From the UK’s Telegraph:

To an extent, the emails remind Americans of the person they saw take the state at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota nearly three years ago – refreshing, plain-speaking, open and uncomplicated.

Since then, her image has hardened into one of a brittle, even paranoid, politician who seethes with resentment, feels aggrieved and entitled and is intent on pursuing celebrity even at the expense of her family.

Mrs Palin as a person has become so remote that it is hard for to assess how much, if any, of that widely-held caricature has a basis in truth. The email release could mark the end of a chapter of what conservatives have termed “Palin Derangement Syndrome”. Her enemies in the media appear to have overplayed their hand.

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Cameras are everywhere today: In convenience stores, at intersections, the workplace, your computer, your cellphone, ATM machines. There’s even been a camera in news anchor Katie Couric.

Yet there’s one place cameras have never been allowed: The U.S. Supreme Court. Just what are Supreme Court justices hiding beneath their robes that they continue to say no to cameras in their courtroom?

For decades the White House and Congress have opened their public business to television cameras, but the judicial branch has remained staunchly against the practice. As C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb tells Reason.tv, the justices have rebuffed every attempt to videotape the oral arguments phase of Supreme Court proceedings. On this, an often-divided court remains unanimous, even if the arguments offered up Justices Scalia, Breyer, Thomas, Kennedy, and others remain even weaker than the majority’s logic in their awful Kelo decision, which legitimated eminent domain abuse.

Both Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan have spoken in favor of cameras in the Supreme Court. Can a new batch of justices, more attune to the benefits of transparency, finally change things for the better?

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Rahm Emanuel: "We were involved in the legislation all the way through."

Video by Real Clear Politics

Hours before his embattled boss gave his first State of the Union address, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel contradicted President Barack Obama’s claim made just two days before that he had nothing to do with the much maligned deal to get the vote of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) for the Senate’s healthcare bill just before Christmas.

Speaking to ABC News’ World News Tonight anchor Diane Sawyer in an exclusive interview on Monday, Obama denied being involved in what has come to be known as the “Cornhusker Kickback”

SAWYER: A lot of people think you must say at the end of the day, this is not who I was in 2008, these deals with Nebraska, with Florida…

OBAMA: Let’s hold on a second, Diane. I mean, I think that this gets into a big mush. So let’s just clarify. I didn’t make a bunch of deals. There is a legislative process that is taking place in Congress and I am happy to own up to the fact that I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked. So that’s point number one.

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On the “Tonight Show” recently, William Shatner dramatically read from the former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s new book. The scene made national news not because of Shatner’s comedic timing but because after he read from her book, Ms. Palin herself walked onstage and read dramatically from one of Mr. Shatner’s books to audience applause. Instead of standing on the sidelines in silence, Palin had decided to go on the show and respond in a humorous way to the comedic skit. After having innumerable criticisms leveled at her since she was chosen as the GOP running mate last year, Ms. Palin recently responded to her critics in her new bestselling book “Going Rogue” but the book is about much more than that response.

Since Palin was selected as the vice presidential candidate by Senator John McCain, many people have told us about Sarah Palin. Many liberals and some conservatives have attacked who Palin is and her experience. Many members of the media have joined in and they have tried to tell viewers what Sarah Palin stands for. Instead of listening to and believing such people, I decided to read Palin’s book myself to find out who she really is and if the media hype about the book was true.

The media hype suggested that Palin’s book focused on her campaign to be vice president. Some analysts seemed to believe that Palin wrote the book to justify her “going rogue” last year and to attack people from the campaign she felt had not served the campaign well. However, after finishing the book recently, I realized that the book is not a vengeful account of what transpired but Palin’s own accounting of her public life, including her bid to become the first female vice president of the United States.

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Everything about Sarah Palin is magnified, as the current book tour demonstrates. The book was number one the day it appeared for sale on Amazon. All public figures have a larger than life appearance, but it is far more pronounced with Palin. She is an almost unprecedented media phenomenon. Yet few present her as a truly serious person. Democrats attempt mockery and Republicans damn with faint praise. Those who themselves praise her strongly are cast in a similar light. The great paradox is, on the one hand, the media is driven to her like a moth to flame, yet, on the other hand, they treat her as if she were not worthy of all the attention.

This attitude comes from the same media which takes or has taken Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, John Kerry, John Edwards, Jon Corzine, and Joe Biden seriously. Admittedly, these are low hurdle comparisons, but that is exactly the point. Yet, to anyone who looks beyond the superficial coverage, it is obvious that Palin knows exactly what image she wishes to portray. Sarah Palin may or may not be a legitimate presidential candidate, (she is, in my opinion); her tactics on this book tour may or may not be helpful regarding future political ambitions (remains to be seen); but she is completely and naturally in command of herself. Yet this seemingly goes unobserved and flies in direct contradiction to the dominant narrative.

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Everything you needed to know about the unorthodox roll out of the now-notorious ACORN sting videos was hidden in plain sight in my Sept. 7 column, “Katie Couric, Look in the Mirror.” ACORN was not the only target of those videos; so were Katie, Brian, Charlie and every other mainstream media pooh-bah.

They were not going to report this blockbuster unless they were forced to. And they were. What’s more, it ain’t over yet. Not every hint I dropped in that piece about what was to come has played itself out yet.Stay tuned.

When filmmaker and provocateur James O’Keefe came to my office to show me the video of him and his friend, Hannah Giles, going to the Baltimore offices of ACORN – the nation’s foremost “community organizers” – dressed as a pimp and a prostitute and asking for – and getting – help for various illegal activities, he sought my advice. In the past, Mr. O’Keefe created brilliant social satire that rocked his college campus and even made its way on to the talk-radio and cable-news shows, but the magnitude of his latest adventure had the potential to rock the political establishment.

I was awed by Mr. O’Keefe’s guts and amazed by the footage, but explained that the mainstream media would try to kill this important and illuminating expose about a corrupt and criminal political racket, and that the well-funded political left would go into “war room” mode, with 25-year-old Mr. O’Keefe and 20-year-old cohort Miss Giles in the cross hairs. I felt I had a moral obligation to protect these young muckrakers from the left and from the media, and to devise a strategy that would force the media’s hand. (more…)

When James O’Keefe came to my door in August, I was shocked by how young he looked. Kinda like Matthew Modine circa “Vision Quest.”

“Come on in,” I said, and I took him to my basement command center. He opened his laptop computer and showed me the very-hard-to-believe independent film investigative journalism project he had described to me over the phone

How can I describe the video I watched? Is it a put on? I almost can’t believe what I am seeing. But with regards to ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, I am quite cynical. So I do believe it.

But I still find myself wanting to believe it is fake.  It’s just too weird. It’s too wrong. But James continuously reassures me it’s real.

So who is James O’Keefe?

Morley Safer meets Sacha Baron Cohen, I think. Not precise. But you get the point.

This isn’t your mother’s “60 Minutes.” But then again, why would a twenty five-year old even think straight journalism? His crowd doesn’t even know who Don Hewitt is. They need it quick cut, set to music and packaged to go viral on YouTube.

From what I gather, James wants to speak to his twenty-something peers who have been asked to pay for unaccountable big government ventures like ACORN on their maxed-out generational credit card. To the tune of potentially billions. (more…)