Updated: Don't Look Now: ABC Pushing Plants

Update: A second Code Pink member identified by ABC and the Detroit Free Press as an independent voter? What are the chances of that? h/t to an emailer

Detroit & Tri-County Area
Detroit, MI
Joellen Gilchrist

via The Detroit Free Press article also carried by ABC. And they used these same alleged "independents" to praise Michelle Obama after her speech.

“Sarah got as much applause as Hillary did, and had a friendly, appealing appearance.
Her delivery style reminded me of a high school valedictorian who also might have been a cheerleader. I thought she would appear more professional, more stateswomanly. She's no match for Joe Biden.”

-- Joellen Gilchrist, 64, Beverly Hills independent

Gawd this was easy, let's see what else turns up over time. Via ABC:

The Detroit Free Press invited a panel of Michigan voters to weigh in on Gov. Sarah Palin's speech last night. Their reactions run the gamut, but the independents didn't seem to care for her very much.

Ilene Beninson, 52, Berkley independent: "Her speech contained few statements about policy or the party platform. … I am not convinced that Palin's experience as a mayor or governor in Alaska meet the qualifications to be vice president much less one stroke or heart attack away from being commander in chief.”

Oh, you mean the Code Pink independent from Michigan doing a lame hunger strike for Cindy Sheehan. Yeah, how "indpendent" can you get??? ha ha ha

Ilene Beninson, Berkley, MI (will fast every Tuesday)

Comments

[IslamoLlama]

haha

[GMax]

Now that is damn funny. I thought it strange that the Free Press would have 5 independents but only one was from Macomb Co with the rest from Oakland Co but I had no proof on whether the independents were truly "independent". I guess the Code Pinko is still deciding between Ralph, Cynthia and Obama? Decisions decisions.

The guy from West Bloomfield could be another plant. That is the very high end of Oakland Co. Latte Liberals would be abundant there and a decent sized Jewish population as well.

[Buzz]

And I wonder if George Lentz of Southfield is the same George Lentz so active in Unitarian "Social Justice"?

http://www.northwestuu.org/old_site/social_justice_network.htm

[Audacity of Hopeful Change]

Code Stink is still around? Oh wait...I did see Chris getting hauled out of the GOP convention last night. Forget my question.

[seekeronos]

Sarah Palin can make do without the Teleprompter, unlike "Slackjaw" Obama:

http://www.redstate.com/diaries/redstate/2008/sep/04/breaking-sarah-palin-winged-her-speech-bec/

[Buzz]

One more plant - turns out Jan Wheelock is in a group that supports socialized medicine. Quite the independant she is.

http://www.michuhcan.com/Endorsements.aspx

[chris]

This reminds me of your "president"'s special friend Jeff Gannon. Ah, the times they had together.

[iconoclast]

gawd, Chris. You guys are getting so you cannot even stitch together a remotely sensible snark. But since you insist I'll accept your premise that ABC News are as unethical and rabidly biased as Gannon. Happy now?

sheesh, and they say conservatives are stupid....

[jharp]

Seeker,

True Christians do not bear false witness.

The Teleprompter did not break

Sarah Palin delivered a powerful speech last night, but she did not "wing it."

Which is what Erick Erickson, citing sources close to McCain, has written on his blog, RedState.

Erickson writes that "the Teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Gov. Palin was in the speech."

This claim has been picked up on Drudge and could quickly enter into the insta-mythmaking about a speech that need not be embroidered.

Perhaps there were moments where it scrolled slightly past her exact point in the speech. But I was sitting in the press section next to the stage, within easy eyeshot of the Teleprompter. I frequently looked up at the machine, and there was no serious malfunction. A top convention planner confirms this morning that there were no major problems. The Teleprompter did not break

Sarah Palin delivered a powerful speech last night, but she did not "wing it."

Which is what Erick Erickson, citing sources close to McCain, has written on his blog, RedState.

Erickson writes that "the Teleprompter continued scrolling during applause breaks. As a result, half way through the speech, the speech had scrolled significantly from where Gov. Palin was in the speech."

This claim has been picked up on Drudge and could quickly enter into the insta-mythmaking about a speech that need not be embroidered.

Perhaps there were moments where it scrolled slightly past her exact point in the speech. But I was sitting in the press section next to the stage, within easy eyeshot of the Teleprompter. I frequently looked up at the machine, and there was no serious malfunction. A top convention planner confirms this morning that there were no major problems.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0908/The_teleprompter_did_not_break.html

[templar knight]

I was there, too, seeker, and the teleprompter rolled way past her speech. I saw it with my own eyes, I saw how she winged it, and sunk the Obamas. What a speech it was, too!

