On Friday, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, in a fluffy, softball "press availability" that clearly showed how supine our Alaska MSM reporters will be in her presence, stated:"If there are allegations based on questions or comments I made in debate prep about NAFTA, about the continent versus the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context. And that's if they came away with it taking things out of context, then tried to spread something on national news"
Governor Palin, do you know what a jerk is? Or, how do you compare those campaign workers' comments to your conduct and repeated statements, which heightened the danger level to the man who will be - unless some nut you helped encourage stops him - the next president of the United States. Apparently, more on your role in putting our next president in danger - we know of two actual plots, there were probably more that either are being kept quiet, or that haven't been discovered and are afoot - will be coming out in next week's Newsweek. But today's UK Telegraph, wrote this:
The Republican vice presidential candidate attracted criticism for accusing Mr Obama of "palling around with terrorists", citing his association with the sixties radical William Ayers.
The attacks provoked a near lynch mob atmosphere at her rallies, with supporters yelling "terrorist" and "kill him" until the McCain campaign ordered her to tone down the rhetoric.
But it has now emerged that her demagogic tone may have unintentionally encouraged white supremacists to go even further.
The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks.
Michelle Obama, the future First Lady, was so upset that she turned to her friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett and said: "Why would they try to make people hate us?"
The revelations, contained in a Newsweek history of the campaign, are likely to further damage Mrs Palin's credentials as a future presidential candidate. She is already a frontrunner, with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, to take on Mr Obama in four years time.
Details of the spike in threats to Mr Obama come as a report last week by security and intelligence analysts Stratfor, warned that he is a high risk target for racist gunmen. It concluded: "Two plots to assassinate Obama were broken up during the campaign season, and several more remain under investigation. We would expect federal authorities to uncover many more plots to attack the president that have been hatched by white supremacist ideologues."
What we have here, is a vicious, vindictive, narcissistic person, with complex ties to groups with white power, anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic and anti-Islamic beliefs, who went on the campaign stump, and - according to several reports, raised the hate levels at her events to heights recently unseen in American national campaigns, without even clearing the attacks with her running mate.
I challenged the Anchorage Daily News and other Alaska media outlets to bring this up directly, when she began the attacks in early October. They left the issue unaddressed then, and appear to be doing this now.
Let me paraphrase and amplify on the governor's Friday remarks, to reiterate:
Sarah Palin's remarks about President-elect Barack Obama, on the campaign trail, were cruel, mean-spirited, immature, and unprofessional. Not only was Palin a jerk to do this, she endangered the president-elect, his family, and other African-Americans in plots we now know of. Additionally, all around the country, people are using Palin's lies, or their weird interpretation of them, to heighten fear levels among racial and heritage minorities, every week, every day, every hour and every minute.
Is some senses, Palin's 2008 candidacy has been less toxic in lingereng effects, than the skippering of Joe Hazelwood. In other areas, like I've just cited, Palin in her campaign stump spewings has been and still is far, far more toxic than Hazelwood and his cargo's spilling.
Update - Sunday 6:30 p.m: A few blogs here and elsewhere are picking up on the seriousness of this new information. Not the Anchorage Daily News political blog, though. They're about to do their second fluff project in three days, along with the governor's favorite recruiting agency after the Wasilla High School alumni association - KTUU TV:
We just returned from Gov. Sarah Palin's home in Wasilla, where we shared a wide-ranging, 30-minute interview with KTUU. Look for a video here on the blog tonight and a story tomorrow.Dang - those are some tough questions, Kyle.A few of the topics:
-- The dueling Troopergate reports.
-- The future of federal funding for Alaska. "I'm sure there will be fewer earmark requests and they will be sensible earmark requests."
-- Life on the trail. And Tina Fey.
-- Whether Palin plan to continue to charging the state a per diem (meant to cover meals and incidental expenses) when staying at her Wasilla home.
-- Palin's frustration over what she called some of the "goofy" stories that emerged during the campaign, such as the claim that Trig isn't her baby. "I'm Trig's mom," she said, raising her hand.
-- What the campaign should/could've done differently, if anything, and why Palin thinks Obama won. She made a point to avoid criticizing the campaign, rather than expanding on what she said Friday about the anonymous sources within the McCain camp being jerks.
-- Mending fences at home. "Everybody's big boys and big girls in this world of politics," Palin said.
Then there's this that came out today:
SARAH Palin won't be vice president, but she won the hearts of talent scouts and literary agents who are scrambling to sign her to multimillion-dollar contracts.
