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Palin: muzzle it!
For a brief moment, I had a glimpse of hope that maybe, just maybe, the McCain campaign would put a muzzle on its pit bull in drag … er … hockey mom governor. After rallying her attendees last week into a frenzy of death threats and false accusations against Senator Barack Obama, Sarah Palin should have gotten that much-needed order to chill out.
Not so, it seems. With McCain himself now saying he’ll kick Obama’s “you-know-what” in the upcoming debate (of course, it’s been the opposite at all of the debates so far), Palin has gotten the blessing to keep on blathering about things she clearly does not understand.
ABC News says that Palin “tones it down a notch,” but a “notch” down from the fever pitch of accusing the Democratic nominee of “pallin’ around with terrorists” and insinuating that he’s a terrorist himself, is, well, not much of a notch at all.
The ABC article reflects much of what’s been reported in the Associated Press, so the quotes that follow are pretty universal. With each passing statement, she proves just how out-of-touch with reality she really is. Take, for example, her asinine interpretation of just what all the “anger” their campaign has seen is all about:
While Palin cited the anger felt by many of her supporters — as expressed verbally at two separate town meetings earlier in the week — Palin attempted to turn it into a positive message on Republican nominee John McCain reforming Washington. She did not turn it into anger at the Democratic nominee, who is leading the race in most national and battleground state polls.
“All across America, I know that there’s a lot of anger right now,” Palin said. “There’s anger about the insider dealing of lobbyists and anger at the greed of Wall Street, and anger about the arrogance of the Washington elite. And with serious reforms to change Washington, John McCain is going to turn your anger into action.”
Okay, Governor, let me see if I can explain it in small words so that you can understand. The anger you’ve seen isn’t about “insider dealing” or “lobbyists.” It’s all because you and your running mate (that’s the old guy who calls Obama “that one”) have whipped your base into a frenzy of vile hate. You’ve accused your opponents of “pallin’ around with terrorists,” and have created a state of fear across the country.
You, like many Americans, don’t even know the difference between a lobbyist and a lobby, which is made evident by all of these preachers who violated their 501(c)3 code last month with their “freedom Sunday” garbage. They clearly don’t understand the difference between an educational organization (which is what they’re supposed to be) and a lobbying group, which is a 501(c)4 organization.
Apparently, a “Christian-based” group of attorneys, the Alliance Defense Fund, encouraged pastors all across the country to do exactly what the 501(c)3 charter says they can’t do: attempt to influence an election from official positions within their organizations. Those many thousands of pastors violated the agreement they signed, and should be given the appropriate fines. Their goal, apparently, is to file a suit to have the tax laws rewritten or struck down by the Supreme Court.
Good luck with that.
So, Governor, since you have no clue what lobbying is for, and you have even less of a clue as to why there’s so much anger in your rallies, maybe you need to seriously consider the possibility that you just need you shut your mouth and learn something about how your government really works.
Clearly, this is a person who doesn’t need to be anywhere near the White House, let alone a heartbeat away from occupying it.
The ABC article further discusses her usage of the phrase “bad guys.” Apparently, she’s replaced “terrorist” with “bad guys” in order to continue to rile that low-level base of supporters for whom “terrorist” is probably too big of a word. No, wait. Maybe it’s too big of a word for Governor Palin. After all, she’s “one of us,” right? As Newsweek’s cover said recently, maybe that’s the problem:
While Palin made no mention of William Ayers, who just days ago she charged was “a terrorist” with closer ties to Obama than he will acknowledge, she did speak about “terrorists” in general as the “bad guys,” and then went on to describe the “bad guys” in the current economic crisis. It was unclear if Palin was attempting to allude to Ayers when speaking about “terrorists.”
“Help me Ohio to help put John McCain in the White House,” Palin said. “He understands… For one thing, we know who the bad guys are, OK? We know, we know that in the war, it’s terrorists, terrorists who hate America and her allies and would seek to destroy us, and the bad guys are those who would support and sympathize with the terrorists. They do not like America because of what we stand for: liberty, freedom, equal rights. Those who sympathize and support those terrorists who would seek to destroy all that it is that we value, those are the bad guys, ok?”
Really, Governor? Those are the bad guys? You mean that those who have completely shredded our constitution, diluted the right to free speech and the right to assemble peacefully, supported rampant wire taps, and have even put gay rights groups on list of “domestic terrorist” groups in recent years aren’t the bad guys?
There’s one phrase we need to look out for: “destroy all that it is that we value.” You see, dear friends and neighbors, her “values” have been clearly demonstrated in this past week as she continues to spread the lies and insinuations that Senator Obama is “pallin’ around with terrorists who would strike at their own country” and that she has abused her power in the firing of her ex brother-in-law.
Her “values” even questioned the local librarian as to whether or not certain books would be removed from the shelves of the Wasila public library if the then-mayor asked them to be. The librarian said no. She was later fired. More here and here.
Her “values” have said that she believes that homosexuality can be “prayed away” despite the fact that every single major medical, psychiatric, and professional group that works within the gay and lesbian community says otherwise.
Do us all a favor, Governor. You’ve said that you can see Russia from the front door of your home. Great. Go home. Better yet, we’ll help send you back there on November 4th.
About David W. Shelton 
Posts by David W. Shelton are copyright (c)2006, 2007, 2008 by the author. All rights reserved.
David W. Shelton is a writer, speaker and activist in Clarksville, and serves on the Clarksville Human Relations Commission. His passions include film and complete equality for all people, and he has worked in various capacities to work toward this goal. He is currently an illustrator, graphic designer, trainer, and is the owner of Imagine Media Solutions. He is an Adobe® Certified Instructor in Photoshop®.
Web Site: http://www.skippingtothepiccolo.com/
Email:
dwshelton@att.net
Topics: Barack Obama, Election 2008, Free Speech, freedom Sunday, Gay Rights, John McCain, Politics, Sarah Palin, Terrorism, U.S. Constitution, Wasila
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October 13th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Do you really believe that Jeff or are you just echoing what you heard from the right wing blogs and Sarah “the bulldog” Palin? They say if you hear a lie three times or more a person starts to believe it…
It appears to be a philosophy that the Mccain campaign has bought into lock stock and barrel.
Khalid al-Mansour who? Susposedly the advisor to one of the world’s richest men but not one single non-blog source for this name? No wikipedia page?
Rashid Khalidi (born 1950), an American historian of the Middle East, is the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, and director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia’s prestigious School of International and Public Affairs.
Rashid Khalidi was said to be a spokeperson for the P.L.O in the past but has denied the allegation. Wasn’t their something in our system of justice about innocent until proven guilty? So how has his name gotten associated with Obama?
So simply another case of John Mccain’s campaigns baseless election year attacks on his opponent.
I hope you don’t consider World Net Daily a neutral or even reputable source.
Why the publication sounds like an official wing of the Republican party.
So Mr Mack, come back when you can present proof of these claims, and their foundations, until then folks I recommend everyone else disregard Mr Mack’s comment in its entirety, or at least do your own research through reliable and reputable sources.
Mr Shelton’s sources are journalistic, reputable, and reliable. Sometimes he even references that other bastion of the Republican party Fox news.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
A comment from Jeff Mackens was deleted due to a violation of the attack the issue never the person policy this site operates under. The post linked to videos which made unsubstantiated unsourced claims. I really should have deleted his first comment as well but I left it online.
Please keep comments to the issues and positions and not personal attacks on candidates, the same goes for everyone Republican or Democrat.
Comments which go beyond personal opinion must identify reputable sources. For our purposes a reputable source is a journalistic medium. That means TV News, Published Books, Magazines, and Newspapers.
Blogs can be referenced provided their material clearly identifies reputable sources for their statements and claims. I must remind all posters that they are solely responsible for the contents of their comments.
October 15th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Christians are a cheap sell; Most of my family and their close associates have decided to vote for John McCain this year, and I have decided to vomit. I couldn’t agree with you more, Bill Larson, or you, David Shelton.
Unfortunately I believe this is because before I had my mind made up on the issues I decided to read a little, and do a little of my own research. As a budding young scientist it has become an intrinsic quality to inquire about the nature of that which is going on around me, oddly enough this seems to be an anomaly in today’s world: especially in politics. Like the pundits themselves their supporters stand is growing ever more strange and deluded.
In a semi-casual interaction today I asked a client of mine why it was they were so devoutly resigned to claim Obama was bad for America. I also asked why the John McCain/Palin ticket was any better. The reply, the all too common response I have grown to anticipate, was this; “Who is Barack Osama anyway?” Though I restrained myself I wanted to say, “Read a book dummy,” –for example- Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama or try The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama or maybe Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama’s Plan to Renew America’s Promise by Barack Obama. If books aren’t your thing try an article, Renewing American Leadership from Foreign Affairs July/Aug 2007 by Barack Obama was a good one.
