Jeffrey Goldberg:

Palin has this week argued vociferously against the building of a mosque near the site of Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. She calls the idea of a mosque there a provocation. But it is her opposition to the building of a mosque that is provocative. The organization that hopes to build the mosque, the Cordoba Initiative, is a moderate Muslim group, striving for better relations between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. It is in the direct interest of American national security to strengthen those groups that argue against Islamism. Palin’s opposition to the mosque — and by extension, to the enfranchisement of moderate Muslims — is a gift to Islamists, proof to their potential followers that America is as intolerant of Islam as Europe is, proof that it is America, not Islam, that wants to see our civilizations clash. We as a society should embrace those Muslims who want to live the American dream; their lives, as free, devout and proud Muslims in a diverse country, are a refutation of the radical notion that the West is forever aligned against the interests of Muslim believers. Opposing the building of mosques by anti-jihadist Muslim groups in this country is perhaps the best way to radicalize American Muslims not otherwise prone to radicalization.

Who cares if someone who may well be the GOP nominee in 2012 might have concocted a massive lie to appeal to a pro-life base and doubled down on it, knowing that the MSM would never have the balls to ask for any actual proof? Indeed, who cares?

The more revealing point Dave makes is that what truly matters in journalism is not truth but “reputation.” Almost every single one of my peers in September 2008 told me not to ask these questions because it would hurt my “reputation”. Many of them privately conceded that there could be something fishy here (many privately outright disbelieve Palin’s stories) but one’s “reputation” as a “serious” journalist forbade one from even inquiring.

Remember, it’s sullying your reputation about a woman who tweeted this.

She’s also the fucking frontrunner in 2012.

The other day there was a singularly horrible piece about the China UFO issue on the Christian Science Monitor. It ended this way:

Of course, journalistic balance requires us to hear from the other side, too. So here goes: According to latestufosightings.us, UFOs are a government cover-up. They believe the government is building a large “Death Star.”

Ha ha ha. That post seemed so biased as to appear to be disinformation. I wrote a comment saying as much – reasonably critical. Hasn’t been posted. How will we ever get to the bottom of important topics if reporters are so cowardly? It’s what makes the Top Secret America article so refreshing. Occasionally the MSM can do its job. But part of me of course wonders if the fourteen-story spy bases are quietly investigating the UFO issue. But that’ll never make it into the Washington Post.

Note: Adding comments has been disabled for this video.

As Andrew Sullivan writes:

Froomkin was fired for opposing torture a little too passionately; Weigel was forced out because his private emails revealed he was not acceptable to the partisan right; Frum is cut off from conservative blogads funding; Moulitsas is barred from MSNBC for criticizing Joe Scarborough; and Octavia Nasr is fired for offending the pro-Israel lobby over a tweet expressing sadness at the death of a Hezbollah leader.

Adding to that, the New York Times whitewashes torture from its pages.  It’s only the right that receives this kind of special treatment.  And Sarah Palin’s never given a true press conference, giving propaganda such as this a louder voice because it’s not given a counter.

I’m still not totally afraid because whenever Palin opens her mouth it’s invariably dumb, but the fact that she’s able to get this far is terrifying enough.

When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics.

Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler’s rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.

“Useful idiots” was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.

Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive.

She’s savvy – she criticizes Obama for exactly what could be said about herself and her supporters.  Yes, matching hyperbole with hyperbole, but her supporters are idiotic.  Because while she’s complaining about Obama seeking financial restitution from BP, she’s extorting money from her supporters (emphasis added):

The pitbull was nowhere to be found Thursday when Petumenos unveiled a settlement between Palin and the state agreeing that she’d illegally created something called “The Alaska Fund Trust” to raise more than $360,000 to defend herself against those state ethics complaints and more. Petumenos highlighted the more, noting the trust’s “‘Crummy Provision’ that permits a beneficiary under the Trust to demand withdrawals from the Trust for any reason whatsoever.”

The settlement agreement, which was worked out largely between Petumenos and Thomas Van Flein, Palin’s personal attorney, went on to say that the provision was merely included to “prevent the donors from being required to file gift tax returns (with the IRS) in connection with their donations.” But Petumenous pointed out that the way the trust was written there was nothing to stop Palin from using the money for anything she wanted.

You can argue (if you like) that Global Warming is not man made, or it can’t be stopped, but you cannot argue that inclement weather is not a national security issue. Suppose another 9-11 happened during another Katrina. Emergency resources would be cut in half. It’s very much a national security issue. 1200 people dying in Katrina is not just “the weather.”

