Sarah Palin, Hypocrite

In recent interviews Sarah Palin has decried the abuse she has taken from the press over such things as her $150,000 wardrobe and the troopergate scandal. It's because she's a woman, she says, that she gets such negative press. She's "hurt" that they would treat her that way.

But then she turns around yesterday and says this about Obama's associations with Bill Ayers and Dr. Jeremiah Wright in an interview with the scurrilous Sean Hannity:

"What did those characters see in Barack Obama? Why would they have wanted to be associated with him?"

Note what she's insinuating here, that there must be something wrong not with Obama's policies, but with his character. It is character assassination of the most vile form. A man she labels a "terrorist" another "anti-American" are attracted to Obama because they see something of themselves in him. And then she repeats the canard that is patently untrue - that Obama launched his campaign in Ayer's living room as though Ayers himself was behind it.

So what are we to assume here? That it's OK for Sarah Palin to traffic in character assassination and National Enquirer-type slander, but not for the press to take a critical look at her own behaivor? Are we to do as she does - simply dismiss the finding of the investigative body that shows without a doubt that she was guilty of abusing her governor's office, or ask no questions about why it was necessary for her to use Republican campaign funds to buy an extravagant wardrobe for herself and her family while claiming middle-class angst?

The Obama campaign has studiously avoided engaging in the kind of spurious, slanderous attacks Palin and McCain have used to try to discredit their opponents. They have not questioned her character, even though there is good reason to do so. In fact, the one time Obama was asked to speak directly to the question of whether or not he felt Palin was qualified to be president, he did what he could to praise her. Her response has been to find more ways to slime Obama.

There is no reason whatsoever for anyone to feel sorry for what the press has done to Sarah Palin. If anything they've been far too lenient. It's time they took off the kid gloves to expose what she is really about -- pure, unbridled self aggrandizing power.

My Tea with a 'Terrorist', or Yet Another Reason Why Sarah Palin is Clueless

So the second presidential debate is over. If anyone still thinks that John McCain is a compelling presidential candidate after this, well, they must have just arrived from Mars.

But this is a blog about Sarah Palin, so let me leave you tonight with a great piece from a man who . . . are you ready for this . . . . had tea with the notorious William Ayers. Yes, that's right. He had tea with a terrorist.

Are you listening, Sarah Palin??

From Seattlepi.com

Connelly: My tea with a 'terrorist'

By JOEL CONNELLY
P-I COLUMNIST

AFTER HEARING the unleashed Sarah Palin accuse Sen. Barack Obama of "pallin' around with terrorists" -- and John McCain's brother call northern Virginia "communist country" -- this scribe is moved to a confession.

Onetime Weathermen leader William Ayers, the target in Palin's day of rage, was once a guest in my kitchen. Not only that, but I brewed him a pot of tea and heated up a bagel.

Ayers consorted with our family's standard poodle, S'Murphy Brown, after she extended a paw to the top of his knee.

Circumstances don't matter in wing nuts' land of guilt-by-association, but I had no choice.

The Hi Spot Cafe, notorious liberal hangout in Madrona -- Seattle's equivalent to Chicago's Hyde Park -- had just closed. We needed to do an interview about Ayers' memoir "Fugitive Days," a timely topic since the terrorist atrocity of 9/11 had taken place just 16 days earlier.

The 2008 presidential campaign has taken an ugly turn. In tones reminiscent of Joe McCarthy in the 1950s, John McCain's campaign seeks to tie Obama to Ayers. (The two men are Hyde Park neighbors.) Media have been targeted: An African-American journalist at a Palin rally was reportedly told by someone in the crowd, "Sit down, boy."

It represents an incredible turnaround for a candidate who denounced guilt-by-association just last March.

Asked about Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright, McCain said: "I think that when people support you, it doesn't mean that you support everything they say. I know that, for example, I've had endorsements of some people that I didn't share their views but they endorsed mine. And so I think we've got to be very careful about that."

McCain has since put his soul in blind trust.

Breathlessly, Tuesday, the McCain-Palin campaign put out a "damming" release confirming that Obama "continued to serve on a charitable board" with Ayers even while knowing he participated in such Vietnam-era actions as the "Days of Rage."

What they were doing was deciding how to spend an educational grant from Walter Annenberg, a Republican and Richard Nixon intimate who served as ambassador to Great Britain.

Of Ayers, I am reminded of an old quip by longtime University of Notre Dame President the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C. He reversed the adage about giving people enough rope and they'll hang themselves.

"If you give student dissenters enough time, they'll redeem themselves," said Fr. Ted.

FULL ARTICLE

Sarah Palin and Christian Zionism: Is She or Isn't She?

Interesting new twist on Sarah Palin's fundamentalist church background.

From: www.christianzionism.org

* * *

Sarah Palin and Christian Zionism: Is She or Isn't She?

One month before the presidential election, Republican vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, has re-inserted the subject of Barak Obama's former membership in Jeremiah Wright's church into an already heated campaign. And this despite her running mate's disavowal of this tactic soon after Obama left the church. Many see this as an act of desperation in a campaign that has lost its bearings. Whatever the case what it does is lay open the need to offer a similar kind of critical scrutiny to Sarah Palin's radical church background.