CAA, ICM, William Morris, Paradigm and other agencies "smell books, talk shows and commentary for Fox and CNN" as possibilities for the Alaska governor, West Coast PR man Hal Lifson told us.
"There are several of our imprints who are eager to talk to Governor Palin," Random House spokesman Stuart Applebaum said. "She clearly has a constituency and we know books by conservatively-centered politicos usually sell very, very well."
Public-relations powerhouse Howard Rubenstein added, "She's poised to make a ton of money." But he warned, "She ought to keep an eye on what her goals are for 2012. If she plays a game and looks foolish, if she sounds like she doesn't know what she's talking about - like saying Africa is a country - she may talk herself out of a political job."
Linda Mann, president of Mann Media, which books celebrities and fashionistas for TV, noted, "Her buzz is incredible. She has car-wreck appeal. You're compelled to watch, hoping she'll say the dumbest things possible. I'd propose a show combining her love of fashion and lack of brainpower - 'Project Dumbway.' "
What kind of money can Palin expect? "That's an interesting question because everybody will compare what she gets to the book deal Tina Fey reportedly made - $6 million," said one high-ranking publishing source. "No matter what it is, the betting is she'll sign a deal by the end of the month."
28 comments:
"Sarah Palin's remarks about President-elect Barack Obama, on the campaign trail, were cruel, mean-spirited, immature, and unprofessional. Not only was Palin a jerk to do this, she endangered the president-elect, his family, and other African-Americans in plots we now know of. Additionally, all around the country, people are using Palin's lies, or their weird interpretation of them, to heighten fear levels among racial and heritage minorities, every week, every day, every hour and every minute."
You talk a lot about Palin's lies and hate speech but did not give ONE specific reference to it. Care to name one?
JFC! anon @ #1 - I wrote a whole series of articles about them, as did many, many others, last month, when they were a problem.
Go look them up, lazy one...
Dear Anonymous,
You have got to be kidding, right? Pick up a newspaper dated October anything 2008. Any newspaper. From any country. I will be glad to offer at least four Australian papers if you can't find one of your own.
Australia. Do you get this? Gov. Sarah Palin's grin whilst her mob cried "Terrorist! Kill him!" was shown AROUND THE WORLD both in real-time video clips and photo-journal essays. My 89 year old Irish mother in California was outraged at 'the now famous Sarah Palin smirk' and called me long-distance just to vent her anger.
Palin's behaviour toward her opposing candidate is beyond reprehensible. She was running in a public election against a fellow American, NOT outting a potential an enemy of the state.
How dare she re-ignite flames of racism that some of us fought sohard to extinguish years ago, just to win an election! How dare you for suggesting Mr. Munger or any other Alaskan blogger is talking out of turn when she's called upon to be accountable for her actions.
Those of us not in the US are so grateful to the American people for choosing Obama. So grateful.
And thousands of us outside your borders are keeping vigilant watch over Sarah's progress in the Republican party still, as we are literally terrified at the thought of her blend of self-serving politics and moral ignorance finding a place to nest and spread.
Lynn-in-Australia
i'm getting the impression those race-baiting rallies were covered a little better in newspapers of other countries.
i clipped this from mudflats -- rep. les gara talking about the news reports that a coalition is dead in the alaska house:
We’ll see if the newspaper got this one wrong. At least they should have done a little investigation before simply repeating the press release they received from Republican House members yesterday. Don’t get me started on the state of our newspapers – where staff has been cut so much that “he said she said” stories, and stories that just take politician statements at face value, have become too common.
Thank you! I loathe narcissistic sociopaths and so, of course, am suffering acute Palin hate. It's a relief to know that some people in Alaska see her for what she is. If her hatemongering incites anyone to harm Obama, she'll have blood on her hands.
Thanks Phil. While I sometimes call you out for going off on a tangent, I think you are right on the mark on this one.
For her to get away with dismissing her hate mongering as the fiction of the media and bloggers is inexcusable. She needs to apologize. Being gracious about Obama now without acknowledging her role in fomenting hate isn't enough. But I'm not holding my breath. She's been trained the last two months in the Lee Atwater school of politics.
"Lee Atwater became one of the most complicated and successful Republican political operatives in history by employing a triple threat; spin when you can, change the subject when you can’t and if all else fails – mine the voters’ resentment, and fear, usually of blacks."
But a lot of Alaskans will also blame the press because they don't want to hear things that conflict with their view of the world. Who says there aren't any ostriches in Alaska?
So, with weakened newspapers, I guess it is up to the bloggers to raise the hard questions and not back off.
Save your "anti-Semitic" remarks because you have little use for any Jew that doesn't like your ass.
