Tonight the Red Phone is ringing for Sarah Palin.
We are all familiar, sadly, with Dr. Laura's bizarre and unintentionally revealing N-word rant from her radio program.
We are all also familiar with jealous sore loser and demagogue-in-chief Sarah Palin's response to Dr. Larua's decision (as for now) to quit her radio show:
Dr.Laura:don't retreat...reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence"isn't American,not fair")
5:14 AM Aug 19th via Twitter for BlackBerry®
Dr.Laura=even more powerful & effective w/out the shackles, so watch out Constitutional obstructionists. And b thankful 4 her voice,America!
5:14 AM Aug 19th via Twitter for BlackBerry®
So the word in question here is "Ni--er" and Sarah Palin apparently does not have a problem with Dr. Laura's use of that word. In fact - she advises her to "reload" - whatever the hell that means in this context! (I'm sure Palin has no thought of shifting the Overton Window to the extreme right on the racism issue - Heavens no! That never would have occurred to Sarah - she's only concerned about Free Speech! Right...)
Anyway - "Ni--ger" ok but "Retarded" - not ok:
Former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin posted a note on her Facebook page late Monday calling for President Obama to fire his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for comments he made that she said were offensive to children with developmental disabilities.
In the Facebook posting entitled “Are You Capable of Decency, Rahm Emanuel?,” Palin called for his firing for comments attributed to him in a Jan. 26 Wall Street Journal article where he called plans by liberal groups to run ads against moderate Democrats "F—ing retarded."
But then Palin's posting went on to say this:
“Just as we’d be appalled if any public figure of Rahm’s stature ever used the “N-word” or other such inappropriate language, Rahm’s slur on all God’s children with cognitive and developmental disabilities – and the people who love them – is unacceptable, and it’s heartbreaking,” the post continued.
Sarah, we have a problem. Here you are in February of 2010 writing that the N-word is inappropriate from a public figure. And then in August 2010 you're cheering Dr. Laura on when she uses the N-word multiple times.
(Please don't tell me Palin will now try to argue that Dr. Laura somehow falls outside Palin's wide-ranging, blanket admonition against use of the term. How lame, trite and predictable that would be. How many times is Palin going to try to split this hair? BTW - when Sarah quit her job I thought she pledged to be an advocate for special needs children. Other than politically exploiting Rahm's reported remarks, what else exactly has she done?)
And let's not forget this Palin tweet:
Helen Thomas press pals condone racist rant?Heaven forbid"esteemed"press corps represent society's enlightened elite;Rest of us choose truth
Condoning racist rants. Who would do such a despicable thing?
In order to test the right to Free Speech that Sarah Palin asserts Dr. Laura (and therefore I) have, I am sorely, sorely tempted to call Sarah Palin "retarded". However, I will not. I won't let her off with any excuse whatsoever for her words and actions. Her thuggish attacks willfully launched from the safety of her twitter bunker (because she's apparently too fearful to respond to any question, challenge, or criticism in real time, and rightly so) show her for what she is: a fear-mongering coward with a juvenile, hate-filled mindset, lashing out in a never-ending series of muddled, semi-literate, self-contradictory mini-screeds, who is genuinely ignorant and without question unfit to be a leader of any kind.
She has national stature. If she has something serious to say or suggest to the President, then contact him for a meeting and talk to him like a grown up - face to face. Be a freakin' adult, for God's sake. Obama had a beer summit! He's a very nice man, and a much better person than you, Sarah. He would meet with you if you asked.
But Palin has shown she does not possess the political clout, emotional maturity or basic common decency to approach the matter in that way. She has no idea how to present her ideas in a serious forum and persuade others using logic, knowledge, skill, restraint, maturity and finesse.
Instead, she shoots spitballs from the back of the classroom and giggles uncontrollably.
Instead, she makes childish, offensive cheap shots and petty insults about the President's "cojones".
The spitter from twitter.
The quitter from twitter.
Does she think this conduct is indicative of someone who deserves to be a leader of the free world? Seems more like a schoolyard bully to me. She is way out of her league.
(As an aside, would this "sympathy" for the 9/11 victims being used to override the Bill of Rights and religious freedom for the Ground Zero-adjacent mosque be anything like the wretched "empathy" that the rabid right-wing howled about in connection with Obama's nomination of Justice Sotomayor? Just asking. Perhaps Professor Palin can enlighten us on the difference.)
@SarahPalinUSA - I refudiate you.