Oops. She did it again.
Posted: January 12, 2011 Filed under: Breaking News, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Crime, Gun Control, Hillary Clinton: Her Campaign for All of Us, the blogosphere, the internet, U.S. Politics | Tags: Blood Libel, Glenn Beck, Nazi Tourettes, Tuscon massacre 98 Comments
Click on Max Headroom for a great Wired read on How Max Headroom Predicted the Demise of TV Journalism
While I was doing some grant writing, the Palin video detailing her supposed victimization during the events surrounding the Tucson Massacre was scrubbed. It’s amazing how many things disappear from there these days.
benpolitico Ben Smith
Weird – Palin video’s gone. http://is.gd/npdcKe
The phrase “blood libel” was introduced into the debate this week by Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds, and raised some eyebrows because it typically refers historically to the alleged murder of Christian babies by Jews, and has been used more recently by Israeli’s supporters to refer to accusations against the country. It’s a powerful metaphor, and one that carries the sense of an oppressed minority.
This morning, Palin launched an aggressive Facebook and web-video campaign to counter what she deemed a “blood libel” against her by the media to connect her infamous cross-hairs map and other right-wing incendiary rhetoric to violence.Of all the terms Palin could have used, from “defamation” to even “implicating me in murder,” why did Palin choose “blood libel”? As the conservative National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, who says he “agree[s] entirely with…Palin’s, larger point,” notes, “Historically, the term is almost invariably used to describe anti-Semitic myths about how Jews use blood — usually from children — in their ritual.” Indeed, many Jews consider the term extremely offensive, and the Anti-Defamation League and other prominent Jewish organizations have spoken out against its use dozens of occasions in the past.
Indeed, Jewish groups are taking offense to Palin’s choice of the term. Noting that accusations of blood libel have been “directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries,” the National Jewish Democratic Council condemned Palin’s use of the term:
Instead of dialing down the rhetoric at this difficult moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying to sort out the meaning of this tragedy of somehow engaging in a “blood libel” against her and others. This is of course a particularly heinous term for American Jews, given that the repeated fiction of blood libels are directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries — and given that blood libels are so directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-Semitism around the globe, even today. […]
All we had asked following this weekend’s tragedy was for prayers for the dead and wounded, and for all of us to take a step back and look inward to see how we can improve the tenor of our coarsening public debate. Sarah Palin’s invocation of a “blood libel” charge against her perceived enemies is hardly a step in the right direction.
Likewise, the president of the pro-Israel, pro-peace Jewish lobby J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami, said he was “saddened by Governor Palin’s use of the term ‘blood libel,’” adding that he hopes “she will choose to retract her comment [and] apologize“:
Could this be the reason the video’s been scrubbed? moved to a less prominent place? (updated, see note below)
This situation certainly is showing who has gravitas–plus knowledge of political terms–and who doesn’t when dealing with the weekend’s disturbing tragedy. Here’s another interesting item from Roll Call.
Last weekend’s shootings in Tucson have prompted a string of resignations from within a local Republican Party in Arizona.
Anthony Miller, who was recently re-elected to a second term as chairman of the Arizona Legislative District 20 Republican Party, stepped down from the post hours after the shooting, citing safety concerns.
“Today my wife of 20 yrs ask [sic] me do I think that my PCs (precinct committee members) will shoot at our home? So with this being said I am stepping down,” Miller wrote in an e-mail to the state Republican Party chairman, according to the Arizona Republic.
Miller said local tea party members had made verbal and online attacks against him after he won the election. Three other members of the local group also reportedly resigned, with at least one saying the “focus on ‘getting’ Anthony” was the reason.
Arizona’s District 20 includes the Phoenix suburbs of Chandler, Tempe, and Ahwatukee Foothills and is more than 100 miles from Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords‘ House district where the shootings took place.
Former President Bill Clinton took an opportunity to reflect on the shootings while in Haiti. He was interviewed by the BBC. If you get the American BBC channel the interview is showing tonight.
Clinton stressed that nobody speaks with the intent of encouraging a person to become violent, but added:
We cannot be unaware of the fact that, particularly with the internet, there’s this huge echo-chamber out there, and anything any of us says falls on the unhinged and the hinged alike, and we just have to be sensitive to it.
