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Friday's unexpected announcement by Sarah Palin that she would resign the Alaska governorship came as a surprise to everybody -- including the rightbloggers who have supported her most strongly since she came to national attention. Some assumed that she had abandoned the cause, but a healthy remnant predicted that she would come back stronger than ever. Both RedState's Erick Erickson and Big Hollywood's Kurt Schlichter compared her to Obi-Won Kenobi allowing himself to be slain by Darth Vader in the first Star Wars movie ("If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine").

This analogy is perfectly suits the rightblogger Palin theology (as well as their obsession with science fiction entertainments); it portrays Palin as both victim and victor -- someone who is both harried to destruction and ultimately triumphant, like Jesus Christ. (Though we also enjoyed The Anchoress' comparison of Palin to a Vietnam prisoner of war: "I recall [John McCain] saying that survival meant understanding what you could not control, and what you could. I think that's what Palin is doing").

As we said earlier, we have no doubt Palin retains national ambitions, and that this gambit is a means to that end. The day after her announcement, a letter from Palin's lawyer (pdf) gave a hint as to how she would proceed: by suing both mainstream media outlets and bloggers who had spread what Palin considers defamatory stories about her.

You could hardly ask for better evidence that Palin plans to build her movement on resentment and victim status, and rightbloggers went into raptures over it.

As nobody cares what goes on up in Alaska, this is how Sarah Palin stays in the news: Wonkette made fun of the big stink Palin and her minions made over some blogger who Photoshopped the face of a radio talk-show guy onto an image of the famously disabled Trig Palin. The famous political humor site also linked to a Something Awful-related Photoshop contest at which alternate takes of the Trig photo were offered. Now it's time for outrage over the anti-outrage! "Wonkette promoted and joked about even cruder Photoshops of Trig," complains Legal Insurrection. "Wonkette & Co. Continue Jihad Against Trig Palin," says Moonbattery. Ed Driscoll mourns that Wonkette author Ken Layne, who created a slogan rightbloggers used to like, has "abandoned" the slogan's "rhetoric and idealism." "As readers know, I've been blogging this issue at the micro level all weekend," says American Power. "I've even been attacked as a 'madman'..." "Does she the author watch Triumph of the Will to get her his jollies?" roars The Rhetorican. " Does she think the camp inmates in Schindler's List are the villains?"

Etc. Well, as they say in show biz, it's when they stop talking about you that you've got to worry. The Governor is not going to get a lot of prime pixels with stories like "Palin tweets that Emmonak residents are meeting subsistence needs," so these ginned-up controversies are her best bet. The next source of Palin outrage: her Morton's Toe!

It was no surprise to most of us when the death of Michael Jackson on Thursday took over the news, both mainstream and citizen varieties, and even the internet. Americans are suckers for celebrities, and the unexpected demise of one of the world's most famous entertainers was bound to obsess us.

Many observers were concerned with the loss of attention the affairs of Iran would suffer as a result. Alarming News' KarolS tweeted: "Biggest losers? The Iranian people." Some hectored their fellow netizens to develop a better sense of priorities. Others were fatalistic: "It would help not to get distracted," said Martin Perez, "but people will be people. After all, outrage directed at the clerics and grief over Jackson may not be mutually exclusive."

Rightbloggers, maintaining their usual priorities, saw something more sinister in the surge of public and media interest in Jackson. For them, it was at best a dereliction of the media's duty, and at worst a conscious attempt to protect President Obama, Iran's mullahs, or both.

Atlas Shrugs said that "the media is breathing a heavy sigh of relief (as I am sure the jihad US President is as well)." "Unwelcome Distractions plaguing our Fearless Leader [Iran?...Cap and Trade?...Koh?...Socializing health care?...The hell with that: THE KING OF POP! is dead!" cried Camp of the Saints. "And don't forget the person NBC called an 'Angel', Farrah!"

The Centrist, under the title "Is US Non-Cable Broadcast News Run By The Mulahs In Iran?" claimed that "some really terrible acts of political and personal betrayal by elected officials occurred around the globe on 6/26/09 but the power of the press was used to supress to the news in both New York and Iran" with Michael Jackson coverage. And in stark defiance of the public's desires. No wonder the MSM is through!

