More South Carolina slime from Haley's political enemies

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We used to think Louisiana took the cake for corrupt politics, but even with all that BP/Obama crude washing up on the Pelican State's shores, it can't hold a candle to South Carolina for filth, at least as far as intraparty mud wrestling and slime slinging goes. From the Associated Press today:

A lobbyist who resigned from a rival political campaign is claiming to have had a tryst with a South Carolina lawmaker trying to become the state's first female governor.

The allegation made Wednesday by lobbyist Larry Marchant is the second leveled at Republican state Rep. Nikki Haley in the past two weeks. Her campaign vehemently denies both allegations.

Neither claim has come with proof.

And which campaign did Marchant resign from before he went to the press with his unsupported allegations? Does the name Andre Bauer ring a bell? He just happens to be one of Nikki Haley's opponents in the GOP primary race for Governor of SC. Stacy McCain is on the case:

OK, as readers might guess, this was the “very interesting report” I’d heard earlier about Marchant’s resignation from the Andrea Bauer campaign: Marchant had gone to media outlets telling them this story and, when Bauer found out about it, Marchant got the ax.

We’ll wait to see how this plays out, but frankly it looks to me as if Haley’s enemies have become desperate to destroy her. It seems to me that voters in South Carolina now must ask themselves which of two things was true: Either (a) Haley was just spreadin’ the love around to every GOP operative in South Carolina, or (b) she is the victim of a vicious smear campaign.

My guess is that they’ll believe (b).

Stacy has much more at The Other McCain.

Seriously, this makes the Bush-McCain smearfest of 2004 look like choir practice.

Update: Sarah Palin tweeted some moral support to Nikki Haley Wednesday (here and here), paraphrasing (due to Twitter's 140 character per tweet limit) Hellen Keller, whose original quote was:

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.”

- JP

Sarah Palin: There’s nothing clean and green about enviro-radicalism

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Sarah Palin must have just reloaded. She blasted the watermelons (green on the outside, pink on the inside) with both barrels today on Facebook:

Extreme Enviros: Drill, Baby, Drill in ANWR – Now Do You Get It?

This is a message to extreme “environmentalists” who hypocritically protest domestic energy production offshore and onshore. There is nothing “clean and green” about your efforts. Look, here’s the deal: when you lock up our land, you outsource jobs and opportunity away from America and into foreign countries that are making us beholden to them. Some of these countries don’t like America. Some of these countries don’t care for planet earth like we do – as evidenced by our stricter environmental standards.

With your nonsensical efforts to lock up safer drilling areas, all you’re doing is outsourcing energy development, which makes us more controlled by foreign countries, less safe, and less prosperous on a dirtier planet. Your hypocrisy is showing. You’re not preventing environmental hazards; you’re outsourcing them and making drilling more dangerous.

Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country’s energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It’s catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.

We need permission to drill in safer areas, including the uninhabited arctic land of ANWR. It takes just a tiny footprint – equivalent to the size of LA’s airport – to tap America’s rich and plentiful oil and gas up north. ANWR’s drilling footprint is like a postage stamp on a football field.

But it’s not just ANWR; it’s our Petroleum Reserve, too. As Governor Sean Parnell noted today in the Wall Street Journal:

“Federal agencies are also now blocking oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve—Alaska.

Although familiar with ANWR, most Americans are less likely to know about NPR-A and how vital it is to our energy security. Given recent developments, it’s time to elevate the position this area holds in our national discourse.

NPR-A, a 23 million acre stretch of Alaska’s North Slope, was set aside by President Warren Harding in 1923 for the specific purpose of supplying our country and military with oil and gas. Since 1976 it has been administered by the Department of the Interior, and since 1980 it has been theoretically open for development. The most recent estimates indicate that it holds 12 billion barrels of oil and 73 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

In addition to containing enormous hydrocarbons, NPR-A is very close to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which means that there would be relatively little additional infrastructure needed to bring this new oil to our domestic market.

But even here, progress has been stalled.”

Radical environmentalists: you are damaging the planet with your efforts to lock up safer drilling areas. There’s nothing clean and green about your misguided, nonsensical radicalism, and Americans are on to you as we question your true motives.

- Sarah Palin

The governor gets it, as usual. Just as many "feminists" are more interested in in advancing a radical leftist political agenda than they are in empowering women, so are many "environmentalists" also more about radical leftist politics than they are about saving the earth.

