As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska.

Before the conference with congresscritters over the Wall Street bailout, Bush spoke to the cameras.

WHAT HE WANTS TO THANK: “I want to thank the spirit of bipartisan cooperation that’s taking place here in Washington.”



Sarah Palin went to Ground Zero today to thank the spirit of 9/11, or something.

NEVER FORGETTING: “Every American student needs to come through this area so that, especially this younger generation of Americans is, to be in a position of never forgetting what happened here and never repeating, never allowing a repeat of what happened here.”

And there’s more to that Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin (note: the link is to excerpts, not a complete transcript, but CBS doesn’t make that clear). 10½ car-crash-can’t-turn-your-eyes-away minutes.



NOT A PART OF THAT CULTURE: Asked why she never had a passport before 2007, she said, well, she hadda work, doncha know, and “I was not a part of, I guess, that culture. The way that I have understood the world is through education, through books, through mediums that have provided me a lot of perspective on the world.” Careful about mentioning the mediums, Sarah, that pastor fella will probably try to burn them as witches.

Why will a “surge” work in Afghanistan? “Because we can’t afford to lose in Afghanistan”. Another one who thinks that saying “failure isn’t an option” is a magical talisman.


PUTIN REARS HIS HEAD INTO THE AIR SPACE OF THE UNITED STATES: Why does being able to see Russia from your house make you a foreign policy expert? (4:11 – you have to watch this part for her intonation and hand gestures) “Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. ... As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there, they are right next to our state.”

On Ahmadinejad (whose name she pronounced perfectly; who says she hasn’t learned anything in her two-week crash course): “We’re hearing the evil that he speaks.”

WHAT SHE’S NEVER HEARD: “I’ve never heard Henry Kissinger say, ‘Yeah, I’ll meet with these leaders without preconditions being met.’” Yeah, I think when you met him, Henry had other... priorities.



NO SECOND GUESSING, NO SECOND HOLOCAUST: “We shouldn’t second-guess Israel’s security efforts because we cannot ever afford to send a message that we would allow a second Holocaust, for one.” But, Katie asked, can’t the US even express an opinion? Oh, sez Sarah, we can express our concerns, just not second-guess. Huh? sez Katie. “We don’t have to second-guess what their efforts would be if they believe that it is in their country and their allies, including us, all of our best interests to fight against a regime, especially Iran, who would seek to wipe them off the face of the earth.”

WHO ARE THE GOOD GUYS IN HER WORLD: “It is obvious to me who the good guys are in this one and who the bad guys are. The bad guys are the ones who say Israel is a stinking corpse and should be wiped off the face of the earth. That’s not a good guy who is saying that. Now, one who would seek to protect the good guys in this, the leaders of Israel and her friends, her allies, including the United States, in my world, those are the good guys.”