OK...once again. I read the newspapers every day. I read adn, bbc online and guardian.
I still have yet to see the lies you are talking about and the racism. Please expound.
I do see legitimate criticism. Are progressives so thin skinned that they cannot take a little legitimate criticism? Or is this a purposeful method to quell free speech? I suspect the latter.
Accusations of hate, lies, and racism without any specifics appears to be a tactic of people who don't believe in free speech.
anon @ #7 - I have no idea what you are talking about. Could you explain your remark?
anon @ #8 - this post is about reports that the US Secret Service has leaked info that Palin's speeches and the atmosphere at those rallies in late September and early October heightened the threat level they perceived to be against somebody in their protection - Barack Obama.
During that time period, Progressive Alaska wrote several articles about Palin's conduct then. Many of them include quotes and videos of Governor Palin during that time period. Those articles also contain dozens of hyperlinks to other articles on the same subjects.
Duh...
With any luck, Palin will decide to get out of politics. I don't want her creating public policy.
That the threat levels to Obama increased when Palin criticized him is not surprising. But the fact that Palin was legitimately criticizing Obama does not mean she was threatening him, or lieing, or committing racism.
Anyone running for those high offices have threats against them...that's why they have the secret service in the first place. To say that her criticism of Obama should have stopped is extremely thin skinned and reminds me of an earlier post where people were looking for an apology, give me a break!
Liberals seem to be professional "victims".
First of all, when Sarah said that Obama was palling around with terrorists, she was telling the truth. He did indeed have associations with many shady people, including terrorist Bill Ayers. McCain and Palin found that unacceptable, as did most Americans. Secondly, comments such as "kill him" and others were never substantiated, there was no video evidence and the secret service reported that they heard no such thing. Had those comments been made, do ya think Palin could of heard them? I mean I have been to one of her rallys and everyone is constantly cheering, it's very noisy, and hard to make out any comments being said besides "Drill Baby Drill" or "USA, USA!" And please don't pull the race card, as the Obama camp so frequently did during this election. What is racist about what she said? She didn't say anything regarding race. It was a legitimate point. Someone mentioned that Obama could be President of the United States, but he could never get a job in the FBI or Secret Service, with his multiple, questionable associations. He would never be cleared. And if your saying it's her supporters who are racists well I'm most certainly not and I supported McCain/Palin. You would have racists on both sides, it's inevitable, but the candidates can't control that.
Ashley said...
a- First of all, when Sarah said that Obama was palling around with terrorists, she was telling the truth. He did indeed have associations with many shady people, including terrorist Bill Ayers.
William Ayers was not a terrorist. He was never on the FBI's wanted list, never arrested, never convicted of a crime.He was considered a radical. Terrorism is a product of this century, not the late 60's. William Ayers, like thousands of other Vietnam War protestors, grew up to be an upstanding American citizen. Get over it.
It is not possible to have a career in politics and not be associated in some way with a 'shadey' person. The real question should have been, does Obama share the same past radical ideals or just the same business acumen?
b- McCain and Palin found that unacceptable, as did most Americans.
Wrong again. "Most Americans" found the negative connections put forth by McCain and Palin to be absurd. 'Most Americans" voted for Obama/Biden.
c- Secondly, comments such as "kill him" and others were never substantiated, there was no video evidence and the secret service reported that they heard no such thing.
Where do you live?. The comments happened. There is clear footage. Meters of it that have been played and replayed both on the internet and television alike. The footage has been translated in other languages, all equally embarrassing to the Republican party. The Secret Service in fact responded. Read Newsweek.
d- Had those comments been made, do ya think Palin could of heard them?
Absolutely. Not only can anyone on the stump hear a solitary cry from a crowd, Sarah showed the camera she heard them - she visually reacted to each new jeer with slight bow and a smirk. And when she got the resction she was after, she went for more. She heard and knew exactly what she was doing, and was visibly pleased with her results.
e- What is racist about what she said?
She clearly told her crowds "He doesn't think like we do." "His values are different from ours." "Only you people here today in small-town USA are the real Americans." Those statements were shot like bullets aimed at people already uneasy about a black man becoming president and meant, MEANT to push them over the edge of prejudice.
f- Someone mentioned that Obama could be President of the United States, but he could never get a job in the FBI or Secret Service, with his multiple, questionable associations. He would never be cleared.
You don't know that. I will not pretend to possess enough knowledge to debate you on this issue, but I'm willing to bet that you don't either. I can with confidence, however, assure you that the term 'questionable associations' is straight out of McCain's campaign rhetoric, and not from an FBI file.
g-You would have racists on both sides, it's inevitable, but the candidates can't control that.
