Dine With The Tories, But Shop With The Elitist Un-Americans

I THINK we've done a reasonably good job of ignoring Councilwoman Palin since her fifteen minutes ended; you didn't even hear a word outta me when she visited our very white neighbors to the North, Hamilton County, USA, last Friday, and stopped in the actual capital city of Indiana long enough to make a self-deprecating crack about her Couric interview to the guy from the ABC affiliate, after mentioning for the four-hundredth time that afternoon that her favorite movie was Hoosiers. Of course, that "self-deprecating" business describes the form of her comment ("one of my finest moments!") and not the intention; they don't do self-deprecation in the witch-expelling and nonsense-syllable circuit, and even Mike Huckabee, who's had long practice at it and is pretty good, could never shake that accompanying look which says, "Sure, I'm imperfect, but you're the one going to Hell," thus undermining the whole pitch. Mostly because that look is always fucking there. This is why you never hear, "Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for the man who puts the Levity in Leviticus..." or see anyone being billed as the Snake Handler's Answer to Woody Allen.

Anyhow, Palin's passé; all she has left now are people who think things actually get funnier the more times Saturday Night Live does them, but the concept of Sarah Palin, or the circumstances of her Elevation, are not, and this is why we mention this...

The Republican National Committee paid more than $150,000 for clothing, makeup and accessories in September that apparently went to Gov. Sarah Palin and her family, according to an article on Politico.com.

That included $9,447.71 to Macy’s, $789.72 to Barneys New York, $5,102.71 to Bloomingdales; $49,425.74 to Saks Fifth Avenue and $4,902.45 to Atelier.

In one heavyweight shopping trip in early September, $75,062.63 was spent at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis, a host city of the Republican National Convention.
The expenditures were listed on the R.N.C.’s monthly financial disclosure forms.

...while studiously avoiding saying anything along the lines of Huh, I Thought She Shopped At Glacier Bob's Muskox Fur and Duct Tape Couturier Pour Elle, or Seed Sacks Iz Us, Or Whut-Mart, like the rest of Real America. Rather, we'd like to remind Joe Six Pack, via IRS Publication 529:

Work Clothes and Uniforms

You can deduct the cost and upkeep of work clothes if the following two requirements are met:

•You must wear them as a condition of your 
employment, trade or business

•The clothes are not suitable for everyday wear.
It is not enough that you wear distinctive clothing.
The clothing must be specifically required by your
employer. Nor is it enough that that you do not, in fact,
wear your work clothes away from work. The clothing must
not be suitable for taking the place of your regular clothing.

So that, assuming there's some CPA somewhere who thinks Joe looks just fine in that bright orange golf shirt his entrepreneurial superior made him buy ten of, he can't even deduct the damn thing.  

As with all advice given in these parts, it's your own damn lookout if you're stupid enough to take it without checking with someone who knows what he's talking about. And having said that, we'd like to suggest the Palin family turn all that stuff back in to the RNC in a couple weeks, when it's no longer of any use, or be prepared to pay taxes on it, or secede from the Union, if they haven't already. Hey, it's their lookout; we just remember that they have a little trouble remembering to return other people's property, although maybe that's limited to taxpayer funds.