The next claim my client made was that Barack Obama was going to raise taxes and lose the war in Iraq. I cannot even joke about what I wanted to say to him in response to this ignorant claim… but I will say this, some ‘hockey moms’ and ‘joe six packs,’ ‘good-ole-boys,’ folks’ idea of success is spending half a trillion dollars to send 4000+ soldiers to their death… some like me think it is time to come home. I have attempted (with the utmost respect) to promulgate this view as much as possible and most of the time because of our respective vicinity to a military installation I have met with harsh comments about my patriotism and the cost of freedom (I have spent 3+ years in combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq,
I sacrificed my marriage and the first 4 years of my daughter’s life including birthdays and everything you could imagine, I have lost dozens of friends to this ‘war’ and I promise, after being a successful Non-commissioned officer awarded with an honorable discharge from service in the U.S. Army, I know the cost of freedom, and I know it better than most). It is time to come home, Barack says he will bring them home if he is elected, well I say unfortunately for some 4000+ Americans that’s just not soon enough. As for raising taxes… do I really need to continue? Obviously I do. I doubt however I could say it better than the source so, read on!
Finally, why was it my client really liked the McCain/Palin ticket? He was all too eager to let the cat out of the bag, “It’s the Christian thing to do” he said, “A vote for McCain/Palin is a vote for Jesus!” Indeed this ideal was echoed throughout the Bible belt in an unprecedented display of lawlessness and dissent amongst our religious leaders last Sunday. Did all the good Christians unite to stamp out world-hunger? Did they save the Cadillac/put away the SUV for next Sunday just to save some gas and allow the air to stay a little cleaner for one more day? Did they unite in public outcry against the violence in Darfur? No, no, and no. Instead they all climbed into their well equipped Sunday drivers and enjoyed air-conditioned and lavishly appointed church pews while they listened to Pastors and Preachers reach across the law and voice their support for a political campaign.
Why? I can only speculate, but I know it wasn’t because they were afraid of winning the upcoming election. This time, make a difference, this time, YOU decide, don’t let the politicians do it for you! Don’t let them make a mockery of your religion! Don’t let them make you look foolish this November. Vote after you have read the whole story not just the bullets at the bottom.
October 15th, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Jeff Mack, what you meant to say was, “I HOPE I didn’t post anything that wasn’t true because I am just regurgitating what I have been told to believe,” because you did post complete nonsense and here is the proof (with a bit of my own opining to boot)! Secondly, Jeff Mack, if you call someone a bad name (like insinuating they are a terrorist by association) for no good reason other than your own insecurities and ignorance that sir, can be called an ‘attack.’ So in response to your attack, please allow me to retort.
I was curious about your claim, “here’s the one I am going to hit, Obama has “palled” around with terroist!” referring specifically to one Khalid al-Mansour whose name means “if I’m eternally the slave of God, and I follow the right path, I will always be victorious.” Yikes, eternally the slave of God! That is spooky! What is this guy ‘Obama-might-have-some-alleged-far-flung-connection-to-but-can’t-prove-it’ really about? According to him (Al-Mansour):
Education for blacks and Hispanics? Oh MY GOD! What a terrorist! Furthermore Jeff, there is no ‘evidence’ supporting the claims Percy Sutton has made whose coattails you seem to be riding on this pin-the-crazy on Obama game. If there were/was/is a connection there is/will be evidence supporting it, not 3rd party hearsay or unfounded, unconfirmed claims made by an old man on an obscure news snippet you found on you-tube. That is not ‘evidence’ it is you’re-not-well-readadence.
The other fellow you mentioned as a terrorist ally of Obama’s, ‘Rashid Khalidi’? If I did not already know better I would say you might know what you are talking about. These are your claims sir, Prove Rashid Khalidi is a terrorist, then prove he and Obama are pals… the ball is in your court.
Also just as a side note; according to the U.S. Department of Justice here are some other terrorists we should watch out for, maybe Obama can be linked to some of these bad guys:
http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/watchlistcounter.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/05/60minutes/main2066624.shtml
http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/plus/a0816/final.pdf
Also, I would like you to find some more terrorists that Obama has palled around with; after all you said you were sure you could…