I think this is an occasion for us to reaffirm that our political differences shouldn’t degenerate into demonization of the sense that, you know, if you don’t agree with me you’re not a good American. I think that that’s what I’d like to see, I’d like to see the House of Representatives lead the way.
You can never underestimate the power of words. Both Bill and Hillary Clinton know this well. You rarely hear either of them make careless mistakes and off-the-cuff comments that can be skewered into all sorts of things. They learned their lessons well a long time ago. The problem with many of the ‘leaders’ we have now is that have no political or intellectual maturity. They’ve come from left and right field. No one with a MSM media spotlight can afford to not do their homework and just casually borrow phrases and labels from any one on the boob tube. Any one that borrows phrases from some one of the ilk of a Glenn Beck is bound to step over facts and miss things.
When tough times happen, people look to leaders for perspective. Good leaders provide excellent, studied and reflective commentary because they know their words will impact people; mentally ill, mentally balanced, or some where in the vast middle.
Hillary Clinton speaks on the Tuscon shooting spontaneously in this video. She didn’t need a few days to come up with something to put out there that still contained careless speech and uninformed rhetoric. What a difference that can make!
How many times did you hear the lecture from your parents that you should think before you speak? Some people seem to need an inordinate amount of time to do that and they still get it wrong. Think about that.
update and correction: There is a redirect to the video on Vimeo on the Palin Facebook page under the NOTES tab. It’s not a complete scrubbing; more like a downsize.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx
NW Luna
peggysue22
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
In other related news, the copy cats continue.
http://bit.ly/eoz0sB Man arrested for threatening to kill Rep. Jim McDermott.
He’s a democrat from Washington State.
So they have removed the Palin video? Heh, talk about scrubbing the rhetoric. They just wiped out the “apology” for the violent political speak, because it was a hate rhetoric apology? Oh, am I the only one who finds this funny, in a sick sort of way?
Nope.
I had hoped better for her back in 2008 but I don’t think it’s too far a reach to suggest that people who descend to gutter levels will eventually not end up smelling or looking rosy.
The irony is that she probably offended at least some of the majority who up until this point were on her side regarding heated rhethoric. (Which is why I believe she crafted this video as a sign of “strength”) So much for political opportunism and landing a one two knockout punch to the left eh? (oh wait that’s heated rhethoric….Scrub that. heehee)
Nope it is still there…on several accounts and even a computer bot one too. You can see two little teleprompters on her glasses. I hope she breaks her ties with Glenn Beck and with the Gun ‘attitude’ too.
Sarah Palin – ‘Blood Libel’
If anyone defines “not ready for prime time” it is Sarah Palin.
If you find yourself repeatedly “scrubbing” whatever you said from the day before then obviously there is a problem with whatever the hell you are trying to communicate in the first place!
With the constant deleting going on over there that site may very well end up with saying nothing more than: Sarah Palin, Wasilla, Alaska. Period.
Are P’s 15 minutes up yet? She is an insult to the 18 million cracks that Hillary’s sisterhood put in the glass ceiling.
Not as long as people on the left keep empowering her.
It’s a mutual destruction-mutual enrichment pact.
The all-Palin-bashing-all-the-time left did give her a platform that she wouldn’t have had otherwise, but I think she may be pushing the limits of that dynamic with the way she’s reacting to this.
(nesting — reply to Wonk): It seems to me that the massive hoopla over the target graphic was a fresh opportunity in which the left empowered her. This wasn’t her first response, but a response to the widespread lost-our-minds over that target picture. As long as they keep doing it, she’ll keep taking advantage of it. I wish everyone could pull their attention away from her.
And I’m not so hot on this thing where people scour her comments and pluck out one phrase and go to town on it. If there’s an analysis of her overall comments which show the point, great, go with it. No, really, let’s do that, real analysis. But as an exercise in political analysis, it’s crap. (btw, that doesn’t mean I think “blood libel” was appropriate).