What’s worse is that Fiorina probably knows this. What separates Palin is that she’s as stupid as her supporters. She’s not always manipulating them – she’s a nutcase who so believes in herself that she believes in her lies as gospel. Palin is truly a fictional character – which is part of her appeal. She doesn’t seem to belong to the real world – while her supporters, overcome by a similar dementia, tout her as one of them. To be one with Palin is to experience a religious kind of ecstacy, in which your experiencing the same fictional reality together. This is why Palin’s lies are getting more blatant, as Christianism constructs its own reality. Palin is a priest of the stupid.  Fiorina is not that demented – she’s merely playing to the idiot id of the right.

Say what you will about Obama being a corporatist and not doing nearly enough to fix our horrid situation, but he does not represent ignorance. He doesn’t tell people to ignore facts. It is not much of a surprise this happens – because if you don’t believe in the theory of evolution, why would you believe in climate science? Once you let one fictional story control your world – especially something as huge and unknowable as God – then you can just pick and choose what you want to be true.

Demon sheep.

Rage Underground seems like something to watch.

Meanwhile, Palin says,

As far too many in the media, and in various governments, rush to condemn Israel, we must put the recent events off Israel’s coast into the right perspective. This “relief” convoy was not about humanitarian aid, as the liberal mainstream media keeps reporting. The whole operation was designed to provoke Israel, not to provide supplies to Palestinians held hostage by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Anyone who sees the video of Israeli commandos being attacked as they land on that ship knows the people aboard were vicious thugs, not “peace activists.” The media insults our intelligence with their outright mischaracterization of who these enemies are.

Ackerman:

A generation ago, Norman Podhoretz and Irving Kristol, two Jewish writers whose work has helped shape the conservative agenda in America, argued that American Jews ought to get over their residual fears of what was then known as the “Christian right” and embrace them as fellow lovers of Israel, even if that love is predicated on a millenarism in which the Savior eventually rids the world of Jews who fail to see His light. Pew’s findings have made them prophetic. And there is new mortar for the bonds of this conservative American-Israeli coalition: mutual hatred for Barack Obama, the American president whose meagre efforts to midwife a two-state solution have been greeted with contempt by Netanyahu.

Netanyahu offers the evangelicals a key defeat for Obama’s foreign-policy agenda, helping pave the way for a conservative restoration. The evangelicals offer Netanyahu rear-guard counter-pressure against Obama’s peacemaking efforts. They are not likely to fret about dead or dying Palestinians or dead “aid workers” – or are they terrorists? – aboard a flotilla off of Gaza. They share Netanyahu’s instinctual contempt for humanitarian do-gooders, his opprobrium for international institutions, and his antipathy to an independent Palestine as an endgame for the conflict.

Israel isn’t an American ally, it’s an American right ally, also known as the American Taliban.

If Sarah Palin played a loud, grinding instrument, she would be in my band. The independent patriotic spirit, attitude and soul of our forefathers are alive and well in Sarah. In the way she lives, what she says and how she dedicates herself to make America better in these interesting times, she represents the good, while exposing the bad and ugly.

This would be their theme song:

A day of “fucks” on the blog, but replace Sarah Palin with America and it’s the exact same message:

Sarah Palin, FUCK YEAH!
Coming again to save the motherfucking day yeah
Sarah Palin, FUCK YEAH!
Freedom is the only way yeah
Terrorist your game is through cause now you have to answer to
Sarah Palin, FUCK YEAH!

On Palin, Sullivan writes:

Yes, many tea-partiers do not think Palin is “qualified” to be president. But primaries are won by enthusiasm and star power. Palin has both. And she has money. And, most important, she has a media machine dedicated to promoting her outside of any real scrutiny or questions. She has never faced a real press conference and speaks to “pre-screened” questioners at debates and speeches. She is a test-case of how willfully divorced from reality a segment of America can remain, and how irrelevant reality is for today’s niche-targeted media. All of this makes Palin the most potent force in American politics since Obama.

Know dope.

In commercials for Domino’s Pizza, the chain’s employees wage a never ending battle against the Noid, a gremlin who delays deliveries and carries a gun that can turn a pizza ice cold. Many viewers are amused by the Noid, Domino’s says, but one of them took the advertising campaign personally. Last week Kenneth Noid, 22, walked into a Domino’s Pizza shop in Chamblee, Ga., with a .357 Magnum revolver and took two employees hostage. When police arrived, he demanded $100,000 in cash, a getaway car and a copy of The Widow’s Son, a 1985 novel about secret societies in an 18th century Parisian prison.