- JP

No Haley exposé surfaces, Folks’ claim in doubt

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The Daily Caller's Alex Pappas calls out Will Folks:

Will Folks claimed he was pressured to admit his extramarital affair with South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley last week because of a soon-to-be-broken news story detailing his “inappropriate physical relationship” with the Republican. But, a week later, that damning newspaper article is nowhere to be found.

Speculation now centers on what Folks’s motivation might have been for hurting Haley just two weeks before her name appears on the Republican ballot in the Palmetto state.

From day one, Haley has denied an affair ever took place. Folks has countered those denials by disclosing a few phone, text records and conversations on his political blog that he says show the two had late-night phone conversations and hence an illicit relationship.

On his website, Folks insinuates the Columbia Free-Times newspaper was about to break a story about his affair with Haley, and indeed the newspaper itself has admitted one of its reporters did investigate such a rumor. But according to one knowledgeable source, while a Free-Times reporter did talk to Folks on May 13, no story was ever budgeted to run that week.

The reason? The Daily Caller has learned that around the time Sarah Palin endorsed Haley at a Columbia rally, an attorney for the paper advised editors not to run the story because the paper only had one source alleging the affair.

At Hot Air, Ed Morrissey comments, calling folks' apparently bogus claims "The shoe that didn’t drop":

Not only has a media exposé failed to materialize, the major media outlets now deny that they had anything in the works at all...

[...]

Folks has been shown to be wrong, if not entirely then at least about one key aspect of the story. That’s certainly reason for skepticism about the rest of Folks’ claims.

Unfortunately, there is no real vindication in stories like these. Once someone has thrown out an accusation like infidelity, racism, or some other charge that’s impossible to prove wrong, that bell can’t be fully unrung. That’s probably the reason that news media like those mentioned above avoided the story like the plague. Their reluctance is like the shoe that didn’t drop in l’affaire Folks, and it should put an end to this sideshow.

Folks made his allegations less than two weeks after Sarah Palin endorsed Nikki Haley.

- JP

Sarah Palin endorses Joe Miller for U.S. Senate

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Sarah Palin has endorsed Joe Miller for the U.S. Senate in his GOP primary race against incumbent Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Gov. Palin announced her support for Miller Wednesday on her Facebook Notes page:

Competition's Good! Joe Miller for Alaska

Contested primaries are so good for America’s political process! Competition makes everyone work harder, be more efficient, debate clearer, and produce more. So, Alaskans should be thrilled that Joe Miller jumped in the GOP race and is ready, willing, and able to serve us as our next United States Senator.

I’m proud to join so many other long-time Alaskans in supporting Joe Miller in the upcoming Alaska Republican Primary. Joe is a true Commonsense Constitutional Conservative, and we’re thankful he and his family are willing to offer us a choice in Alaskan leadership.

I share Joe’s belief that we are at a critical time in our nation’s history and the status quo will no longer do. Unfortunately, Lisa Murkowski and much of the political establishment have recently evolved into being a bigger part of the big government problem in Washington, and they’ve strayed from the principles upon which they had espoused. They ushered in the largest increase in federal domestic spending since Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society; it’s an increase in government that political machines may embrace, but “we the people” reject because we know it’s unsustainable and immorally burdensome to future generations.

Over a year ago, upon kicking off our Political Action Committee to assist candidates and promote competition in the nation’s electoral system, with no one willing to challenge the political machine at the time, and amid rumors that I would challenge Lisa Murkowski for the U.S. Senate, SarahPAC contributed to Lisa’s campaign. As she and I discussed, this was an attempt to reassure the Senator that I, as Alaska’s governor, had no intention of jumping into the race. Though the media has tried to portray some sort of feud or bad blood between Lisa and myself, such is not the case. I’ve always wished her well, but it is my firm belief that we need a bold reformer who is not afraid to stand up to special interests and take on the tough challenges of our time. Joe Miller has stepped forward. I am thankful for his willingness to serve. He has fought alongside me and others to help clean up the Republican Party here in Alaska by bringing in new leadership, new ideas, and commitment to putting government back on the side of the people, not any political machine.

Joe is a man of true integrity. He will never be bought off; he knows what a solemn trust it is to be given the responsibility of spending other people’s money prudently and wisely.