Btw, I think the things I’ve read about Giffords opponent and his “shoot an AK47” or whatever it was was much, much creepier than what I’ve heard from Palin on this topic, and I kind of feel all the attention riveted on Palin means he’s getting off pretty free for something that is deeply disturbing.
It remind me too much of the wilding attack dogs over Clinton’s RFK comments. Not as a comparison in content, but as methodology. (or that truly stupid fuss made over Palin putting notes on her hand).
What Hillary said.
The video still seems to work on the politico link, was it scrubbed from her facebook page?
Anyway, Hill is unstoppable and trying to rebuild and educate wherever she goes.
Yes. Politico grabbed it before it went missing.
Looks like it’s still out where it was originally hosted on Vimeo. It’s just not as prominent as it was.
It seems both sides need the Sarah Palin punching bag……other wise real issues might have to be addressed…can’t have that…the gop elite hate her too…the closest thing we have to a third party here is the astro turf tea party which is disappeared or reconstituted as needed by its creators …..way sad
I’m not feeling all that sorry for her though because she’s squarely put herself in that place. She’s got a reality show, a book, a Fox News contract, and a political PAC. She still is being coy about her future political status. It’s a freaking train wreck. Rush Limbaugh must be mad. She’s undoubtedly milked his cash cow.
LOL!! I don’t feel sorry for Palin!! lol I feel sorry the fact that best we can do for a third party in this country is the made up “tea party ” lol!
Thanks! You gave me a laugh ! 🙂
paperdoll @ 3:13: LOL!
Tea party is not a movement, it’s a moment, just like Moveon.
I’ll engage in writing in a candidate before putting Palin in at this point(I’ll be writing in Bernie Sanders absent any other viable option). Leadership means rising above not rolling around in the dirt. If leaders lead by example Sarah Palin has shown poor leadership skills. I don’t subscribe to the notion that the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” as a good philosophical position because many times it has put the US into bed with some horrendous people, people that in hindsight we would have been better off to avoid.
While I do not see Sarah Palin as the antichrist that many in the left wish to see her as(and on many occasions I have felt sorry for the way she and her children have been treated), I also do not see her as the leader this country needs to put it to rights. We need someone who is more interested in honest debate than scoring political points. Thus far, following 2008,Palin has done nothing to suggest that she has that in her. Honesty means recognizing that people who are in opposition to your positions may very well have valid points and that people can be wrong and still be good Americans rather than commie pinkos interested in changing the landscape of our country into Russia.
Saying anything about astroturf that doesn’t involve a football field is as silly as saying that the peace marches that attracted 200k+ people during Bush’s presidency were organized by the tiny bands of wacko Marxists that managed to take over the headlining groups. Republicans speak about our thoroughly tame democrats being “radicals” with an “agenda.” Talk of “astroturf” is just the left-lib version of that.
-Not meaning to hijack the thread.-
I can’t embed this video, but it is a skit from Saturday Night Live back in 2005. It has Bush the Younger, Bush the Elder, and Clinton talking about the tsunami. The funny part is how Clinton can talk and express himself so much better then either Bush. At the end Bush the elder says, I like it better when he (Clinton) says it…
http://www.hulu.com/watch/19594/saturday-night-live-tsunami-press-conference
Speaking of more well chosen words in violent places.
And I ask once again: Why is this woman not president of the US?
Because apparently we still aren’t ready to weigh people sufficiently when electing them to higher office.
The fact that Michele Bachman was elected and people are considering her a viable Senate or Presidential option seems to indicate that we may be looking at a long haul before that happens.
May I submit that everyone is better off with her not being president because dishonesty and amorality are pretty much mandatory qualifications for the office? How outspoken do you think she could really be from the Oval Office? Could she meaningfully campaign for human rights with the blood of Afghan and Pakistani civilians on her hands?
From Hillary’s Georgetown Human Rights speech as SoS in December ’09:
There’s the FDR Second Bill of Rights! Some one still has the vision. Not surprised that’s Hillary!
There is only one Hillary, but there are millions of women who are amazing. I just wish the millions of women would listen to Hillary. She is without a doubt a one time, best offer, buy her now – to quote those ridiculous sales informercial, but in this case, Hillary is a one time, best offer, better than anyone else, amazing person.