[chris]

After you rednecks get done cheering the mother-of-the-year-with-no-experience you may want to note that the DJ dropped 300 points today.

http://biz.yahoo.com/cnbc/080904/26544338.html

The old man, with his many homes and wifey's cash doesn't really focus on the economy. Be thankful that he picked a real heavyweight!

[seekeronos]

I note how jharp loves to lob that "bearing false witness" idea about.

Take it up with Mr. Erickson at RedState.com.

And here, it breaks down into a semantic argument: a Teleprompter that scrolls way past its appropriate place may be said to be "broken".

Device error, or operator error. Either way, the device was not functioning according to its proper parameters, and therefore, was broken.

And here's something else: if in fact the machine merely scrolled past her point in the speech, she STILL referenced the notes in her papers, choosing to speak in SPITE of the malfunctioning (excuse me, BROKEN) teleprompter.

So there.

Neener-neener.

[templar knight]

"The Dow Jones dropped 300 points today."

Probably anticipating the two clowns running on the Democratic ticket winning. If they do in fact win, 300 points on the down side will seem like a slight correction compared to the 2000 or more points the market will drop if the terrorist supporter Obama was somehow able to cheat his way in.

[okie from muskogee aka don adams]

I was there at the convention as well, not in the press section with jharp but backstage. Between hillary gnawing at Sarah's ankle and bill exposing himself I would say our Sarah delivered a great speech. I also overheard hill declare to bill as security grabbed them "missed her by that much".

[WJO]

Chris: Wouldn't a drop in the Dow be sticking it to us plutocrats in the thugtard party?(Personally, I have all my retirement savings in limited edition NASCAR collector plates, so I ain't worried.)

[chris]

You're one lucky guy there WJO. Looks like the latest evidence of God's hatred of the red states, Hurricane Hanna, is going right at nascar country. Those plates will be worth even more next week. If I was your financial adviser I'd tell you to hold until at least after next year's tornado season before diversifying into some of those classy and oh-so-decorative dreamcatchers.

[templar knight]

"God's hatred of the red states..."

Hahaha, that's how we get you idiots in the blue states to build us a new home every four of five years, chris. You dumb butts just keep paying the bills. I'm hoping for a tornado myself, as my home needs updating. It will save me thousands when chris and his friends agree to either fix it or build me a new one. And that extra cash comes in handy as well. It's good for spending money, as I invest mine in alternate forms of energy, namely wind generators. Thank you, chris, for your concern. I'm sure it's good to know that all your help is so appreciated.

[docweasel]

Wow, now that Dan has jumped on the McCain bandwagon, I can read him again!

I admit, I've been fasting for Code Pink myself, every day from the time I get up until a little later in the morning when I feel I could eat a little something, then I have a nosh in tribute to our fallen Truther Bros in the Battle of the RNC Convention where some guys on bikes stumbled and fell running away from tear gas and flash grenades. Here's spilling a 40 to the curb in honor of those bros! SALUTE!

[markg8]

Sarah Palin took a town with $0 debt in 1996 and left it $22 million in the hole in 2002, mostly from the hockey rink/sports complex she shoved down their throats which never became the money generator she promised it would. Another white elephant from another white elephant.

Even with the stable Clinton economy during most of her mayoral tenure and Jack Abramoff's crony she hired to lobby Washington to help her now indicted buddy Ted Stevens ring up $27 million in federal pork for tiny Wasilla (pop. 5000 when she entered office) she still managed to leave the town swimming in debt. Three of her pork projects even made McCain's own wasteful spending list.

The following organization is the offshoot of President Reagan's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control started in 1984, also known as the Grace Commission. Definitely not a Dem friendly group but even these guys apparently think Alaska is America's welfare queen state.

Citizens Against Government Waste
http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=homePage

Rank State Pork Population Pork/Capita

2000 1 Alaska $394,514,000 619,500 636.83
2001 1 Alaska $480,297,000 626,932 766.11
2002 1 Alaska $451,334,278 634,892 710.88
2003 1 Alaska $393,346,750 643,786 610.99
2004 1 Alaska $524,329,000 648,818 808.13
2005 1 Alaska $645,502,000 655,435 984.85
2006 1 Alaska $325,106,000 663,661 489.87
2007 not listed
2008 1 Alaska $379,699,715 683,478 555.54

As governor she is borrowing from Alaska's future while she wants to blow today's Alaskan windfall oil tax bonanza and the huge surpluses they've generated on bread and circuses tax giveaways.

Alaska gets 89% of it's operating budget from taxing oil coming out of the ground just like Arab kingdoms and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. They have no state income or sales tax up there. Instead of using that windfall to pay for all the profligate spending her Republican legislature keeps sending her she's issuing bonds to pay for it which Alaskans and US taxpayers will have to pay off in future years while she takes credit for tax "rebates" while she's governor.