Joe also more closely shares so many of Alaskans’ values. He believes the greatness of our country is grounded in the founding principles of limited constitutional government and individual freedom.

Joe believes that we must repeal the new Obamacare health care mandate and seek true market-based reform to allow competition, control costs, increase access, and give Americans more freedom in health care; Lisa opposes repealing the law.

Joe is unashamedly and unequivocally pro-life; Lisa is not and has voted to use taxpayer funds to support abortions and embryonic stem cell research.

Joe is against granting amnesty to illegal immigrants; Lisa has voted for it.

Joe is against cap and trade (Obama’s new job-killing energy scheme that I call cap and tax); Lisa believes Al Gore’s insistence that man made global warming is fact, so she’s on record as being open to cap and trade legislation to address weather changes.

These are just some of the major differences between these two candidates. I believe Joe is the better choice for Alaskans.

Joe worked commendably through West Point, the University of Alaska, and Yale Law School. He has shown courage under fire in service of his country, earning a Bronze Star to prove his commitment to freedom. He has demonstrated his abilities in our courtrooms as a state magistrate and later a federal judge, has established a successful business with his own law practice, and has served as a volunteer and leader throughout his community and our state. Joe has the right values; he is ready to help lead the greatest state in our exceptional nation; he is Alaska’s true Commonsense Conservative choice, and I’ll be proud to vote for him for the United States Senate.

Please join my family and me in supporting Joe Miller, and please donate to his campaign so a contested primary can do what it does best: produce the best candidate in the name of public service.

You can visit Joe’s website at www.joemiller.us and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

- Sarah Palin

Todd Palin attended Miller's first fundraiser, which was held in Wasilla in early May.

- JP

Matthews: Sarah Palin issued a Facebook "fatwa" against Peeping Joe

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Not only has all the cheese slid off of Chris Matthews' saltine, but the salt went with it. NewsBusters managing editor Ken Shepherd reports;

Calling your political opponents Nazis can get old after a while.

That's why one needs to mix it up, perhaps by suggesting that they're akin to the radical Islamic clerics that inspire terrorism.

Just ask MSNBC's Chris Matthews.

During the "Political Sideshow" segment of his June 1 program, the "Hardball" host compared Sarah Palin's Facebook page posting about author Joe McGinniss renting the house next door to a "fatwa" aimed at "rev[ving] up anger at the author" from amongst her "mob" of followers...

Fatwa? Strange, we read her Facebook posts on the matter, and we didn't see any call by the governor for her followers to bring her the head of Joe McGinnis on a platter. In fact, Gov. Palin didn't even tell her Facebook friends, Obama style, to "get in his face."

PMSNBC should change the name of Tweety Matthews' program from "Hardball" to something which more closely matches his thinking. We suggest "Screwball."

- JP

Palin admirer wins big in New Mexico's 3rd District

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The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that a Tea Party organizer crushed a radical anti-war Republican in one of New Mexico's key GOP Congressional primaries:

Republicans in the 3rd Congressional District decided to stick with a traditional GOP conservative instead of a young, Ron Paul-style libertarian to run against incumbent U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján.

Tom Mullins, a Farmington oilman and political newcomer, easily defeated Adam Kokesh of Santa Fe.

In December, Mullins, a petroleum engineer who describes himself as a Ronald Reagan Republican, wrote on his campaign website:

"I recently finished reading Sarah Palin's Going Rogue. This gave me some insight into her character and background that never came out during the Presidential campaign. I have to say I am impressed with her humility and her honesty. She was called upon to step forward and she played A team ball with all she had and performed wonderfully. I hope women across New Mexico, especially my daughters, become inspired to serve their community and their country. Every generation is tested in some manner. Our generation is being tested by the growth of Leviathan into every aspect of our lives. When we are tested, we must take a deep breath, pray for strength, and redouble our efforts to improve our great nation."

Even though he trounced Kokesh, who had Ron Paul's endorsement, by a margin of 72 percent to 28 percent, Mullins faces an uphill battle against incumbent Democrat Luján in the general election:

It will be hard for any Republican to win in this district, which Congressional Quarterly ranks as a "safe Democratic" district. The National Republican Congressional Committee isn't expected to spend any money in this race.

Perhaps as an indication of how national Republicans regard this race, on Tuesday night the National Republican Congressional Committee released a statement congratulating GOP congressional nominees Jon Barela and Steve Pearce in the 1st and 2nd congressional districts. They didn't mention Mullins.