Bollox. Public speakers may not control who shows up - but after that, they control everything. Just ask Charles Manson.
Ashley - American politics affect the rest of us, like it or not. We all have a stake in your political future. I know this, because I have friends serving my country in Iraq and Afghanistan. At your countries' request. So while I may not, as an Australian, have a vote in your elections - I certainly am entitled to have a voice.
Lynn-in-Australia
Cezar Capone is offering her $2 mil to star in one of his films
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=12b2f2e5-f6bc-4b24-af36-20bcdd9c3482d
thanks, Lynn-in-Australia!
Sarah Palin knew she was stirring up these hate filled people. I kept thinking at the time that the crowds began to look demented and dangerous. Doe this so called "christian" woman have no conscience.? Her own running mate palled around with Gordon Liddy who is a monster.
If something happens to our beloved President elect, she will have to answer to his wife and children.
This woman is so self serving that she would risk the life of another human being to get "air time".
Ayers was a terrorist. To say he did not practice terrorism is playing with the truth...oh yeah, TRUTH is how YOU define it. Anyway, to call him a terrorist is certainly not a lie.
To call..."he doesn't think like you do" and the other comments racism and race baiting is stretching and is obviously thinking from a racist perspective. I can see how someone who sees everything from a racist perspective could see those comments from that point of view. But those comments have nothing to do with race and everything to do with the differences between the urban-rural, left-right divide in America.
If those are the lies and racist comments to which you refer than there is either no attempt to understand the perspective from which they came, or you are purposefully trying to quell legitimate criticism.
I honestly hope Obama does a good job in the next few years for the US. He showed that he can assemble a good campaign team, lets hope he and his chief of staff can get a good cabinet together.
anon @ #18 - Many experienced non-white Americans took Palin's comments - and some of McCain's - for what thy were, veiled, well-tried terms of speech, meant to convey a sense of "otherness" to racial and heritage minorities, to their 97% or more white rally attendees. It wasn't about the urban-rural or right-left divide. Many authors, white and non-white, have written about how these code terms have been used over the years, particularly in GOP right-wing, predominantly white gatherings.
Ayers was and is no more of a terrorist than was Joe Vogler, or Pastor Muthee, for examples. Or G. Gordon Liddy, who actually did a lot of time.
Philip, While people may have understood those words to be racist, they were not. I don't believe I can convince a true believer of that however. The comment about "code words" is a way to convince people in your own crowd that someone said something that they did not.
Lets see...Ayers actually participated in actual bombings of the New York City Police Headquarters and the Capitol building.
Vogler and Liddy were bad actors, but I don't believe they intended to set off a bomb in the middle of a dance floor.
Here is a quote from Prairie Fire, a book that Ayers co-authored. "We need a revolutionary communist party in order to lead the struggle, give coherence and direction to the fight, seize power and build the new society."
anon @ #20 - So the US Secret Service was full of it?
In what way did I address the Secret Service? If you are addressing the heightened threat level to Obama after Palin's speeches, I am not questioning that at all.
But Palin had a right to criticize Obama's "pals". She also had a right to criticize his outlook on America. Anytime you criticize someone on serious issues, you will have some crazy going too far.
If you hold back criticism on real issues because of crazies, you are quelling free speech.
Palin has been pilloried continuously by progressive/liberals like you. You have a right to free speech as well, but it would be nice to acknowledge it for both sides.
let's keep this simple. she was either inciting racists to violence, or she wasn't. if you go back and look at the clips it's pretty obvious what's happening.
ADN and others should start asking her about it. republicans should strongly denounce it and make sure it never happens again.
Damn, all this anonymous stuff makes it difficult to be sure whether the same person is commenting or whether there are several different ones.
Why not just make up a name so we can keep it straight, or sign your post like Lynn in Australia did.
In any case, I appreciate your trying to engage a bunch of liberals. I'm sure our way of seeing the world seems as absurd as yours does to us.
Bill Ayers
1. Was Ayers a terrorist? My understanding was that he did bomb or attempt to bomb some buildings. In the 60s the word terrorist wasn't common. But in today's language we would call that action terrorist. I believe that no one was killed or hurt, the damage was against property. Whether this is patriot or terrorist depends on what the target was. The underground in Europe who tried to sabotage the Nazis were seen as terrorists and traitors by the Nazis and freedom fighters by Americans. I've yet to see a history book that identifies the participants of the Boston Tea Party terrorists.
2. Guilt by association - This is a well described rhetoric fallacy used by speakers to connect their opponents to 'evil.'