Our Rightbloggers columns frequently get "thanks for the link" messages from its victims, and we are only too happy to have obliged. Mockery's like manure -- it's no good unless you spread it around.

But today we learn that World Net Daily, the Obama "birther" site known affectionately around the blogsophere as Wingnut Daily, is actually using the Voice in a fundraising pitch.

WND climaxes a long screed against the potty-mouthed Liberal Media ("Rachel Maddow managed to pack 36 oral-sex references into a six minute and 54 second segment on the tea parties") with an account of Matt Lauer's 2008 roast: "I cannot quote any of it here, but let the first sentence of the Village Voice's lengthy eyewitness report suffice: 'Just got back from the Hilton in midtown after three hours of dick and pussy jokes from some of the biggest stars of TV and film.'"

So that's what's behind the traffic spike -- WND readers coming to read the dick and pussy jokes! They go on to ask you to "consider becoming a WND 'subscriber'" -- that is, send them money. How can they miss, with such great taste in sources? It's our turn to thank them, and to hope their appeal does them as much good as it did us.

Upheaval in Iran was the big news last week. A disputed election, massive demonstrations in the capital, the prospect of revolution -- heady stuff, certainly, and enough to shift the attention of even casual current events followers away from domestic politics.

Well, not entirely. President Obama naturally remains a rightblogger fixation, and they saw the events in Iran mainly as something the President had the power to change into rainbows and ponies were he not a traitor, coward, etc.

It was bad enough when he was just making statements on Iran, when he should have been leading the groovy counterrevolution in a nuclear chariot -- but when Obama got some ice cream with his daughters, that's when all hell broke loose.

Reacting at blog speed to the blood in the Tehran streets, some rightbloggers beat Obama to making a statement about it. Wolf Howling started strong, telling us that "the entire history of Iran's theocracy tells us that, unless we are prepared to use or threaten force, we are not going to move the mad mullahs off their determined path..." But before we could alert NORAD, he dialed it down to "Obama should be speaking words of concern about the integrity of voting process."

Conunderground was more forthright on the proper response to these atrocities. "Obama and his staff should be dragged to the Hague for crimes against humanity," he said. "Failure to act in support of liberty and freedom, the basic condition of human existence, is a crime against humanity."

Hillary Clinton fell on her way to the White House and broke her elbow yesterday, and will require surgery.

Condolences pour in from all over the internet. "It must be a vast right-wing conspiracy" -- Holy Coast. "Was she confused and disoriented?" -- Ann Althouse. "When reached for comment by Bucks Right, former President Bill Clinton seemed interested only in finding out if her knees were ok" -- BucksRight. "That's a lot of weight for one elbow joint" -- Libertyblog (which also suggests Clinton was trying to get out of a scheduled meeting with Angelina Jolie because "Being photographed next to Angelina Jolie is not flattering to a woman of Hillary!'s age and beauty"). "Is NO truth to rumor that Hillary actually breaks elbow by try to scrub white stain from blue dress" -- WordMarvin. "Could it be bad Kamma from supporting Tamil Tiger Terrorists against Sri Lanka?" -- tigahunta. "No handjobs for Bill this summer... ;)" -- designsnake. Etc.

We were hoping, when GOP Senator and Promise Keeper John Ensign revealed his affair, for more rightblogger outrage, but alas, they have been pretty quiet about it. Riehl World View is forgiving: "People are human, they make mistakes" -- except when they're Democrats, especially Clinton, whose "behavior abused or denigrated the office he held," says Riehl. Plus, in Clinton's case it was "any potential blackmail that caused me the greatest concern," whereas Ensign "exposed the affair the minute he realized he was in jeopardy of being black mailed." Maybe we should put Ensign up for the Medal of Honor.

Ace of Spades agrees: "I do like that he admitted it the moment the blackmailer attempted to pressure him. That at least demolishes the affair as source of coercion or corruption." The media, on the other hand, are treasonously informing our enemies that Ensign is a Republican. Don Surber also feels the outrage: "Liberals lectured us ad nauseam at the time [of the Clinton scandal] about sex being private. And now because it is a Republican adulterer, sex is public, public, public." He has a point: while they're happy to report Ensign's adultery, liberals did manage to conceal Clinton's, leaving Surber to break the news in his item today. Talk about burying the lede!

We actually prefer them, though, to the cowboys who are willing to persecute even their own for the sin of adultery. ("I don't think anyone who cheats on his/her spouse is qualified to hold elected office," says Say Anything, adding, "I'm not much of a social conservative.")

Meanwhile we're glad to see that, now that Obama is giving gay government employees partner benefits, rightbloggers who were gleeful over the rift between gays and Obama over DOMA are now back to shaking with rage at Special Rights for Homosexuals. Having them back in their default homophobia sort of restores the balance of the universe.

The latest development in this inappropriate joke mishegas is that Letterman came up with an even longer and more obsequious apology, and a fat lot of good it did him. Dan Collins declares himself done with the subject (whew), but others still want him expunged from CBS. "It's still not clear that he understands what he's apologizing for," says Allahpundit; apparently Letterman needs re-education. "Sooner or later," says Puma PAC with stars in its eyes, "it WILL become as unacceptable to make jokes about slutty flight attendants and sexual assault as it is to make 'jokes' about watermelon and gorillas." You can bet that's not the entirety of their list of proscribed subjects, either. Little Miss Attila traces Letterman's war against women to his earlier, funnier show and an attack upon the dignity of Joan Collins. The Fire David Letterman rally is still on for tomorrow afternoon.

The phrase "politically correct" has been knocking around for decades. Its wikipedia entry shows the continuing argument over its origins. But the term is best known to normal people by its opposite: politically incorrect. This is generally applied to something that you might want to say -- usually a joke -- but which would put you afoul of the oversensitive "PC police" who have a bug up their ass about race, class, gender, etc, and won't tolerate remarks that most of us might find mildly offensive but still funny.

It stands to reason that politically incorrect jokes have become the definition of a guilty pleasure. Thus, when the makers of South Park brought out their offensively funny Team America: World Police, MSNBC issued a list of "The 10 Least Politically Correct Movies Ever" -- films that break taboos to the delight of their audiences. Books and websites of politically incorrect jokes proliferate. And when something gets denounced and pulled off the air because someone's ox was gored, the standard reaction to such political correctness is usually along the lines of, "Doesn't anyone have a friggin' sense of humor anymore?"

Since liberals are thought to be overprotective (linguistically, anyhow) of women and minority groups, they're usually the ones who take the shots for being politically correct. But in the age of the blogosphere, where outrage is the default reaction, taking offense has become a bi-partisan sport, and the right has been making great strides in political correctness, as we saw in their responses to jokes about teabagging, the White House Correspondents Dinner, and President Obama's "Special Olympics" joke on Leno.

Of course, this last was a joke by a politician, and politicians in our PC era are expected to watch their mouths. But last week the right's PC police got after a late-show talk-show host for making a joke, and in such an absurdly overblown way that they may have just won the PC trophy for their team for a long time to come.

You may have already seen this photo of Obama with his feet up in the Oval Office. Now Huffington Post lets us know that this is considered by some parties to be an offense against our allies in Israel: "A number of Israeli newscasters last night called the posture insulting," says HuffPo, "since in many Arab countries, it is considered an insult to show someone the sole of your shoe." Israeli paper Haaretz took it to the bridge: "As an enthusiast of Muslim culture, Obama surely knows there is no greater insult in the Middle East than pointing the soles of one's shoes at another person. Indeed, photos of other presidential phone calls depict Obama leaning on his desk, with his feet on the floor."

That's all the proof we need, but rightblogger Don Surber more cautiously goes for the two-rail shot: while the Israelis "are taking offense to everything and all things small and large," he says, this is still the President's fault, as "these are not good times to be a long-time, democratic ally of the United States" and "When he was president, even Jimmy Carter stood up to evil," whereas Obama bows to it.

"Certainly," notes Jihad Watch, Obama's shoe shanda "would be consistent with Obama's other signs of contempt for Israel and its attempts to defend itself against the global jihad."

"He is also well known," Bucks Right confirms, "for slipping little private signals into his non-verbal communication, like 'llipping the bird' when mentioning the names of his rivals during campaign speeches," resuscitating an old rightwing talking point.

They may have a point. The Democratic Party has a long history of thus insulting Israel, as shown by this famous photo of Adlai Stevenson. And say, isn't Obama a leading exponent of... pork?