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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Sarah Palin, Blood Libels, And More News From Arizona

1) The Teabaggers are turning on moderate Republicans down in Arizona:

A nasty battle between factions of Legislative District 20 Republicans and fears that it could turn violent in the wake of what happened in Tucson on Saturday prompted District Chairman Anthony Miller and several others to resign.

Miller, a 43-year-old Ahwatukee Foothills resident and former campaign worker for U.S. Sen. John McCain, was re-elected to a second one-year term last month. He said constant verbal attacks after that election and Internet blog posts by some local members with Tea Party ties made him worry about his family's safety.


2) Sarah Palin's use of the term "blood libel" to describe the criticisms levelled at her in the wake of the Tuscon shooting is crazy, of course. One theory is that she found this crimson bauble of a word in an earlier column by Glen Reynolds and used it without knowing the meaning. Another is that she first intended to claim that she was being subjected to a "witch hunt", but didn't want to offend fellow Republican Christine O'Donnel.

3) All this outrage from American Conservatives/teabaggers is a desperate feint. If Sarah Palin didn't at some level perceive her own measure of responsibility for this tragedy, she wouldn't have pulled that gun-site graphic from her Facebook page; she wouldn't have had one of her aides make the ridiculous claim that the symbols weren't rifle sites but surveyor's marks. If Glenn Beck didn't at some level perceive his own measure of responsibility, he wouldn't have scrubbed that image of him looking like a middle-aged, over-weight James Bond wannabe--holding, of course, a handgun--from his website.

They know.

18 comments:

  1. ABSOLUTELY!! Good post and thanks for the logic!!

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  2. What's really creepy is how many on the right are defending Palin's use of the term, including ever reliable Alan Dershowitz, a man who would be railing against the use of the term had a non-conservative spoken it.

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  3. The Left has really jumped the shark on this issue.

    Sarah Palin's use of the term "blood libel" to describe the criticisms levelled at her in the wake of the Tuscon shooting is crazy - BCL

    Not according to Alan Dershowitz who said:

    "There is nothing improper and certainly nothing anti-Semitic in Sarah Palin using the term . . ."

    . . she wouldn't have pulled that gun-site graphic from her Facebook page - BCL

    The graphic has no relevance or linkage to any crime anywhere. Whether she left it up or took it down, you would have objected so your criticism is simply hypocritical.

    When someone is unfairly slandered with the accusation of being responsible for mass murder, charges the left likes to make without basis in fact, it is imperative that a person defend themselves vigorously from such scurrilous charges. Good on Sarah.

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  4. US Jewish leaders slam Palin's use of the term...

    http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/u-s-jewish-leaders-slam-sarah-palin-s-blood-libel-accusation-1.336653

    Bear in mind that Giffords is Jewish and Palin is not. But I think Palin is just too stupid to know the meaning of the term.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. @Paul S

    Glad to see the Palin-porn posters on your wall have no effect on your judgment? BTW your mommy would like you to STOP jerking off into the towels she keeps for guests in the basement bathroom! Cause if you are going to continue to live in your parents basement - you must obey the rules.

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  7. There is no argument leftdog. Just false, malicious and unfounded accusations by the left.

    Before 9 year old Christina Green's body was even cold, the Left was using this tragedy as cover in an attempt to take out some political enemies.

    ". . . they ought to have him and shoot him. Put him against the wall and shoot him . . . "

    - Democratic Rep. Paul Kanjorski speaking of his opponent in October 2010

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  8. Paul S,

    That's one of the reasons Kanjorski lost his seat. In any case, Paul S gets one more comment and then goes away for awhile.

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  9. When people resign their positions due to a fear of violence from members of their own party then that party has a major problem and needs to do some serious soul searching

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  10. I've upset the inmates. OK, here's my post BCL.

    Loughner is smiling like a Cheshire cat in his mug shot because he knows the Left is doing everything in their power to find him innocent of the mass killing and pin the blame on a woman from Alaska instead.

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  11. Paul S. whined "Loughner is smiling like a Cheshire cat in his mug shot because he" Laughner is smiling like a Cheshire Cat because he is bat shit fucking crazy.

    I think Palin may have finally shoot herself in the foot over this issue,... But even if she hasn't, I'm sure she "will reload". Oh and I want Palin to run 2012, that will give her even more "Reload" opportunities.

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  12. Why do I suspect that some of the people who are upset at Palin for misusing the phrase "blood libel" themselves have called Gaza a "concentration camp."

    I agree with Holly Stick that Palin likely had no insight into the history of the term.

    Broadly speaking, there seems to be a sense that this whole tragic episode will finish off Palin. I disagree. I thought she was finished beforehand. Now I think she's been martyred for effectively being an accomplice or accessory to murder, a charge so over the top that she will be the beneficiary of a fair bit of sympathy.

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  13. Anonymous6:25 PM

    As an American, I don't think anything could generate mass amounts of sympathy for Palin. Opinions are pretty much cemented at this point. She has a devoted fan base who would (literally perhaps) drink any koolaid she might offer them. However, many a good conservative detests her. I know a few of them myself, and they would never be mistaken for progressive or liberal folk in any sense of the word.

    One of them describes her every utterance as grating fingernails across the national chalkboard. Not exactly the sentiment one might expect a "persuadable" member of the Republican tent to express openly.

    She is, to put it nicely, a bit too obvious in her less than lofty pursuits. Sarah cares about Sarah, and that pretty much is the extent of her attention span.

    My real comment tonight, however, is to congratulate BCL for a good find. This particular wrinkle in the events of recent days has thus far slid under the radar to the media, and even many progressive blogs, in the US. It is indeed telling when an official in a party resigns due to fears of violence against him or his family from members of his own party.

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  14. who are upset at Palin for misusing the phrase "blood libel" themselves have called Gaza a "concentration camp."

    Not for a second accepting your point, but do you actually think that "concentration camp" is exclusively reserved for Nazi Germany? Really? Get yourself a dictionary man.

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  15. The anti-Zionists have appropriated lots of terms from Jewish experience to describe their own experience ("diaspora" being a good and not so provocative example). Society at large also has long used many other terms from Jewish history and broadened their usage ("ghetto" being an example). I don't see "blood libel" as being offensive if it was used to argue that conservatives are collectively being smeared as being responsible for the massacre, a notion that Obama strongly repudiated. If she was using it to refer to herself, it's a little more objectionable, but not such a big deal.

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  16. MM,

    She's being accused of contributing to a coarsening of the political discourse in the U.S. Seems a bit of a distance from drinking the blood of babies to me.

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