If anonymous is not aware that Obama was 8 when Ayers was an activist, then we are all wasting out time since anonymous is just not listening, or willing to believe anything that challenges what he/she believes. I'll assume Anon is aware.
By the time Obama got to know Ayers, his past notoriety had been replaced by a successful career with honors and community service on boards that included conservative Republicans as well as liberals. To the extent that Obama "palled around with" Ayers, he was doing this with a respected and committed member of his community who associated with Republicans as well as Democrats. The person Obama knew was not a 'terrorist' when Obama knew him. He was never convicted of a crime.
The McCain/Palin campaign took someone who long ago in the past had been a radical (terrorist or freedom fighter, your choice). Then they called the fact that Obama had done things with him 40 years later, when he was - in his methods if not his ideals - a totally different person, "palling with terrorists." (I'm not sure who else they were talking about.)
That suggests that once someone does something wrong, they can never change, they should never be allowed back into civil society. Yet half the people who voted in Alaska reelected a convicted felon. So at least Alaska Republicans do not hold someone breaking the law as nonredeemable.
So, in my opinion, saying that Obama "pals around with terrorists" is an intentional manipulation of facts for partisan political purposes. If you only listen to Fox news, well, maybe you don't get another picture of it.
Racist Comments
"I can see how someone who sees everything from a racist perspective could see those comments from that point of view. But those comments have nothing to do with race and everything to do with the differences between the urban-rural, left-right divide in America."
Yes, Phil sees this from a progressive perspective (he's clearly not a racist or seeing it from a racist perspective). But you can't claim the 'truth' any more than he can. Your perspective is also an interpretation of these terms. My sense is that it is hard to 'prove' the meaning of terms, but that you can look at history of usage and what people say about it themselves.
There is evidence in documentation of the history of the Republican Party and how Lee Atwater has steered that using code words to appeal to fears about blacks among white southerners and Republicans, is that this was a continuation of that policy. That is documented - follow the link. I linked to that in the previous comment I made. It does take some time to listen to the audio, but it is worthwhile.
I would agree with you that the Willie Horton thing at least had the ring of racism.
To say to a crowd of Republicans that Obama doesn't see America the same way they see America is a factual comment. It is obvious on this thread that "progressives", (love that term), don't see America the way I do. I would hope that we agree on that at least.
I appreciate Steve's discourse. But I am still pretty amazed that Bill Ayers is given a pass. A couple of his colleagues were killed while assembling a nail bomb. He may not have been involved in that particular act, but he was a leader of that particular group. A nail bomb is not intended to do property damage...but to create human carnage. Again, I am not saying Bill Ayers was responsible for that act, but I would sure like to hear more about why they were making the nail bomb in the first place and what he knew about it. He would have been prosecuted if the government had done their investigation properly, but the government used improper surveillance, (whatever that means), and so dropped the charges.
Of course I knew Obama was 8 when Ayers was a terrorist. But the fact remains that Ayers is still an extremely radical "progressive". He aligns himself with the views with the writings of Karl Marx.
The fact that Ayers is now a respected professor of Education in Chicago shows again how far removed the progressive elite Chicago culture is from the the heartland "red" states. We are divided culturally and this division is huge.
Ayers believes that the mission of progressive teachers is to turn the schools into laboratories of revolutionary change. Phillip's favorite democratic leader, Rahm Emmanuel, is from the same background. Ayers is pushing his agenda nationwide and is seeing success in doing it. My hope is that Obama's presidency will shine the spotlight a little more on Ayer's and his influence on the education system in America.
Sorry to remain anonymous, but it needs to remain that way. I did not make the anti-semitic remark or the anti-palin ones, but the rest were mine.
Sarah Palin Still Looms as a Threat
Found this after posting the above. Thanks, S
Steve,
Palin also referred to Columbia University Professor and US citizen, Rashid Khalidi, as a terrorist, and tied him to Obama, in speeches, from about the third week of October.
The right typically claims that Khalidi was a member of the PLO (he wasn't, he was their press agency's director from 1976 through 1982 (a period of factional PLO fighting and 2X HQ moving, in which the Arab League officially recognized the PLO as the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people), Khalidi's stringent criticism of Israeli policies (he has also been highly critical of Palestinian policies and Arab nations' policies), and the canard that Khalidi helped broker Ahmadinejad’s appearance at Columbia University in 2007.
Phil, I think you can figure out what I meant with my remark on you being concerned about anti-Semitism in the Palin campaign.
You remind me of that German camp commander in "Schindler's List" you want to screw them but you spend your anger on beating them and picking them off with a high powered rifle.
Pretty creepy but not surprising.
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