Republicans are in the minority in the 3rd Congressional District, which covers most of the northern half of the state. Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1. As of May 24, there were 212,459 registered Democrats in the district, 109,185 Republicans, 56,285 independents (declined to state) and 9,619 members of other parties.

Still, there is strong voter sentiment this election cycle against big spending and big government, so Mullins may have at least a chance for an upset victory in November. Luján has voted for every budget spending and tax bill since taking his House seat following the 2008 election. He also voted for the House version of the widely unpopular health care bill and against the Stupak Amendment which would have banned federally-funded abortions. Luján has been a strong proponent of health care reform including the public option, and in a 2009 speech on the House floor, he called for a public option to be included in the House bill, saying "We need a public option - we must demand a public option."

h/t: Libertarian Republican

- JP

Day By Day (June 2, 2010)

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Good Morning! It's a wonderful life if we just take it Day By Day.



Support Pro-Palin Day By Day.

- JP

Quote of the Day (June 1, 2010)

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Anthony G. Martin:

"In an act that places her far above the cowardly acts and statements of the current occupant of the White House, Sarah Palin has issued a forceful statement in support of Israel, showing that she has not only the guts but the wisdom to be President."

- JP

Susana Martinez wins NM GOP primary election

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The Associated Press has declared Susana Martinez the winner in New Mexico's Republican primary race for governor. With 96 percent of the precincts reporting, Martinez had 51 percent of the vote. Her closest opponent, former state Senator Allen Weh, was trailing by 23 points with 28 percent.

Sarah Palin endorsed Martinez two weeks ago.

- JP

It's Primary Day in Alabama, Mississippi and New Mexico

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Three states were holding primary elections Tuesday:

Alabama

According to The Montgomery Advertiser, Bradley Byrne and Tim James are considered to be the front-runners in the GOP primary race for governor. James has the endorsements of Chuck Heath Sr. and Jr.

Mississippi

Susan Davis, who writes Washington Wire at the Wall Street Journal, says state Sen. Alan Nunnelee is the GOP's top choice in the state's 1st Congressional District race, but Gov. Palin gave a last-minute shout out to Angela McGlowan via Twitter.

New Mexico

The front runner for the GOP nomination for governor, Susana Martinez, has Gov. Palin's endorsement and leads her closest opponent, former state GOP Chairman Allen Weh, by double digits in all the latest polls.

- JP

Benyamin Korn: McGinness deserves rebuke for Nazi analogy

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Benyamin Korn, who speaks with unquestioned authority on such matters, finds Joe McGinness' playing of the Nazi card on NBC's "Today" show Tuesday morning appalling:

McGinniss’ foolish analogy cheapens the meaning and memory of the Holocaust.

Jewish defense organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, would do well to rebuke McGinniss, unless they think he is beneath their purview.

But really, because McGinniss’ comparison of Germany in those dark times to the America of today is so outrageous and appalling, he should be repudiated by all thinking people of good will.

And because McGinniss’ comparison demeans a political leader and a popular movement whose character are overwhelmingly peaceful, democratic and tolerant of all races and religions, all Americans should reject him, and hang on him a letter of shame.

Gov. Sarah Palin, the Tea Party movement, and the awakening voters of America, will not long remember this unprincipled opportunist who calls himself a journalist. But the American people, McGinniss’ publisher, and most of all the Jewish community, should be disgusted that he has so cheapened the public discourse.

Read Benyamin Korn's full commentary here.

h/t: Doug Brady at C4P

- JP

Gov. Palin is rooting for Angela McGlowan

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Although Sarah Palin has not formally endorsed Angela McGlowan in the GOP primary race in Mississippi's 1st Congressional District, the governor showed her support for the businesswoman, motivational speaker, best-selling author, and former political analyst in two election day tweets here and here:

"@seanhannity Rooting for you, Angela! Mississippi will be well served when you win! -Sarah Palin"

"Mississippi-please vote!My family&I are rooting for Angela McGlowan;race may go to a run-off election,but hopefully Angela wraps it up today"

Following the tweets, an obviously grateful McGlowan didn't spare the exclamation points when she posted on Facebook:

"WOW!!! TEAM, I AM SO HONORED TO RECEIVE THE SUPPORT OF GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN!!!!"