Bruce Wilson, writing in the Huffington Post, suggests that Palin's church affiliation could be and should be an issue in this election, as the particular form of Pentecostalism practiced in the church which played the greatest role in shaping her spiritual life, the Wasilla Assembly of God, represents a radical form of fundamentalist Pentecostalism, so radical that it was repudiated by other Pentecostal churches back in the late '40s:

. . . the excesses of this movement were declared a heresy in 1949 by the General Council of the Assemblies of God, and again condemned through Resolution 16 in 2000. The beliefs and manifestations of the movement include the use of 'strategic level spiritual warfare' to expel territorial demons from American and world cities. Worship includes excessive charismatic manifestations such as hundreds of people falling, 'slain in the spirit,' and congregations laughing, jerking, and shrieking uncontrollably.

For our purposes the more important issue has to do with the fact that this church, as well as the church in which Palin currently worships, is steeped in the kind of dispensationalist theology that undergirds the more extreme forms of ideological Christian Zionism. Key to this theology is a belief in the divine origin of the Israeli state, and the imperative for Christians to offer it unconditional support.

One would assume from this that Sarah Palin is a card carrying member of the Christian Zionist movement. But just as it is valid to question the assumption that Barak Obama absorbed the more radical elements of his pastor's black liberation theology during his time as a member of his congregation, so it is valid to question how much governor Palin absorbed the ideology of her church with regard to its dispensationalist perspective on Israel/Palestine.

There is no doubt that she is a strong supporter of the Israeli state. There is no doubt that this support is grounded in her Christian beliefs. But all that I have read and observed about her suggests that she is less ideologically-driven than politically-driven, defined primarily, as the New York Time's, Frank Rich, put it in a recent op-ed piece, by a "hubristic self-confidence and hyper-ambition."

This explains what is otherwise inexplicable - the quickness with which she affirmed a two state solution to the conflict in Israel/Palestine during the Vice Presidential debate, which an ideologically-driven Christian Zionist would never do. It is borne out, as well, by the fact that she has shown little inclination to wave the Israeli flag in her political career. Yes, she does have an Israeli flag in her office. But so do a lot of other Republican and Democratic politicians, Christian Zionist or not.

What Sarah Palin is mostly about is Sarah Palin. Pure naked ambition. Getting to the top no matter what it takes to get there. Given the fact that pride is one of the seven deadly sins, this is hardly a commendation. But it does throw into question claims that some are making that she and Hagee are in the same Christian Zionist camp.

Of course, we don't know who the real Sarah Palin is. She could be a raving Christian Zionist eager to light the Armaggeddon fuse. We don't know because at this point all we have is the Sarah Palin the Republican party wishes her to be, a persona crafted by her neo-con handlers for the sole purpose of winning an election. But all indications going back to her ascendency up the ladder of Alaskan politics, say that political ambition rather than Christian theology, is the greatest determinant of her positions. Whatever it takes to advance her political career is the real measure of her faith. That's not a reason to vote for her. But it is reason to hold off on attributing radical beliefs to her that may not define who she is at all.

Countdown: Predicting the Palin Strategy

More days to the Palin-Biden Debate


As the time for Sarah Palin's political trial by fire looms closer I thought I would whip out my crystal ball and make some predictions about how she (actually her handlers) might play this.

The key factor in making these predictions is noting what the Telegraph (UK) article cited: that Palin is being prepped for this debate by the same neo-con crowd that developed the Bush strategy in the 2000 and 2004 elections (so much for saying that she and McCain are mavericks. This is business as usual.).

This neo-con crowd is desperate to keep their discredited ideology on the front burners. And now they think they've found a way to do it - by imprinting it on the blank slate which is Sarah Palin. Here's a woman who is clueless about foreign policy, yet desperate to prove she isn't. What better foil to keep the neo-con message alive.

Based on this I think we can expect several things:

• Palin will play the fear card that the neo-con's have played so effectively in past Bush campaigns. Get ready for something subtle that will attempt to stoke the paranoia surrounding Obama's African/Muslim roots. If not that, then something else which will make people question his patriotism.
• Related to this will be Palin's constant reminders that she, with her small town roots and "aw shucks" demeanor, is much more in tune with authentically patriotic American values than urban organizer, Barak Obama. She'll probably be wearing something that will remind people of the flag to underscore this point.
• The ill-advised statement Obama made about guns and religion will be repeated as many times as she can get it in for the same reason listed above. "He's not one of us," will be the underlying theme.
  
• There will be constant references to what the McCain team is claiming to be Obama's extreme liberalism. And somewhere along the line there will be a mention of Obama's neighborly friendship with unrepentant 60's radical , Bill Ayers. Another attempt to say "he's not one of us."
• Although her neo-con handlers may want her to do so, I have a feeling Palin will be hesitant to drop in a reference to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright mainly because she would prefer that her ties to another kind of radical Christianity stay out of the spotlight. But somehow she'll try to leave the impression that Obama is not a good Christian like her.
  

In reference to this last observation, check out this video filmed in Palin's former church when Palin was not only present, but came up to have hands laid upon her: