'Blithering Idiot's' Book Already No. 1 at Barnes and Noble and No. 2 at Amazon (Update: Now No. 1 at Amazon)

The left may have a collective aneurysm by the time Going Rogue is released, and that's still not until November 17.

I figure by the end of the day it'll be No. 1 at Amazon.

Crazy Andy must be losing it.

The "reviewers" at Barnes and Noble are wigging out.

I am so amazed at the gullibility of her fans. She had a ghostwriter, a conservative writer, and they spent a month together. Palin also did not write her Hong Kong speech. Come on people, did you not listen when she was off script trying to answer (previously submitted) questions? She fumbled, she winked, she danced around the questions. I am waiting for this book's popularity to fall to nothing when it actually comes out and you realize you were duped. Plus, she will not dare to appear on the news shows other than Fox...they might ask her a question she didn't give them beforehand, or, she might be asked to read a portion of the book she never saw. Never in my life have I seen someone with so little to offer be embraced by so many people as a savior. Conservatives are scary.

Oooga booga!

An item using an anonymous source in the New York Post underscores just how much the left fears this woman.

SARAH Palin is said to have pocketed a $7 million advance for the 400-page memoir she turned in four months early, but she might not have such an easy time on the lecture circuit.

After quitting as governor of Alaska in July, Palin signed with the top-notch Washington Speakers Bureau, which also reps George W. Bush, Laura Bush, Condoleezza Rice, hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger, LA Dodgers manager Joe Torre and magician David Blaine.

Palin's bookers are said to be asking for $100,000 per speech, but an industry expert tells Page Six: "The big lecture buyers in the US are paralyzed with fear about booking her, basically because they think she is a blithering idiot."

Of course this fails to explain how she's receiving hundreds of speaking offers. But hey, when you can call someone a blithering idiot, why bother with the facts?

Meanwhile, Barack Obama reportedly has called up his ghostwriter Bill Ayers and asked him to rush to print a new book of "his own" tentatively entitled Dreams of Myself.

OK, I made that last part up, but it isn't far-fetched.

Update: Well, it didn't take long. Palin is now No. 1 at Amazon and probably will be for some time.

Thanks to Ace, Sister Toldjah, Dan Riehl and C4P for the links. Thanks to C4P for also pointing out this.

Congress Going After Online Shoppers

The government's insatiable thirst for tax revenue is about to hit online shoppers, who've largely managed to escape onerous state taxes by shopping at sites such as Amazon.com. So if you've been wondering what to do with that $13-a-week windfall from King Obama, just forward it to your state government.

The days of buying online to avoid paying sales taxes may soon be over.

A bill is expected to be introduced to Congress this week that would force retailers like eBay and Amazon.com to start collecting sales taxes on behalf of states from people who shop online or through mail order.

It's not a new effort: Attempts to close the online tax "loophole" have been going on for at least a decade.

But supporters of the bill think Congress may finally give in to their demands because of their own pressure to lend support to financially battered state governments.

"This would be fiscal relief for the states that wouldn't require any money from the federal government," said Neal Osten, a senior policy analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures, which is drafting the bill.

Osten pointed to a recent study that said state sales tax collections fell to their lowest levels in 50 years at the end of 2008.

The study by the Rockefeller Institute, which is the public-policy research arm of the State University of New York, said that fourth-quarter 2008 sales taxes dropped by 6.1 percent, and that preliminary figures for the first three months of 2009 suggest even steeper declines.

In case you're wondering, and I know you are, this isn't just another Democrat tax scheme. It's bi-partisan confiscation of your money.

Osten said the new bill, which is expected to be introduced by Sen. Mike Enzi, (R-WYO) and Rep. Bill Delahunt, (D-MA), is being drafted to make it easier for retailers by requiring states to inform retailers when there's a change in the tax code, such as a sales tax holiday.

Under the current rules, sales taxes often slip through the cracks. Shoppers living in Vermont, for example, aren't required to pay sales tax at the time of purchase when buying stuff on Amazon.com.

Linked at Instapundit. Thanks!

Amazon Pulls Virtual Rape Game

Gee, who could imagine people being offended by a "game" simulating gang rape and forced abortion?

In Rapelay, gamers direct a character to sexually assault a mother and her two young daughters at an underground station, before raping any of a selection female characters.

The game was intended for release just in Japan, but was on offer to British buyers through Amazon Marketplace, the section of the online store's website open to third-party sellers.

Oh, so it was only intended for release in Japan. Guess that makes it OK?

But Amazon has now withdrawn the game after complaints from users, deeming it to be inappropriate. "We determined that we did not want to be selling this particular item," a spokeswoman said.

Rapelay was developed by the Japanese production house Illusion, which makes a number of sexually violent games for the domestic market. Their other titles include "Battle Raper" and "Artificial Girl".

A spokesman for the company said: "We believe there is no problem with the software, which has cleared the domestic ratings of an ethics watchdog body."

Keith Vaz, the Labour MP for Leicester East who has previously spoken out against computer games that promote violence, condemned the game.

"It is intolerable that anyone would purchase a game that simulates the criminal offence of rape," he told the Belfast Telegraph.

Rapelay, which was released in 2006, encourages players to force the virtual woman they rape to have an abortion.

It's been out there for three years and just now someone complains?

Look at the Bright Side: They're More Civilized Than the Palestinians

They just want to be left alone.

In a palm-hut encampment, members of an "uncontacted" Amazon tribe fire arrows at an airplane above the rain forest borderlands of Peru and Brazil earlier this month. The black and red dyes covering their bodies are made from crushed seeds and are believed to signal aggression, native-rights experts say.

Released yesterday, the photo—one of several—was taken by officials from Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI).

Peruvian officials and energy interests have publicly expressed doubt that uncontacted tribes exist in the Amazon.

But the new photos are more proof that uncontacted, seminomadic tribes do exist in the increasingly threatened Amazon rain forest, according to Survival International, an international indigenous-rights group that works closely with FUNAI.

"We are very confident the photos are genuine," said Miriam Ross, a spokesperson for Survival International, which estimates that half of the hundred or so uncontacted tribes in the world live in the rain forests of Brazil and Peru.

It's a jungle down there.

Update: Mike at the Monkey Tennis Centre unearthed some more photos.