By coincidence, we were wondering just a few days ago whether Ms. McGlowan would come under consideration for an endorsement by Gov. Palin.

- JP

More Quote of the Day Honorable Mentions, Part 57

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"The Spy Next Door VI: Mein Kampf" Edition...

Ed Morrissey:

"McGinniss himself decided to grant an interview to NBC’s Today show and Matt Lauer after demanding that ABC leave the premises last week. In the interview, McGinniss goes on offense, offering an absurd rebuttal that even Lauer doesn’t buy and then comparing Sarah Palin’s criticisms of his move to … Nazi Germany... That’s not just ridiculous, it reveals yet another journalist who has no idea what the Nazis did in Germany. Nazis didn’t issue complaints about the locations of journalists as a tactic. They beat people in the streets in order to intimidate them out of the political process, mainly Communists, but also defenders of the doomed Weimar Republic. They murdered people by the hundreds in the years leading up to their takeover of Germany, and their closest modern equivalent would be the Basiji in Iran. Criticism of the press does not equate in any rational sense to what the Nazis did in Germany, and anyone who thinks it does has either lost all sense of perspective or is, frankly, an idiot. "

Flopping Aces:

"McGinniss 'isn’t calling her a Nazi', then goes on to draw the comparison... Looks like I’ve become a 'hound of hell, slavering, barking, and growling' at the push of a button from Palin."

Verum Serum:

"He says he isn’t calling her a Nazi; he’s just noting that she uses the same tactics. I seem to recall the SS being known for things like Kristallnacht more than for their Facebook postings... So just to recap…This guy who has written previous hit pieces on Palin rents the house next door to hers, literally 12 feet away with a deck that overlooks her back yard. That’s no big deal. But her taking a photo of him and complaining about it on Facebook is a Hitlerian outrage."

Kathryn Jean Lopez:

"I've gotten a lot of e-mails today from people who were giving the author the benefit of the doubt until they saw that morning-show interview today."

Jimmy Orr:

"Joe McGinniss might as well have offered up some oceanfront property in Kansas while appearing on NBC's 'Today' show. After all, he was on a roll…. McGinniss, the true crime author who is writing a book on Sarah Palin, implied on national television Tuesday morning that his renting of property right next to Palin’s house in Wasilla, Alaska, was just coincidental. 'The fact is, I would be living in this house if the Palins lived on the moon,' a straight-faced McGinniss told 'Today' host Matt Lauer. Even Lauer -- even Lauer -- couldn’t let this one go. 'So it’s just coincidental that you’re in the house next door?” Lauer asked. “You’re not just simply to observe them?' McGinniss ignored the first question..."

The Black Smoke:

"And all this time I thought Nazi trooper tactics involved things like hunting down an ethnic minority and sending them to camps to die by the millions. Little did I know the Holocaust was really just Nazis posting messages on Gesicht Buch..."

Kirby's Korner:

"Joe McGinniss... wants to write a book about someone he doesn't like, Sarah Palin... To do so, he felt it necessary to move next door to her, and this I find reprehensible. Is it legal? Yes. Is it what a decent, honorable person would do? NO! This is the act of a bully who has never grown-up... He did it to provoke; a childish act from one of McGinniss's years. He then had the nerve to say all the 'threats' against him just proved how powerful Palin has become. To an extent, this may be true. It may also be true that she is well liked in Wasilla, that good people see his move as I see it, an invasion of privacy and a childish act at best, and that those in Alaska value their freedom and respect the personal space of others.
(In short, Joe McGinniss is a jerk and I believe one to not be trusted. Palin, to date anyway, has not done anything that I consider out-of-line from a personal perspective.)"

Andrew Bolt:

"The maddest thing about Palin is her critics..."

The Cranky Conservative:

"A journalist rents a house next door to Sarah Palin with the sole intent to write a book about her, Sarah Palin writes some fairly tongue-in-cheek things in response to this development, and it the latter who is 'despicable?' Gee, I wonder why the Washington Post has roughly zero credibility at this point."

Weasel Zippers:

"Do they have liberal jackass hunting season in Alaska?"

David Riddick:

"A neat little twist in the McGinniss/Palin FenceGate saga... Eric Boehlert at the allegedly objective MediaMatters fancies he has landed a telling blow against Sarah Palin when he reveals that the place next door was for several years a halfway house for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics... But the Palins, with all those children bouncing around the grounds, never raised a peep about the addicts and alcoholics just 15 yards from their property? Maybe it’s because they believe in live and let live and giving folks a second or even third chance. Or maybe they would prefer to have a group of ex cons as neighbours than someone who is a special friend of Jesse Griffin..."

