Sarah Palin’s aides are claiming that the crosshairs marking the targeted Democratic candidates (including Gabrielle Giffords) on her infamous poster (scroll down) were not crosshairs but a ‘surveyor’s symbol.’
But Palin called the symbols ‘bull’s eyes’ in a tweet, so the surveyor symbol business is just b.s.:
Palin's Tweet on Cross-Hairs
(Courtesy this Flikr site).
Actually, Palin has a long history of using violent rhetoric and then denying it.
Palin said of Julian Assange, “Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?” The US uses drone strikes against the latter.
When Assange complained that she was calling for his assassination, she claimed he had misquoted her.
Back in 2008, Palin repeatedly accused then candidate Barack Obama of “palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.” Obama had in fact denounced the terrorist past of the person Palin was using to smear him.
Palin whipped up her frenzied campaign crowds to shout “terrorist” at Obama, but then denied that she had heard them doing so.
It is not just Palin but also the candidates she endorses. Jane Hamsher points out that Giffords’s opponent in the last election, supported by Palin, “Held June Event to “Shoot a Fully Automatic M16″ to “Get on Target” and “Remove Gabrielle Giffords”. That site, like Palin’s own PAC site and lots of other right wing web pages around the internet is now being scrubbed of such material.
The last word goes to comedian Frank Conniff:
Sarah Palin is the annointed one and only plays the victim not the perp’.
The neocons who saw Palin as a GWB like puppet are now scrambling to her defense, in hopes that she might still have a shot (sorry…that was not meant to be violent) at being this nations president. I think a witch commerical is in the offing. “Hi. I’m Sarah Palin. I’m not a vigilante. I’m you.”
Palin does everything to be controversial and to gain news access. She cashes in on popularity yet she is without substance. Her actions and comments are over emphasized in importance giving her more authority and power than she deserves.
Palin symbolize american hypocrisy in every word she utters. Let’s not forget about her bragging to wait until she would reach Alaska to give birth to her child though she new her water broke in another state! She was ready to put not only herself, the plane crew in danger but also could have caused the death and injury to her unborn child!!! How anyone could trust such a reckless person with decision making.
I understand she has to feed her family, yet she is like this negative worker who makes the life of everyone miserable a “well poisoner” that during the accountability check refuses responsibility, and get ahead.
Though I am tempted to click on the links about Palin and her controversies I am doing my best not to be drawn into her stupidity. After all she another glitter and cliche of the corporate media.
I am calling to boycott her words.
I’d file this under “The company you keep”, an interesting read on the edits being made to Palin’s facebook page:
link to obamalondon.blogspot.com
Is that Frank Conniff none other than “TV’s Frank”,Dr.Forrester’s dogsbody from MST3K??
It has occurred to me that much of the draw of Fox is the pundits they hire to get people excited (titillated (sp?), is probably a better word), and the right wing/fascist perspective has always been easier for the broader population to grasp. A demagogue like Palin is motivated by her personal narcissicism, but it is clear where she’ll find herself appreciated, as Americas top MILTF. For people like her, this sort of thing is a matter of practicality and she becomes a product of our times.
The root problem, or causation, I suspect is the homogenization of life in the US: it has become one big soul-less, secular, strip mall. You can take a long trip by whatever means you choose, and outside of Queens, or other big city immigrant communities, it has become one big franchise. Sure, there are a few scrappy start-ups sandwiched in between the franchises, but there business model is to build-up, sell-out, and move on. There is no difference between Orlando, Dallas, or Fresno, except for the weather. Into this vacuum of meaning must come something: mass market churches, based on a similar depth of spirituality. Something seems to be needed to get the blood moving in this spiritual wasteland, and righteousness of pretty much any sort is going to have to be at its core. And if this is the case, we have a problem.
Travis, we always have drugs & pr0n.
Palin is acting like a psychopath.
Some great post up at Huff Po about “Words have consequences”
link to huffingtonpost.com
Also Senator Kyl blaming the Arizona Sheriff for his words of truth
Go after Assange like bin-Laden? Is that a joke? Julian would be able to rest easier.
Sarah does have quite the history of repeating violent statements. I would be in prison if I (peasant) said things like Sarah has repeated.
“surveryor’s symbol” what manipulative hooey
link to theatlantic.com
MANSOUR: I just want to clarify again, and maybe it wasn’t done on the record enough by us when this came out, the graphic, is just, it’s basically — we never, ever, ever intended it to be gunsights. It was simply crosshairs like you see on maps.