Her fiscal policy is a disaster in the making which won't hit til she's left the governor's office. She'd be a disaster as Vice President especially to a President who despite his grevious wounds and type A personality is already past the age his father and grandfather died of sudden heart attacks.

She can put on all the lipstick she wants but her political record is for the dogs.

[Tood]

Send a lefty into therapy by showing them this very funny picture (and it does not even include Sarah Palin yet)!!!

http://www.singularity2050.com/2006/12/a-picture-is-wo.html

[Lala]

mark g8 - your link doesn't go to the article. Where did you get your info from? I see you posted this on Slate also.

[Roark]

The "Independent" voter seems to be very much in vogue right now. I work with a bunch of self proclaimed "independents" who somehow always manage to be up on the latest Obama talking points. Several of the "independents" around me this morning were very obsessed with the fact that Palin had a speechwriter. This is evidently something new in politics!

I've always written this behavior off to liberals being very uncomfortable with admitting they are what they are and believe what they believe.

[Tood]

""The Dow Jones dropped 300 points today."

This is hilarious. Leftists always talk on the down days, but are silent on the up days for the market. The free market is truly beyond their puny "intellects".

Republicans are much more successful than Democrats, from this hard data from a CNN poll :

http://futurist.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/06/a_take_on_the_l.html

[Tood]

"I've always written this behavior off to liberals being very uncomfortable with admitting they are what they are and believe what they believe. "

Of course. Nobody WANTS to be a leftist. Just like nobody WANTS to live in a Communist country. Leftism is all about blaming people better looking/smarter/happier than you for your challenges, rather than doing something about it. It is an attractive ideology for the lazy, insecure, and unintelligent.

[lex]

markg8's been making the rounds: http://www.neptunuslex.com/2008/09/04/still-crushin/#comment-243099

The last time he dropped by my place, it was to tell me how poorly the surge was going. That was June 2007.

[willis]

I love the internet. I saw that and started to look for donations on Open Secrets. Code Pink is even better. This is how Dems end up so shell-shocked on election day: they believe the cheer-leading propaganda that the media puts, then when the real numbers come back they are even worse than they could have imagined.

[joyMc]

Dear God, the left wing,right wing thing nearly made me fall over backwards in my little rolling office chair. Tell me that isn't really Babs Streisand these days! That picture had to be touched up. She of all people could afford to keep up with her plastics. Too funny!

[Audacity of Hopeful Change]

Hey Christine, did you swoon over the 300 point drop? You do realize that markets fluctuate right, that they don't always go up? Pull your diapers back up and take a deep breath.

And you claim to be a financial adviser for transgendered necrophiliacs?

[Audacity of Hopeful Change]

Leftoons are of course uncomfortable in their own skins, it's why they invented the term "progressive"; as if you were to see a geek like chris skipping down the street with his yo-yo and NOT immediately think "oh yeah, liberal".

[Greyhawk]

Sorry if this is common knowledge here, but Code Pink Founder Jodie Evans is a big time bundler for team Obama (http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/030727.html). She didn't raise the kind of bucks she did for insurgents in Iraq, but she did okay.

That said, individual Code Pink members could likely be Communist Party members, thus "independent" in terms of Democrat vs Republican.

[Lou Shumaker]

Ed Driscoll backs up the "teleprompter did not break" story, with his eyewitness account:

http://eddriscoll.com/archives/013920.php

He did mention, however, "I also noticed that Palin's hilarious 'What's the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom' line--and she may have been the only person on the planet to successfully sell such a joke--was an improv; it wasn't on the teleprompter."

So she's got some chops for going off-message.

[changer1701]

What did "Chris" think about the economy growing 3.3% last quarter? OH, but that doesn't fit with the doom and gloom, what-we-really-need-is-Marxism narrative they're running with. Conservatives believe in America and our economy, Lefties just seek to destroy BOTH.

[joyMc]

Am I missing something? Isn't the governer of a state the head of the executive branch of STATE government? I live in Texas and I can't recall right off hand our gov. Perry particularly being able to tell our federal level congress persons or senators how much pork they could bring home to their constituents or not (from the federal coffers).He may have opinions about some earmarks; but When did state governers start being in control of how much federal pork comes to the state? I mean if Rick Perry was dead set against Medicare, could he tell our federal legislators to stop bringing home all that darn Medicare money?

[Rob Crawford]

Cute how jharp accidentally pasted his screed twice -- are you getting paid by the number of times it appears? Or just on the number of sites? Because if it's based on the sites, you cost yourself a little change there.

The same with markg8 -- c'mon, you're not even trying! Once people see you've slapped the same piece of crap everywhere, they're going to tune it out. You've got to mix it up a little, maybe even, I dunno, bother to hang around to support your line of bull.