Jim Hoft:

"The kook who rented the home next to the Palin family in Alaska is looking for sympathy. Dream on, crackpot."

Chicago Ray:

"What a hypocritical Lib who can’t see anything wrong with stalking a private citizen to write a lousy hit piece of a book, but starts whining like a baby when ABC news shows up at his rental door to have a little chat. Yet another loon caught with his... 'do as I say not as I do' pants down. These people are forcing America to come up with a new word for their egregious hypocrisy."

Oldcatman:

"Give 'em hell, Sarah!"

Ocean Kayaker:

"Joe Mcginnis is not only a stalker; he's also a hypocrite. He has no problem invading the space of Sarah Palin - and her family - but will not even open the door of his rented house to a reporter. He seems to value his own privacy while at the same time depriving the Palin family of theirs. What a guy!"

Tom Faranda:

"As the woman says in the interview, 'I'd be creeped out.'"

Another Black Conservative:

"Both my BS Detector and my Hypocrisy Proximity Alarm went off with this story. Only the most severe PDS sufferer could buy any of McGinniss’ nonsense... Riiiiight. We are supposed to believe that old Joe is all innocent and everything. Meanwhile the creep is really good friends will all of the creepy anti-Palin Alaskan bloggers."

Matthew Archbold:

"Wow. This guy is nuts..."

The American Catholic:

"For revealing the demented and comical hatred that a strong conservative woman, who is, gasp!, also attractive, a mother and happily married, forments in many minds on the port side of our politics, Sarah Palin is worthy of the thanks of a grateful nation."

Steve Krakauer:

"If McGinniss is hoping to ingratiate himself to the Palins, as he continues to maintain, this interview may not be the best way to do it."

- JP

Sarah Palin: Media rushes to condemn Israel

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Tuesday on Facebook, Sarah Palin cautioned readers not to trust the biased media narrative about the flotilla incident and urged President Obama to stand with our ally Israel in its fight against terrorism:

Israeli Flotilla: Don’t Take Mainstream Media Coverage at Face Value

The media, as usual, seems to be reporting only one side of the Israeli Flotilla incident. Don’t trust the mainstream media to give you both sides of a story fairly… you must seek out fair reporting to ensure you have all the information.

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.

Israel delivers thousands of tons of humanitarian supplies every week to Gaza. These ships could have offloaded their cargoes at a nearby Israeli port if they really wanted to help the people of Gaza. Instead, they chose to incite confrontation and violence. Israel has a right to prevent arms shipments to Gaza that will be used to target innocent Israelis, so they were legitimately checking the cargo on the flotilla. Turkey has chosen to condemn Israel but we should be asking some serious questions about Turkey’s role in this whole affair. Why is a fellow member of NATO sponsoring such a dangerous publicity stunt? As one expert points out:

“Three ships of that six-ship pro-terror convoy flew Turkish flags and were crowded with Turkish citizens. The Ankara government – led by Islamists these days – sponsored the ‘aid’ operation in a move to position itself as the new champion of the Palestinians. And Turkish decision-makers knew Israel would have to react – and were waiting to exploit the inevitable clash. The provocation was as cynical as it was carefully orchestrated.”

We can only hope the Obama Administration does not join the anti-Israel chorus in the aftermath of this staged confrontation. Please, Mr. President, we need to let Israelis know we stand with them in their fight against terrorists and those who arm and support them. America and her ally, Israel, stand by waiting for your response.

- Sarah Palin

- JP

Sarah Palin: Is It Any Wonder Why We Call The Media 'Lame'?

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On Facebook Tuesday, Sarah Palin used the example of NBC lying to her and Todd to explain why the corrupt media cannot be trusted:

Is It Any Wonder Why We Call Them “Lame”?

It may seem like a small thing, considering the state of the union and international issues of the day, but let me share some facts surrounding a most recent illustration of the untrustworthiness of America’s mainstream media.

Yesterday, Todd and I spent our Memorial Day evening exchanging emails with NBC in regards to the interview they conducted this morning with our new neighbor. As you’ll recall, the “journalist” Joe McGinniss moved all the way from Massachusetts to Wasilla – literally right next door to our home – after tracking us down in various forums this past year, so that he could be close to his “subject matter” while he writes his book about me.