AMEN! Go Hillary Go!
DAK,
Now there is a project I could get behind… I will email later.
WOW, she is awesome.
Here’s what a Rabbi has to say about it on USA Today (not the most liberal MSM outlet on the planet) :
Rabbi: By ‘blood libel’ claim Palin admits ‘words can be deadly’
NYT: The Caucus
It is unclear whether Ms. Palin intended the phrase to invoke memories of its usual meaning: the false accusation, used by anti-Semites to justify killings and pogroms, that Jews murder Christian children to use their blood in making matzo, the bread eaten during Passover.
I hope the adults in the room are writing this speech.
That would be Michelle Obama at this point since Hillary’s in the Gulf.
Works off her Facebook page for me.
Yes, it’s a redirect now I see that in her notes. That’s a change.
Thanks for putting that link so we could judge for ourselves.
She sounded like W. imho.
She’s joined the list of people I can’t listen too for more than about 30 seconds. Dubya is now a full time member of the list. I used to force myself to listen because of the Presidentin’ thing. I have to limit my Obama speech exposure to stuff I need to watch. Bohner’s on the same list as Obama. There are so few people in leadership position these days that don’t make me want to grab my nerfball sack and start the first inning of the nerf ball political back at you pitch. I guess you can see I found an alternative use for the kids’ leftover nerfballs.
Speaking of jumping sharks, did Hillary really compare the Arizona shootings to 09/11? That’s a bit hard to believe but, if so, she’s only a couple of thousand bodies off.
From what I can see that’s a frame being pushed by conservative media like The Telegraph as referenced here. They give the same quote as the video above and call that equivocation. Frankly, I think it’s the The Telegraph that jumped the shark. The also mention Obama has been more quiet about any reference to extremist. His speeches have been more in line with the lone wolf mentally ill shooter.
I think if Obama joined the conversation on the use of violent rhetoric, he’d have to explain his use of the “if they bring a knife to the fight, we will bring a gun”. That’s another example of over-the-top rhetoric imho.
Certainly, many of the progressives need to do mea culpas on the violent images they posted during the primary and the general. They all need to come clean, frankly.
I agree, Kat.
The connection she drew was that their country has extremists and our country has extremists, not the events of 9/11 and the Arizona shooting.
I went to the article because of the headline, thinking what Ralph thought, but even the body of the article doesn’t say what the headline represents.
Zal: The biggest problem that I can see coming out of all this mess is that we have a completely reprehensible, irresponsible press.
This should be an opportunity to discuss things like mental health needs, the role of guns in our society, and then angry political rhetoric. They’re not discussing anything, they’re turning up the volume to 11.
Seriously.
They’re angrily discussing angry political rhetoric and only listening long enough to get more worked up and defensive.
I keep thinking if we had a great Democratic President her speech tonight would calm people down, and lift them up with action: like (at least) working to return to Clinton era gun laws and fulfilling the implied promise Reagan made when he closed all those psychiatric facilities — to make good mental health care available to every American who needs it, not only because it’s the decent and humane thing to do but because it would help secure the safety and welfare of healthy people.
Dak 100% agree. Both sides to be doing mea culpas. Real leaders would have actually not stood by while people wore “sarah palin is a c-” t shirts or allowed people to entertain the idea that Barack Obama is a muslim(Something I give McCain points for back in 2008).
agreed to the nth degree
She didn’t draw any comparison between the body counts.
She simply stated the truth which is that we have extremists in our country and they have extremists in theirs, and the extremists don’t represent the American or Arab people.
Just pulling this from my post yesterday… https://skydancingblog.com/2011/01/10/secretary-the-city-hillary-in-abu-dhabi/
A student at a town hall-style meeting asked why U.S. opinion often blames the entire Arab world for 9/11
Indeed…Hillary was responding to a questioner who brought up 9/11. Hillary doesn’t mention it, even in her answer.
I’m glad to hear it. I said it was hard to believe, because it was.
The rightwing never likes when Hillary uses her diplomatic prowess to point out that we aren’t perfect in some area either so we’re all in this fight together trying to become a more perfect global society. They hate that and they go after her. They jumped all over her when she dared point out that we had electoral problems here in 2000.