Geez, you folks are terrified. I thought you had the election in the bag? But now you're so busy trying to convince Republicans Palin's a mistake, you don't even pause to realize we're onto that little trick. You don't try to talk your opponent out of a mistake, folks.

[Lala]

I love Instapundit - he has such good links and I'm happy to report that he's been linking Dan lately - good for Dan.
This item from Instapundit is worth a chuckle.

http://thelineishere.org/?p=495

A1: “But this particular event takes the cake, Ted. I mean telling a campaign rally full of cameras that you and your running mate are planning on prosecuting the current administration if you get elected, kinda of like they used to do under the old Communist regime of the Soviet Union…”

[Wes]

Wow,

ABC uses more plants than "American Idol".

[wagnert from atlanta]

It turns out that three of the "independents" on the panel -- George Lentz, Ilene Beninson and Jan Wheelock -- attend the same Unitarian church (see http://www.bucmi.org/Annual%20Report%202007.pdf). Of course, this says nothing about their political independence or lack of it, but it does cause one to wonder at the algorithm the Free Press used to select its panel members.

[TJIT]

markg8 and a bunch of other obamatrons apparently have their blog aggregators set to flag any post on palin. They then go to the blog, drop their comment, and disappear never to be heard from again.

They apparently think that spamming blogs with talking points (ones that frequently turn out to be lies) is going to help obama.

[kcom]

"...but it does cause one to wonder at the algorithm the Free Press used to select its panel members."

I think I'm beyond "wonder". I'd say it's pretty damning evidence of an absence of professionalism and journalistic honesty on their part. Of course, pre-Internet, they would have gotten away with it scot-free. Now, at least, they might have to pay some price for their shenanigans.

[seekeronos]

"--- Even with the stable Clinton economy ---"

Which presided over a majority Republican Congress that reduced the budget deficit. :)

[seekeronos]

"--- George Lentz, Ilene Beninson and Jan Wheelock -- attend the same Unitarian church. Of course, this says nothing about their political independence or lack of it ---"

Only one of the most left-wing radical "churches" around.

[Assistant Village Idiot]

markg8, in his haste to tell us how Palin threw Wassilla into crushing debt, neglects to mention that there were votes by the public on those issues. An oversight, I'm sure.

[TJIT]

The link below gives a good illustration of how obamatron's like markg8 are spamming lots of lies into threads related to Palin. They paste their comment spam and then move on to spam the next blog.

http://volokh.com/posts/1220576263.shtml

[Tood]

First, "Liberal"...

then, "Elite"...

now, it is "Progressive".....

Why not go the whole hog and start calling themselves "Post-Human" or "Transhumans" or something? That would be the next natural step, no?

[SacTownMan]

"The link below gives a good illustration of how obamatron's like markg8 are spamming lots of lies into threads related to Palin. They paste their comment spam and then move on to spam the next blog.

http://volokh.com/posts/1220576263.shtml"

You mean like this identical post on ABC's Trapper in the Crapper for the Rapper Barry:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/09/michigan-indepe.html

Posted at 5:58pm just minutes before this Koz based troll posted the SAME message here!

The ABC story was about what several undecided, independant voters thought of the speech. The only problem is that a couple of internet posters figured out that google thingy and after 45 seconds of doing that checking thing they found that some of those independents were actually some code pinkos their newsroom staff planted. And in typical MSM fashion they crafted another unbiased report. After being busted Trapper didn't remove the post he just changed it a little because the MSM is so far in the tank for Xerxes the god king they need SCUBA gear!

This troll like most of the lingerers here could care less about the subject of Dan's post so long as they can parrot their troll central talking points ad nasium!

What a piece of crap this particular troll is though!!

Just when you think they couldn't be more pathetic another one comes along in an effort to be seated on the steps of the god king Xerxes throne!

Sorry trolls but you continue to show just how stupid you are if you think that people actually buy your rants. But please keep it up you never fail to entertain!

[Cybrludite]

Re: Dow Jones Dropping

Hmmn, I suppose you failed to notice that a rather large hurricane just smacked our largest oil producing region, and shut down one of our biggest ports. Not to mention that there's three more storms lined up in the Atlantic. All that damage & lost wages couldn't be causing you much balyhooed stock price drops.

[Mikey NTH]

markg8 dropped the same pile at protein wisdom.

I guess the message got out to do the rounds.

[seekeronos]

I gotta wonder how much the DNC/Soros/MoveON.org pays these twerps to drop their steaming bits of manure all over the blogosphere.

[templar knight]

seek, most of these "twerps" you speak of are probably paid by Uncle Sam in the form of welfare checks. That's why they want Obama to win so bad, they want a raise, and free medical care, and free everything, the sorry "steaming bits of manure" that they are.

[templar knight]

Oh, by the way, great job, Dan! Especially on the Palin posts.