas would increase coverage while encouraging competition in the marketplace.  However, just telling the uninsured to just go the the ER is the status quo and is unsustainable as our population and the number of uninsured grow.

P.S.- I also thank your pirate hat.  GAAAARRHHH!!!!!

[hattip: Washington Independent]

[hattip: Yglesias]

Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush will go head to head in a debate at Radio City Music Hall next February, as part of a series pairing liberal and conservative thinkers called “Minds That Move The World.”

The debate “will be formatted to allow for President Clinton and President Bush to each present their thoughts on a wide range of important current events and national issues through a moderated question and answer period during which the moderator can elicit information and insights into particularly pertinent topics of the day,” according to a press release.

[UPDATE: 42 and 43 have cancelled their appearance due to promotional issues]

The truth is that companies don’t want competition; they want government guaranteed profits. Mesmerized by the prospect that an individual insurance mandate would provide them with tens of millions of new government-subsidized customers, private health insurers have allowed themselves to be maneuvered into an inexorable process that will lead to their destruction. In 2004, Berkeley economist Robinson warned that double digit growth in premiums and profits was unsustainable. “In the long term, health insurance will be either revitalized by the private sector, through product innovation and competitive entry,” wrote Robinson, “or disciplined by the public sector, through purchasing power and regulatory requirements.”

Emphasis is mine.