The rightwing is completely oblivious to the fact that the American exceptionalism argument is not the argument that really sells when our country is in the middle of persistent unemployment, reckless war, a for profit health insurance zombie in place of a healthcare system, crumbling infrastructure, environmental catastrophe, a compromised food and water supply, TSA patdowns, school system where kids aren’t even understanding the concept of the equal sign!
Everytime Sarah gets in hot water, it seems some baseless rightwing dig at Hillary follows.
YUP to the nth degree!!!
OUCH!
In some very said off topic but some what related news:
Susana Chavez, Mexican activist who tried to draw attention to the killing of poor women in Juarez, murdered, mutilated http://bbc.in/gjAOJq
awful….
I’m not sure what but we need to do something about or for Mexico. We have what is essentially a failed state on our border.
It’s a sad state of affairs when the President of the other country insists that it is your country’s responsibility to find jobs for it’s citizens as I’ve seen Calderon do.
It might have helped if we in this country had not accepted the results of a blatantly rigged election down there. It might have been nice to see what Obredor could have done to improve the situation. But now, we, and more sadly the Mexican people, are stuck with Calderon.
My link about the rigged election down there didn’t work. I’ll stop trying to be fancy:
Click to access Anderson-NovDec06.pdf
For starters, we can stop insisting that Mexico fight the War on Drugs for us.
One note, don’t know if anyone else caught this – the blood libel is not something of which someone can be accused. It is a term for the accusation itself. So it’s not anti-semitic or anything else, and for the people who were quoted to suggest otherwise is either dumb or dishonest.
Maybe you should go read this piece from Andrew Cohen to find out who is “is either dumb or dishonest”.
Why Sarah Palin Should Have Just Left the ‘Blood Libel’ Alone
The good thing about having two hands is that I have more than one middle finger, so to speak.
In other words, a pox on both their houses.
She needs to (((RUN))) from Glenn Beck and needs to drop the ‘GUN’ thing, ‘hunt Assange’ etc all together. You are out of the country, and must know that they (people in other countries) don’t see this type of words as words used by a leader or future Leader if she throws in her towel.
Today, was an ill advised day to put any video out, much that one and please tell me you noticed the ‘Little Telepromters’ on her glasses.
You may be too young to remember when this the term used by hard core fundamentalist Catholics for code to label all Jewish people “Christ Killers”. It was a well used trope for antisemitism in the 1950s and 1960s.
I can’t say I’ve ever known or encountered anyone who was antisemitic.
OK – I hate Hate HATE having to partially agree with B Kilpatrick here. Especially since I’ve developed a similar tic to Dak, whenever I see Palin speaking. However…
The blog piece (by Alex Seitz-Wald) posted at Think Progress (and which is quoted here) says:
“‘Historically, the term is almost invariably used to describe anti-Semitic myths about how Jews use blood — usually from children — in their ritual.’ Indeed, many Jews consider the term extremely offensive, and the Anti-Defamation League and other prominent Jewish organizations have spoken out against its use [on] dozens of occasions in the past.”
The problem I have here (intellectual honesty) is that the Anti Defamation League and other Jewish organization have spoken out against the claim of blood libel – i.e. the propogation of the myth (in both text and political imagery) that Jews are using the blood of innocents (look at the articles in the ADL link), not use of the term (the term is essentially saying that this allegation is libelous). The way the argument is constructed in the Think Progress piece seems to use sleight of hand to imply that Palin is directly using an anti-Semitic term. Other articles use similar sleight of hand, and attempt to use intellectually dishonest arguments to connect Palin to Nazis. When our side does this kind of thing, we’re pulling a Beck ourselves.
That doesn’t mean I’m saying Palin’s use of the term is hunky-dory. She shouldn’t have used it. Inflaming the rhetoric further right now is stupid. And use of the term is even way more problematic in this particular context since Giffords is Jewish. And the people who are screaming at Andrew Cohen for tweeting about Palin’s use of the term are idiots. He writes “I was questioning Palin’s due diligence and historical knowledge, not her religious sensitivities or substantive points; cheeky, I know, but fair game, I reckoned, given the former Alaska governor’s background and experience.” And he has every right to do so.
