Ever since Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) announced Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as his running mate, conservatives have rushed to rebut criticism that Palin has no foreign policy experience by claiming that Alaska is near Russia. Fox News’s Steve Doocy appears to be one of the first to make this claim and even McCain and his wife Cindy have uttered the absurd talking point. But today on Fox News, a “Republican strategist” laid out the specifics of this Russia/Alaska rivalry — fishing:

GREGG JARRETT: In what capacity has she worked with Russia?

TYLER HARBER: She worked with permitting issues and with fishing issues dealing with the sea fishing industry there in Alaska.

Watch it:

Jarrett didn’t seem to take the bait. “Oh, come on. That’s a far cry from major international experience.”

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Earlier today, ThinkProgress noted that since becoming Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin has rarely taken questions from the press. The McCain campaign is increasingly shielding her from formal interviews with the media, saying that it will “do what we think is in our best interest.” Today, the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder notes:

A senior McCain campaign official advises that, despite the gaggle of requests and pressure from the media, Gov. Sarah Palin won’t submit to a formal interview anytime soon. She may take some questions from local news entities in Alaska, but until she’s ready — and until she’s comfortable — which might not be for a long while — the media will have to wait.

McCain is breaking a promise he made on national television. In July, during an interview with CNN’s Larry King, McCain assured King that his running mate would appear on King’s show shorty after his announcement:

KING: We have a history on this program that whenever the vice presidential nominee is announced, he or she appears on this show the next night. It’s been going on for quite a while. We hope that Senator McCain follows that tradition since I have a hunch he will not announce tonight who that candidate is.

But how close are we?

MCCAIN: I want to say that that vice presidential candidate will be on your show. I will not risk the wrath of Larry King. I want to assure you.

Watch it:

In fact, instead of honoring his word and granting King exclusive access, McCain recently canceled an interview with the newsman as punishment for a tough CNN interview with a campaign spokesperson.

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Media Matters reports:

During their September 2 and September 3 coverage of the Republican National Convention, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News each dedicated more on-air time — significantly more in most cases — to speeches and other official Republican convention programming during the most-watched portions of their coverage than each channel dedicated to official convention programming during the same times on comparable nights of the Democratic National Convention one week earlier.

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Last night at the conclusion of the GOP convention, the Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign blasted the song “Barracuda” by Heart. The tune is meant to be a theme song for Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), whose high school nickname was reportedly “Sarah Barracuda.” Watch a clip of Republicans rocking out to the song:

The problem is that the McCain campaign never obtained legal permission to use the song. Heart’s representative issued a statement:

The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission. We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored.

Last month, McCain released his technology policy, in which he promised to “protect the creative industries from piracy.” Yet as ThinkProgress has reported previously, McCain has infringed on artists’ copyrights on at least four other occasions:

- In August, singer Jackson Browne sued the McCain campaign and the Ohio Republican Party for copyright infringement because his song “Running on Empty” was used in an ad by the state party. Browne’s lawyers said that “McCain and his campaign were well aware of” this fact.

– In August, the McCain campaign re-cut a web ad after comedian Mike Myers’s publicist complained about the use of footage of Myers and fellow Saturday Night Live alum Dana Carvey’s “Wayne’s World” characters.

– In July, the McCain campaign had to pull and re-cut a web ad after Frankie Valli’s record label, the Warner Music Group, asserted its copyright claims over the use of the song “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You.”

– Earlier this year, the copyright owners for the “Rocky” theme song “telephoned the McCain campaign to politely complain it was being used without permission.”

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Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) is standing by the remarks he made yesterday that the Obamas are part of an “elitist-class…that thinks that they’re uppity.” According to the AP, Westmoreland says that he was unaware that the word was offensive:

In a statement Friday, Westmoreland – who was born in 1950 and raised in the segregated South – said he didn’t know that “uppity” was commonly used as a derogatory term for blacks seeking equal treatment. Instead, he referred to the dictionary definition of the word as describing someone who is haughty, snobbish or has inflated self-esteem.

“He stands by that characterization and thinks it accurately describes the Democratic nominee,” said Brian Robinson, Westmoreland’s spokesman. “He was unaware that the word had racial overtones and he had absolutely no intention of using a word that can be considered offensive.”

As the AP also notes, last year, Westmoreland “led opposition to renewing the 1965 Voting Rights Act. He also was one of two House members last year who opposed g i ving the Justice Department more money to crack unsolved civil rights killings.”