When NBC asked to interview me for this story, I politely declined. NBC then asked for a statement from us and promised to run it as a full screen graphic during their interview with McGinniss. We were glad to provide a statement and appreciated NBC’s promise to run it. Todd and I both crafted the statement very carefully because our new neighbor has taken to accusing us of “inciting hatred” – a charge which we obviously take very seriously. We knew that he would make more accusations like this, and we felt very strongly that such comments should not go unanswered. So, we emailed NBC the following statements:

“McGinniss has followed us for some time now, from showing up on our doorstep last winter, bidding over $60,000 for a military charity auction dinner with me, writing the hit pieces, attending at least one Outside book event, etc. He has a right to pursue his subject, I suppose, and certainly has a right to live wherever he wants, but my family also has a right to expect privacy, and hopefully to enjoy peace this summer. Good fences do make for good neighbors. The fence is now up, and I hope that we can enjoy peace. The media sensationalizes the recent McGinniss’ tactic so the public will tune in to whatever the latest episode is, always with ratings in mind, and that’s unfortunate.” - Sarah Palin

“What’s also unfortunate is journalists’ tactics like this, because it keeps good people from wanting to get involved in public service.” - Todd Palin

NBC responded to thank us for our statements and again promised that they would “make sure” that the Today Show airs both of our statements “as a fullscreen graphic during the segment tomorrow.” We were grateful because we knew that our statements would counter any accusation of “inciting hatred.” And boy was it necessary because in his interview on NBC this morning McGinniss doubled down on his accusation to actually compare us to the Nazis!

But there was just one problem: NBC broke their promise and didn’t run our statements after all. So, the “journalist’s” sensational claims about us being Nazis went unchallenged. We emailed NBC this morning to ask why our statement wasn’t aired. We were given a lame excuse and told that they would run it tomorrow (after the damage had been done) and that they would be happy to interview me about it (which was their aim all along because journalism today is all about ratings and not about truth).

The interview itself was quite an eye-opener. I’m not sure what “ugly innuendo” was in my Facebook post or why it is so controversial to suggest that the presence of a hostile “journalist” writing a hostile book about me is an imposition on my children who simply want to enjoy their summer outside. When I say or write “leave my kids alone,” it means simply that: let my kids have a fun summer without having a “journalist” 15 ft from their play area. How that equates me with the Nazis is quite beyond me. If receiving nasty emails and even death threats is the standard by which we judge “inciting hatred,” then the left in this country has been “inciting hatred” on my family for almost two years now. We don’t complain about this or call people “Nazis” because we value freedom of speech enough to believe that even ignorant and hateful people have a right to it. It’s a shame that a self-proclaimed “journalist” doesn’t understand this.

And it’s a shame that Todd and I had another disappointing encounter with the media on Memorial Day of all days. It was time that we could have spent with our kids and on a day when we honor those who have died in defense of our Constitution, including our freedom of the press.

Freedom of the press is integral to our democracy, but reporters must be held accountable because with power comes responsibility. A corrupt, deceptive, and manipulative media can ruin the lives of good people, disrupt families, destroy reputations, and ultimately hurt our country.

I’d like to believe that it’s not too late to demand integrity from our media. Thank goodness for social networking sites like this and new media sites which have allowed us to get around the “lamestream” media and present the facts. But let this story be another example of why you must seek out facts and truth about anything and everything you see reported today.

- Sarah Palin

- JP

Sarah Palin on the blockade running

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Standing steadfastly by Israel's side, as she always has, Sarah Palin warned her Twitter followers late Monday night:

"Assume u WON'T get straight scoop on Israeli flotilla incident via mainstream media;PLEASE read Krauthammer,Horowitz,et al 2learn other side"

Krauthammer's take is here, and Horowitz comments here.

- JP

Big Journalism: Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift Wrestles with Her Inner Girlfriend

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More outrage from the feminist Left over the rise of conservative women. Like her soul sister Jessica Valenti, the tired old liberal columnist for troubled Newsweek magazine, Eleanor Clift feels so threatened by the New Feminism of Sarah Palin and other women not of the political left that she has little else to do but howl in protest:

As the nearly two-year-old Palin piñata-fest demonstrates, for the devout liberal the intersection of Sorority Street and Politics Avenue is left-turn only.

