The only good I can see coming from Sarah Palin's media march is that any possibility of her running for President in 2012 will, most likely, be shot to smithereens.

First, she's on Newsmax, calling Fox News comedian Glenn Beck "effective":

Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He's a hoot. He gets his message across in such a clever way. And he's so bold – I have to respect that. He calls it like he sees it, and he's very, very, very effective."

Of course you think he's a hoot - what he does is comedy! Well, unless it's a disgusting metaphor that he used incorrectly. Melissa over at Shakesville bravely decided to wade into Beck's world and create a transcript:

America has spoken clearly, consistently-we don't want [government-paid healthcare]. And for the first time in history, we don't think it's the government's place to give it to us. We're kind of reading this [holds up unidentified piece of paper] from time to time now. We are-excuse this analogy, but I feel like it's true-we're the young girl saying [puts on scared voice and crying face] "No, no-help me!" [back to regular voice] and the government is Roman Polanski. In the end, I think we're all gonna be cowering in France. [A few more moments of babbling about "unfunded liabilities" before the video cuts out.]

Melissa says: "Universal healthcare = rape. Awesome."

I say: Can this asshole even get a goddamn joke right? If the government is Roman Polanski, then they would be cowering in France, not us. And doesn't France have womb-to-tomb care, which is what we're apparently protesting against? Fail! Fail! Fail! If Jon Stewart kept botching jokes like this, Comedy Central would have fired his ass.

Palin's love of Beck's inane sputtering seems even more strange when you consider he just won the Anti-Defamation League's title of "Fearmonger-in-chief:"

The Influence of the Mainstream Media

Though much of the impetus for anti-government sentiment has come from a variety of grass-roots and extremist groups, segments of the mainstream media have played a surprisingly active role in generating such segment. Though a number of media figures and commentators have taken part, the media personality who has played the most active role has been radio and television host Glenn Beck, who along with many of his guests have made a habit of demonizing the Obama administration and promoting conspiracy theories about it. Beck has acted as a "fearmonger-in-chief," raising anxiety about and distrust towards the government.

Please note the headline the ADL gave Glenn Beck: Mainstream Media.

But back to Sarah.

The tragedy at Fort Hood on November 5, which resulted in the deaths of thirteen people and injuries to dozens of others, has been co-opted by those who would seek to further their own agendas. The Republicans are already on the move:

House and Senate Republicans, emerging from the most detailed briefings given to Congress since the Nov. 5 attack killed 13 at the central Texas Army post, said delaying investigations would put off legislative efforts to give military officials the tools to prevent similar tragedies in the future. They said such an effort would not interfere with the criminal investigation of shooting suspect Nidal M. Hasan, an Army major who was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan.

"Congress also needs to move forward to make sure we do our work to get to the right conclusions," said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee.

Catch that? We need to get to the right conclusions. Wonder what those would be?

Sarah Palin knows. Here's an assessment that she shared with the Weekly Standard yesterday:

She commented on the trail of evidence linking the alleged Ft. Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, to militant Islam. "There were such clear, obvious, massive warning signs that were missed," she said. "This terrorist, even having business cards" that identified him as an "SoA" or soldier of Allah. Palin blamed a culture of political correctness and other decisions that "prevented — I'm going to say it — profiling" of someone with Hasan's extremist ideology. "I say, profile away," Palin said. Such political correctness, she continued, "could be our downfall."

Interesting. Because obviously, racial profiling worked so well before. In fact, due to the government's racist actions in World War Two, many Japanese Americans lost their homes, their lives, everything they had - and for what? Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park fame) cut a track for his solo project that explored his family's history in the internment camps. A student on YouTube spliced the song with images and facts from the era:

The U.S. government ultimately paid close to $1.6 billion dollars in reparations for their insistence on profiling.

Now Palin and company want to repeat history, as those who don't learn from it so often do.

Palin-Beck 2012 [Politico]
Glenn Beck: Asshole [Shakesville]
Rage Grows in America: Anti‑Government Conspiracies [ADL]
Republicans criticize Obama's Call To Delay Hill Inquiries On Fort Hood [Washington Post]
Palin On Nidal Hasan: "Profile Away" [Weekly Standard]
Exploring Japanese American Internment [Asian American Media]
Official Site [Densho]

Related: Casting Out: Exploring the Racialization of Muslims [Racialicious]
The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of "Political Correctness" [Zuky]

Related: Race for a Cab: When Hailing a Ride Isn't So Black and White [ABC News]
Mr. Cab Driver [YouTube]

• In other "no shit" news, law enforcement continues to detain thousands of people every year based on racial profiling. • Also filed under "No Shit, Sherlock": if you think you get rejected for your appearance, you're more likely to consider having plastic surgery. • Also, going to developing countries were IVF is cheaper is — surprise! — potentially bad for your health. • Australian men are more likely to live at home with their parents than Australian women, which probably has nothing to do with the fact that (anecdotally speaking), parents are more permissive about their sons' sexuality than their daughters'. • Jerking off a bunch is good for fertility, so that says something for the Aussie men, I guess. • The Queen of England plans to count swans at the end of the month due to some random tradition that says she owns most of them, not that she actually cares about that part of it anymore. • Rush Limbaugh thinks Obama will run again in 2016, because he apparently ran out of crazy shit to say today. • Sweden is reconsidering its strict prostitution law, what with the unintended consequences that it hasn't stopped prostitution. • Orange juice is worse for your teeth than whitening them, but scurvy is still bad, people. • Overweight mothers tend to underestimate their children's weight and doctors think they fool themselves that their children have problems. Of course, those doctors probably use BMI as an indicator, despite studies showing its a bad one. • Stressing yourself out during pregnancy can result in kids who have emotional problems, which is some fucking bullshit right there and where can I find those god damned doctors again to give them a piece of my mind? •

[Brooklyn, June 4. Image via Getty]

NEW YORK - JUNE 04: A police officer wipes away tears as the hearse carrying slain officer Omar Edwards passes during the funeral for Edwards who was killed in a friendly fire incident on May 28 while off duty in East Harlem on June 4, 2009 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Omar, who was 25 and black, was killed while in street clothes when he chased a man who broke into his car causing police to mistake him as the suspect as he had his gun in hand. The shooting has generated calls for reform in the police department and demands of a separate investigation due to the racial overtones of the officer�s death. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Danielle, (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

(Click on image to enlarge)

I was kicking ass on the treadmill at the gym, and was totally in the zone. It was awesome! Then, it hit my nostrils like a bee smacking the glass door. Worse even, it was one of those thick stanky rotten egg laced with some skunk clouds that you can practically taste and my mouth was open. Major disgusting! I gagged some and had to put my towel over my nose and mouth until the fart twister moved to the south.

That description — "major disgusting" even by our pathetic standards — comes courtesy of Stephanie Quilao, the blogger behind the blog Back In Skinny Jeans. Stephanie was so repulsed by the fart she encountered, that instead of, you know, simply switching machines, she stuck around to try and figure out who the culprit was.

Directly next to me was a tiny zaftig Mexican woman about 5'2" about late 40's-early 50's. I wanna call her Rosa. Next to her one treadmill apart was a tall Black man about 6'1" about my dad's age who looked like he could be Bill Cosby's cousin on his dad's side. I'll call him Frank.

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Blowing Hot Air [OneDAtATime]
Who Farted On The Treadmill? [BackInSkinnyJeans]