All Noid got was the pizza he ordered. After a five-hour siege, the two employees slipped away and Noid gave himself up. According to police, Noid has “psychological problems” and believes that he has an “ongoing dispute with Tom Monaghan,” the head of the Detroit-based Domino’s chain.

This is The Widow’s Son:

Just took a trip to Denver for the AWP conference – discussion revolved around how to promote a book.  Best way to sell books was determined that I could throw a copy of my novel at Sarah Palin at some public appearance, ala this:

How arrested would I be if I threw a book at a former Vice-Presidential candidate?  I’m not the book throwing type – nor do I want an American Taliban Fatwa on me ala Rushdie, which would be likely to happen.  What I need is a Noid character to chuck a book in Sarah Palin’s general direction.

All of this serves as grist for the MSM propaganda machine to ostensibly scare people away from the patriot movement, or to scare patriots from the militias. l

As anti-right militia as I am, the timing of this is fairly odd. Health care passes, conservatives freak out, hysteria is growing, and violence begins to feel inevitable. Now this. An argument could be made that this high-profile raid is actually necessary to stamp out what exactly what the paranoid poster mentions above.

Would I feel differently if this was a left-wing group targeted by the Bush administration?  No, not if they were hiding out in the forest (video) planning on killing cops, or anybody.  This isn’t an action against “dissent” or even gun ownership, it’s against plotting terrorism.  I know that with the Patriot Act, anybody can be deemed a terrorist and arrested, but these guys are obviously on another level.  Where the right wing loses any ground is when they start talking about how this is an example of Obama stamping on our “freedoms” without once mentioning that the Hutaree movement is a band of lunatics:

The Doctrine of the Hutaree is based on faith and most of all the testimony of Jesus. Hebrews 11:1, ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, The Evidence of things not yet seen.’

Jesus spoke of the ten virgins in Matthew 25: 1-12. The wise ones took enough oil to last the whole night, just in case the bridegroom was late. The foolish ones took not enough oil to last the whole night and figured that the bridegroom would arrive earlier than he did.

These bridegrooms represent the Christian church of today. The oil, just as Jesus explained, represented faith. If you read the story right, you find out that the people with enough faith to last as long as it might take are the wise ones. They know and believe in the testimony of Christ, even through the darkest and most doubtful of times. This day is soon.

The foolish ones are the ones who expect Christ to arrive too soon. They have brought for themselves only enough oil to last for a short time, having not enough faith to last through the darkest hours. When the time comes for those without enough faith, they will fall to the Anti-Christ’s doctrine. And it will make perfect sense to the whole world; even the elect.

We all as Christians should stand firm in Christ and believe in him until our uttermost end. The testimony must by no means pass away and we must spread the word believing in Christ’s words, even during the end times.

Now when that hour Christ arrives the foolish ones would have already left their waiting mark, their place in Christ. Then when he comes over, trumpets blowing, and clouds flowing, the wise ones will come to him in the clouds and into heaven. The foolish will then remember what they were ‘supposed to do’ and cry out loud to God and knock on heaven’s door. But read and you’ll find that it says that when the door is shut no one enters afterwards. They will knock and he will say, “Away with you, for I know you not.

I Peter 5:11, ‘And this is the Testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.’

Believe in this word and spread it to all you can. Stand, stay and pray for the defense of the word. For we live by faith and cannot see nor understand what we believe, entirely, but nevertheless the reward is worth it in the end.

ETERNAL LIFE IS IN JESUS, AMEN.

Of course there is no difference between this and Muslim car bombers. And until you can admit that, your outrage over Obama overstepping is meaningless. Meanwhile, Palin is truly a lunatic and doubles down on her target analogy:

To the teams that desire making it this far next year: Gear up! In the battle, set your sights on next season’s targets! From the shot across the bow – the first second’s tip-off – your leaders will be in the enemy’s crosshairs, so you must execute strong defensive tactics. You won’t win only playing defense, so get on offense! The crossfire is intense, so penetrate through enemy territory by bombing through the press, and use your strong weapons – your Big Guns – to drive to the hole. Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win.

Because threatening the lives of congresspeople and encouraging the likes of Hutaree is hilarious. Conclusion: Sarah Palin wants people to die.  Amazing in our backwards world that people who so loudly tout “freedom” are proto-fascists.

Here’s Alex Jones targeting one of the guys who was arrested, Pale Horse.  Alex Jones, in Jonesian fashion, claims the guy is an FBI plant to make militias look bad – which is really the claim against this entire arrest. So if the guy’s called a “material witness” or something, cue additional hysteria.  Really, I imagine Jones is calling this guy out so he won’t be tied to him should something happen.