BRUCE: Well, it’s a surveyor’s symbol. It’s a surveyor’s symbol.
MANSOUR: It’s a surveyor’s symbol. I just want to say this, Tammy, if I can. This graphic was done, not even done in house — we had a political graphics professional who did this for us.
While there is no evidence the alleged Tuscon shooter ever saw the electoral target list of SarahPAC, Palin’s political action committee — let alone took it to heart as an instruction — what is clear is that Palin’s history with weaponized rhetoric and imagery will be — and already has been — cast in a new light by the shooting in Arizona. And the former Alaska governor seems certain to continue to draw unflattering attention in the months ahead, if only because martial metaphors have been such an essential part of the Palin rhetorical quiver and we are now entering a moment of reflection on the wisdom of brandishing such tropes.
Whatever her aide now says about the target list, there is no question that Palin has reveled in creating a political image bristling with weaponry and gun talk, from her support for aerial wolf-hunting to her hunting and halibut-clubbing adventures on TLC’s show “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.”
Indeed, the same day Palin posted the image with the scopes over congressional districts on her Facebook page, she tweeted, “Don’t retreat, Instead – RELOAD” and asked her followers to check out her Facebook page for details.
Does she not think there is a record of her statements? I know she is hoping the general public, more concerned with their livlihood, will only catch the headlines and not pay attention to her totured explanations.
In Palin’s released statement, she has the gall to say she hates wars, when just last week she was towing the AIPAC line by saying Obama is a weak sister for not bombing Iran.
I love it when the hacks tell us not to believe our lying eyes.
Prof Cole/All
Thought you might be interested
link to mondoweiss.net
Mossad chief’s statement removes Iranian nuclear threat (Will the ‘Atlantic’ report it here?)
by Philip Weiss on January 10, 2011 · 4 comments
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I’ve missed this important story entirely. But last week Meir Dagan, the head of the Israeli Mossad, pooh-poohed the Iranian threat in a briefing with journalists by saying that the Iranians wouldn’t have a bomb for many years. The statement has pulled the rug out from under Netanyahu’s feet– and not just his. It has made Jeffrey Goldberg look even more like a pliant stenographer to Netanyahu (as Roger Cohen labelled him) in his willingness to pipe Netanyahu’s urgency about the alleged threat and urging to the U.S. to take action. Remember, The Atlantic ran Goldberg’s alarmist piece, “The Point of No Return,” last September.
So what is a “surveryor’s mark”
link to google.com
they’re registration marks used in the printing industry to line up the different plates on a press for color printing. you used to be about to buy a roll of tape imprinted with the marks for use in page makeup back in the day when this was all done by human hands.
Three cheers for TV’s Frank! :D
Sarah “I quit” Palin lacked the courage to finish her term as governor. I think she would learn to keep her mouth shut if and when she is named in a wrongful death lawsuit.
Think about it, where would this country be if we allowed a big mouthed quitter to assume the highest office?
We need to grow up and stop all this demonizing and antagonism. Conniff’s tweet is all rife with hatred. Yesterday’s commentaries continually nitpicked and flared with antagonism. This country’s political idealism from the founders deserves better than this kindergarten approach to politics.
Palin is just a mini GWB. Case in point. Palin acted as she did and fueled the fires along with many of those well named in our world of NEWS. The results are on the news all the time now. The debate is on of who is to blame. Then not so long ago I seem to recall cheney,bush,rumsfield,rice and others who were hell bent on going to war in Iraq. They used lies, fabrications, distortions, ruined lives and reputations and basically sold us the fuel needed to do what they wanted done. We know the truths now. How wrong they were to use this country as they did. The difference is between these 2, one shooter killed some and wounded others, the other, killed 4000 of our troops and 100,000 + from another country and for what??? Blown out of proportion propaganda for there own self interests. It only takes one unhinged mind to get the ball rolling and it will take a nation to stop it if it so desires.
Great post. I wish more Americans understood the statement you just wrote. To Paraphrase a Palin line… What is the difference between Palin and GWB? Lipstick!
“We have such sights to show you”
Oh, to be Satan’s personal “fluffer”.
Perhaps the Palin will go back to Alaska, content to club halibut, leaving the rest of us in peace..