To no one’s surprise, Sarah Palin remains the left’s First Lady of political feminae non gratae, the gold standard. The needle on the left’s Feminometer moves from the safe green left-hand side (Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi) to the beige neutral middle (Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins) to the hazardous red-hued right-hand zone (Michele Bachmann) to the far-right crimson danger area (Sarah).

Palin’s status as the left’s lead whipping girl is not news. What is news is that women like Eleanor Clift (Hell hath no fury like a liberal feminist scorned) are using the same elitist Palinesque prejudices to bash this year’s crop of wrong-turning conservative women.

[...]

Nevertheless, one question is begged of Clift: Throwing in the towel so soon? That’s not exactly what you’d expect from a progressive twenty-first century woman.

At least, it’s not what Sarah would do.

The full story by Gregg Opelka is at Andrew Breitbart's newest site, Big Journalism.

- JP

Palin stalker compares her to Nazis on NBC's 'Today'

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Sarah Palin stalker and new neighbor Joe McGinniss appeared on the National Barack Channel (NBC) Tuesday morning, and "Today" show host Matt Lauer did his worst to gin up sympathy for the Anti-Palin writer, as McGinness played the victim and Nazi cards from his stacked deck. NewsBuster Geoffrey Dickens reports:

After Lauer noted the author was receiving "death threats" McGinniss screeched "It's a lesson for the American people of the power Palin has to incite hatred and her willingness and readiness to do it." McGinniss went on to say that Palin's use of her Facebook page to condemn McGinniss was the "same kind of tactic that the Nazi troopers used in Germany."

Not exactly, Mr. McGinness. If you had bothered to read your history, what the Reich's troopers did was kill a multitude of people including six million Jews and others who were not considered to be among the elite by the brutal regime of Germany's National Socialist Workers Party. Incredible. The Palin-haters torch her church and then call her a Nazi. The act wasn't on a par with the Reichstag fire, but those who were responsible got away free and clear in both cases.

McGinness' hysterical nonsense is typical behavior for leftist Alinskyites when they paint themselves into a corner. Just more evidence that the Left knows its days of tearing down America are numbered. The only inciting of hatred going on is what McGinness and the rest of the Anti-Palin axis is trying to do to Sarah Palin, her family and supporters.

- JP

Stuart Schwartz: Sarah Palin and the Multitude of Dummies

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Stuart Schwartz has penned another outstanding American Thinker commentary in which he shines a light on the tyranny of America's ruling class elites and their media support troops. Some excerpts:

We are dumb. So say the folks at the top of our leadership ladder.

And they name names: Sarah Palin, taxpayers, Tea Party supporters, viewers turning away from the mainstream networks, newspaper and magazine readers canceling subscriptions, those without degrees from an elite university -- all dumb.

Stupidity is the face of American exceptionalism for Barack Obama and his media and university supporters. New York Times columnist David Brooks, a graduate of the elite University of Chicago, says the nation's a "joke," that Sarah Palin and ordinary Americans should shut up and let the "educated class" lead. Bill Maher, who practices his contempt at HBO and honed his arrogance at Yale, labels us a "stupid people."

[...]

Our traditional media, both left and right, regard this newly aroused dummy class (us) with disdain and anger topped with a heaping helping of arrogance. The deputy managing editor of National Review, even while defending Sarah Palin from vicious, gratuitous attacks (yawn), makes sure his brothers and sisters-in-brains on the right know that he agrees "quite intensely" with attacks on her rhetoric.

Sarah Palin is the anti-Harvard. She did not attend an elite university; doesn't have a Kennedy, William F. Buckley, or Bush gene in her body; and offers cringe-worthy thoughts such as "I love my country" and that character counts.

As such, she displays the "gleeful ignorance" that afflicts the vast majority of Americans disgusted at the mess our elites are making of the country. So says David Frum, a member of the conservative elite media; on the other side of the aisle at the Washington Post, editorial writer Ruth Marcus piles on, insisting that the angry nation represented by Palin is dumb, incapable of learning.

And so we need the guidance of our betters. Or so goes the thought processes...

This one's a keeper. Read it all at American Thinker.

- JP

Day By Day (June 1, 2010)

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Good Morning! It's a wonderful life if we just take it Day By Day.



Support Pro-Palin Day By Day.

- JP