I’m assuming–until informed otherwise by Palin herself–that it was probably ignorance of the history of the word. She probably just wanted some holier than thou bible reference to glomb on to. In context, the entire speech–I read a transcript–is poor me caught up in all this. I doubt she meant anything philosophical. She probably just thought it was a peachy keen bible reference. I’m not defending her based on that, however. My bigger point is she should have had some one fact check and copy edit her that knew what the word could imply.
Blood libel is a pretty specialized term. It’s not found in the bible anywhere. Ironically, though, the earliest occurence of what the term means happened to early Christians. Several centuries later, apparently having failed to assimilate the meaning of the parable of the debtor, they used it on Jews.
But at any rate, I don’t think it’s a term that one could accidentally or ignorantly use, particularly because it’s just a rather odd-sounding term.
Melissa at Shakesville
She really sounded like George W. Bush’s twin in this speech.
Maybe one of his former speechwriters wrote it for her.
NewsHour NewsHour
by frontlinepbs
LIVE: Memorial service in Arizona at 8 p.m. ET, Pres. Obama scheduled to speak: http://ow.ly/3COr9
I just see a flower, but am assuming it hasn’t started yet.
Oop, not exactly. This is yet another case where those who hate her are going to find fault and those who like her are going to consolidate. She’s not going to get widespread derision from the Jewish community either. Again, Jews who hate her (Andrew Cohen link above) are going to find fault and those who love her (Jews for Palin) are all over praising her statement. And her video is right there accessible on her Facebook page. She’s even sent out another post, asking people to click the link.
Here’s a link to the Jews for Palin statement. http://jewsforsarah.com/?p=5729. It’s not a win for the left. It’s just the post-shooting polarization all over again. And I think she calculated this. It’s working quite well for her.
If this was planned and this is how she wanted it to work out (which I don’t think it is), that is even worse — it would mean she’s very cynically and deliberately exploiting this tragedy.
I think she could do a meeting with Media Matters’s Brock and clear the air, and cut her ties to Glenn Beck. It would send a message to the likes of Byron Williams that violence is not what the Tea Party is about. Until she does that, expect more Byron Williams types to ‘Go Beckstal’ (ala postal). What would the Tea Party be saying if Byron Williams had made it to the Tides Foundation and the Bay Area Regional Offices of the ACLU and massacred everyone?
If you listen to what Glenn Beck says, he is saying to go and get them, harm them and worse. The Bryon Williams plot of massacring dozens of people was only stopped due to a sharp Highway Patrol Officer and it took several Officers from several agencies to disarm him, after a 12 minute gun battle. Many Officers were injured in the process and if I recall correctly Williams had vest/flak piercing bullets and thankfully he didn’t kill any officers. (
At my volunteer work, there is now 24 hour security and check-in and check-out procedures and some even request escorts. I am an Ole battleship and having received threats in the past (years ago through another volunteer effert), I in essence continue on because on a personal level I have made my peace years ago, I gave up the fear…the fear can render you silent and that isn’t living in my opinion.
This may be the only time I listen to Obama. (I plan to count how many times he uses the word “I.”) The Tucson shooting was just another American tragedy. The furor over what Sarah Palin says or does detracts from the reality that Americans accept murder by guns. I don’t listen to Palin, so I don’t know if she ever addresses the crazy Palin hate that I read in comments on anything that is written about her. For me, that hate gives her a right to say whatever she wants. It’s up to readers to decide whether to take her seriously. A lot of people do. I don’t.
I have to admit, at first I was glad there was a woman on the ticket via McCain, and she was a pilot and said she a leader not beholding to any one, I thought hemm. Then she gave interviews and said she didn’t like flying or some such thing….(((record scratch sound there))), blew my what a role model bit for young girls.
When she aligned herself with the ‘Anti-immigrant groups, Christine O’Donnell (etc…Angle/Brewer) and joined Glenn Beckistan…I was done…listening. 😯 I have known some pretty good Republican women office holders and thought or hoped (don’t know…to heart broken over the 18 Million Cracks and still the ceiling HELD) that she was like the women I knew.
