Cross-posted at the World-Renowned Motley Moose and the Great Orange Satan.

First discovered at BagNewsNotes, then posted by Ben Smith at Politico:

In a picture supplied by Sarah Palin's family to the Associated Press, Palin appears with some rather odd reading matter: The magazine of the ultraconservative John Birch Society. The picture, dating to 1995, when Palin was a member of the Wasilla City Council, ran beside a profile of Palin in Saturday's New York Times. The magazine, The New American, is sitting on top of her calendar on her desk, unopened.

Over at the Great Orange Satan, The Australian has created one of the best political nicknames I've heard recently:
Sarah, Duchess of Pork.

Really sums it up, doesn't it? Sarah, the Duchess of Pork, who hired a Ted Stevens-linked lobbyist to rake in $27 million in pork for the 6,000-resident town of Wasilla.

Sarah, the Duchess of Pork, who asked for a whopping w$550 million in earmarks in her first year as governor--more than $800 per resident of her state.

Sarah, the Duchess of Pork, who vigorously defended the Bridge to Nowhere, before being forced to abandon it when it became the object of national ridicule and Congress cut out the project.

Sarah, the Duchess of Pork, who, after the Bridge was killed, simply kept the government's money and used it for other projects.

Take a catchy nickname with pop-culture ties, one that succinctly defines the candidate and works against her so-called strengths, spread it about the liberal blogosphere, and voila--we might have a real meme here. I wouldn't expect Obama's people to ever use this. After all, I'm sure Steve Schmidt can find a way to get the media to call it sexist. But we have no such constraints.

Spread the word. Sarah, the Duchess of Pork!

Yeah, I realize it's been all Palin, all the time around the internets. But I've had a few thoughts floating around my head regarding Palin's selection. They didn't necessarily fit as a comment in one diary or another, so I thought I'd do a Saturday night diary dump.

Because I know you were desperate to know what I thought.

Surely, everyone knows about the viral "OMG! OBAMA IS A MUSLIM!!" smear e-mail.

Well, the source of the wildly false material that's been popularized by the e-mail "http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ntent/article/2008/06/27/AR2008062703781 .html?hpid=topnews">has been discovered. And it's none other than self-proclaimed "Obama Expert" Andy Martin.

Some of the Obama supporters here may remember Andy Martin from the dark primary days. Martin's become something of a small running joke on this site after he was touted in a MyDD diary as imminently "exposing" the REAL Obama-Rezko connection. Or something.

And now for something completely different (and less serious)...

I was reading Zack Dennis' diary at dKos a couple days ago, in which he attempted to cast "Primary '08."

There's been other "casting the primary" discussions before, and I thoroughly enjoy 'em. It's fun matching actors to the real-life politicos who've been occupying our TVs for months and years.

Below is the list I've put together (with a few borrowed from Zack and others).

After something like 3 1/2 years at MyDD, this is my first-ever diary.

I write to clarify something, and rather than burying it amidst 200+ comments in the currently top-recommended diary, I thought I'd give it its own pretty blue title link over in the diaries box.

The diary in question states that Obama "finally fesses up" about hearing Jeremiah Wright "punk the United States." If you believe the diary is reporting something new, you've been sold a bill of goods (or hornswoggled, bamboozled, or whatever colloquialism you prefer).