Keep thinking about how our intelligence agencies go after Muslim leaders who incite individuals to do violence over the web etc. When will they go after Palin, Beck, Limbaugh etc.
Thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost family members due to this violence
Good point. President Obama has already claimed the power to summarily kill American citizens — at least, those with “muslim sounding” surnames — for “instigating” or “encouraging” or “rooting for” or “thinking about” or “plotting” or “imagining” or “materially supporting” whatever he wants to designate as “terrorist” activities. Logically extended, this self-granted “power” to “terminate” “terrorists” would seem to make Sarah Palin eligible for “early retirement,” if you follow the dog-whistle implications.
That is indeed TV’s Frank.
@Brian Frakes – yes, it is TV’s Frank.
This is what happens when someone who knows nothing about both politics and human nature/sociology attempts to sway those to her side. Ignorance at work.
4:38 PM ET Barbara Walters: ‘I’m Feeling Bad For Sarah Palin’
Television news legend Barbara Walters came to Sarah Palin’s defense today on ABC’s “The View.”
Per The Daily Caller:
“I’m feeling bad for Sarah Palin because I don’t think that’s what she should have said, and certainly crosshairs are very scary,” Walters said. “This is a deranged young man. This is a Timothy McVeigh. Whether this happened because there is violence – too much commentary, too much violence as you say we’ve talked about. Sometimes we do it here we get so angry.”
Walters added she hoped this might offer time for introspection in terms of political rhetoric, but told viewers that this wasn’t the time to place blame.
link to huffingtonpost.com
“Whether that speared him on or whether he is just a very sick person, we don’t know,” she continued. “We don’t know what his motives are and we can hope that all the vitriol calms down. But to blame Sarah Palin as some are doing I think is very unfair to her. She issued a statement offering her condolences and hasn’t said more. But I don’t think this is the time now to start finding – you should excuse me – other targets to blame.”
There might be a few ‘unintended consequences’ to ol’ gun totin’ lots-a-shootin’ Sarah Palin. Her reality television show has not been renewed…although no explanation has been given.
I did read somewhere that after the first show, her ratings were sliding downhill. Kinda like the book sales of her second book.
I’m thinking getting caught lying about the tweets and the crosshairs isn’t helping. Although Glenn Sobbing Beck apparently believes that if anything happened to Sarah, it would ‘bring the republic down’. No, it would just bring Sarah Palin down, and maybe lower the Republicans just a little. By ‘happened to’, I mean things like…not having a reality show, or another book contract, and maybe having Fakes News distance themselves from her a little. No crosshairs, please.
Some good advice from Stephen Walt
link to walt.foreignpolicy.com
RE: “90% sucess rate; T’aint bad” – Palin’s tweet
T’aint @ ‘Urban Dictionary’ – link to urbandictionary.com
Don’t Retreat, instead RELOAD
End Kenyan Muslim Socialism
Chris Matthews uses Sarah Palin Pac map on Hardball
He has been howling about the inflammatory and violent rhetoric and the bring the guns by tea party members
link to msnbc.msn.com
‘surveyor’s symbol.’
damn, that is so *wholesome* !
who isn’t reminded of America’s “first surveyor” George Washington?
.. but, really, Palin may resemble Reagan in terms of being an “empty vessel” – a political spokesmodel, essentially – but she possesses a certain .. core nastiness that couldn’t be further from the role that Reagan consistently played (with the exception of 1964’s “The Killers”[!]).
Wow, where does she go from here?? She hasn’t paid back her backers enough yet to keep screwing up like this time after time. Palin does her featured home network defense and plays victim. That seems to have backfired bigtime. She should fire her speech writers and try again. Now she will sit at fox news with hannity and play the game again. That should be as interesting as a bevis and butt head cartoon. I am sure she will feel no pressure there with hannity holding her hand and walking her through it even after practicing a few dozen times.
It would probably do her some self serving good to look up words she seems to not understand like ,commonsense,dignified,responsibility,compassion. The words she absolutly understands are money,rage,guns,killing and of course, ME ME ME. It seems her future and her small amount of followers are picking up speed as to being reclaimed back to dust. Personally I hope she sticks around long enough to go through the gop primary process. I love watching them chew each other up instead of doing what they do when not burping gop gas. entertainment at it’s finest. For the love of country, I surly hope we keep moving up the ladder instead of falling into oblivion.