At this point, I think she has to help walk some from the hate and violence talking points and back to we are Americans and Lead by taking the high road and leading on this matter and leave ‘guns’ and ‘Hunting Human Beings’ out of her words.
I’ll cheer on any woman whenever she’s “making good in politics” in some particular area or effort.
Right now Sarah Palin is making very bad in politics.
i think palin’s video was appropriate and timely, unless you suffer PDS that is….
I don’t suffer PDS. I call it like I see it. She’s not an intellectual heavyweight and she’s using her personal popularity to earn money and possibly make a run for the presidency. She reminds me of Obama except he probably has above average intelligence but just lets others do the heavy lifting. Palin has pretty much proven to me over this last year or so that she’s-at best–of average intelligence. She talks off the top of her head from things she believes and refuses to do any homework or even learn from others who would share with her. She’s turned into a media bloviate like Rush Limbaugh and that’s the extent of it right now. Personality and looks only take you so far. She’s reached that place. The speech was an invitation to a pity party.
If PDS = Pretty Disastrous Speech, then yes, I did notice the Disaster. She looked great though and the background was very warm, the flag was most visible, but the meaning I had hoped to hears was missing.
Lol
There are partisans piling on and exploiting this tragedy to simply go after Palin and one-up her, but that doesn’t give Palin carte blanche.
Just like the GOP sucks but that doesn’t mean the Dems can or should simply get away with anything.
The either/or mentality dominating our discourse will be the downfall of us all if we don’t correct it.
Agreed. I’m tired of having people with such shallow understanding of important things on a public podium under the banner of public policy. She’s perfect for the reality show circuit. I only wish enough people figured that out about other inexperienced candidates for office before it was too late to do anything about it.
Since this thread has a video of Hillary commenting on the shooting, here’s another, from CNN via HuffPo:
Hillary Clinton Labels Arizona Shooter An Extremist ‘Motivated By His Own Political Views’
Bostonboomer is going to have some of this information in her morning post, but the guy does have an internet trail including postings at a well know extreme libertarian gold bug site. That still doesn’t discount his presumed paranoid-schizophrenia diagnosis however. He wasn’t one of those guys like Son of Sam that had a dog channeling god.
Yea, but he spent his time on that site posting weird questions about calendars…
I haven’t seen anything about a libertarian gold bug site. He did post at the fringe conspiracy-oriented site AboveTopSecret.com. I skimmed through some of his postings. In many of his posts, it’s hard to discern what he was trying to communicate – much of it looks like “word salad” and fragments of logic (feels like someone sort of struggling to hold reality together by force of logic). Here are the more politically-oriented posts I’ve noticed in the material of his that I’ve looked at:
Thread:”A look at a war in Iran and what would likely happen”
“There was help with cleaning the uranium from the Iran and Iraq war in the 1980’s?
Article 33 of the Geneva Convention is the prohibit of pillage.
All military invasions with armed forces into a foreign country are war crimes in the Geneva Convention articles of 1949.
The Iraq and Afghanistan war of 2010 is a military invasion with armed forces into a foreign country.
Therefore, Iraq and Afghanistan war of 2010 is a war crime from the Geneva Convention articles of 1949.
Ouch! For the thoughts of war.”
Thread: “Racism in the gaming industry in America?”
“The American games are far better then any others!
They have a higher rate of play then any other!
You cannot prove that there isn’t racism, so it be!
There’s no need to have multiple characters of different ethnicity.”
Thread:”You are in Corporate Prison”
“If the children and teenagers that attend schools are able to buy products at their breaks then they’re able to purchase the items out of school.
The children and teenagers that attend schools are able to buy products at their breaks.
Therefore, they’re able to purchase the items out of school.
The majority of the population will buy main brands.
If you don’t buy from a main brand then be considered a cheap low class citizen.”
Thread:”Employment Ideas, Outside the Box”
“I have to mention the Geneva Convention in this thread.
Art. 52. No contract, agreement or regulation shall impair the right of any worker, whether voluntary or not and wherever he may be, to apply to the representatives of the Protecting Power in order to request the said Power’s intervention.
All measures aiming at creating unemployment or at restricting the opportunities offered to workers in an occupied territory, in order to induce them to work for the Occupying Power, are prohibited.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 23.
* (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
* (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
* (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
* (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 25.
* (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”
Thread:”Infinite Source Of Currency!?!?”
His initial post (starting the thread):
“Is it possible for an infinite source of currency?
If a member of the treasury creates 5 new currency’s then the new currency replaces the previous currency.
If the new currency replaces the previous currency then the previous currency is no longer in use.
A members of the treasury creates 5 new currency’s.
Therefore, the previous currency is no longer in use.
If the treasury creates a new currency then the new currency will replace the previous currency.
The treasury creates a new currency.
Therefore, the new currency will replace the previous currency.
If the treasury creates one new currency then why couldn’t they create an infinite amount?
Wouldn’t be beautiful to see your face on the new coins?”
Some of his additional responses in this same thread:
“They might lie about the budget problem.
Create your own currency and enforce it with pride!”
“Is it possible that politicians are taking advantage of the money system?
It’s possible to overthrow a government and change the currency.”
“There’s speculation to why the people gave such power to the leaders.
The people seemed to accept the coin system from their powerful leaders.
This is still going on in the current era.
If the government power is in control of their currency then the government distributes and enforces their currency.
The government power is in control of their currency.
Therefore, the government distributes and enforces their currency.”
Actually – from reading Loughner’s writings and watching the videos he made – I think he may be even further “out there” than David Berkowitz (i.e. the Son of Sam guy). Much of Loughner’s communication is basically incoherent (in contrast, Berkowitz, at the time of his arrest, was still able to hold down a job at the U.S. Postal Service – it seems pretty clear that Loughner is even less functional than this).
Reading what this guy wrote pretty much confirmed my idea that this had little to do with political rhetoric.
I mean, had he been a Maoist who decided to strike a blow for whatever gobblygook propaganda terms Maoists are using now, or had he been REALLY pissed that he couldn’t grow his own pot, pay the power bill with silver nuggets, and fly without having someone put their hands in his pants, and wrote vaguely coherent things reflecting that, then it would be a different story.
But this stuff? He’s just way out there, and politicians happened to be what he fixated on.
Well shit, that’s a pantsuit load. They are gonna double down on this dumbass meme and get completely blown out next time around.
Does anyone know of any mass murderer who wasn’t an extremist?
What meme?
So it is okay to attack Hillary,but not Almigthy Queen Palin. Palin needs to be protected by her strong men. One question for all palin supporter when is she never not the victim. Once again Hillary haters attack her weight,sorry she can’t be a size two like your Queen Palin. Maybe Hillary should quit her job like Palin did and go workout. Would you like that ralph?
This is ever-so-slightly off topic, but it’s a great send-up of about 99% of the reactions to the shooting:
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/01/09/why-the-shootings-me-1.html
“Many people will use this terrible tragedy as an excuse to put through a political agenda other than my own. This tawdry abuse of human suffering for political gain sickens me to the core of my being. Those people who have different political views from me ought to be ashamed of themselves for thinking of cheap partisan point-scoring at a time like this. In any case, what this tragedy really shows us is that, so far from putting into practice political views other than my own, it is precisely my political agenda which ought to be advanced.
Not only are my political views vindicated by this terrible tragedy, but also the status of my profession. Furthermore, it is only in the context of a national and international tragedy like this that we are reminded of the very special status of my hobby, and its particular claim to legislative protection. My religious and spiritual views also have much to teach us about the appropriate reaction to these truly terrible events.”
My video feed burped and I wound up having to turn the TV on to CNN to watch the last part of the memorial. I kept on for a bit. Anderson Cooper had a panel up to dissect the Tuscon speech. They also talked about the video.
I wanted to point out two republicans talking about the video:
I think a lot of the people that think the reaction to this video was partisan are mistaken are mistaken.
Kat, I just saw this over at Juan Cole.
Palin Borrows ‘Blood Libel’ from Israeli Far Right | Informed Comment
Thanks. I’ll check it out later. I’m going to head off for a sleep.