Kirsten Powers Long, Hot, Race-Baiting Summer

In the past, I had mistaken Kirsten Powers for a rational human being, regardless of her political persuasion. She always seemed mild-mannered and struck a different chord than most of her fellow left-wing commentators. Was I wrong about that or what?

Last night, I came across a piece she had written for the Daily Beast called, "The GOP's Long, Hot, Racist Summer." Yes, that's the actual title, which should give you some insight into how far off the hinges Ms. Powers has fallen. The article begins (emphasis mine):

Welcome to the summer of hate.

These dog days have brought a veritable festival of racial demagoguery, from a phony “New Black Panther” controversy to Arizona’s draconian illegal-immigrant crackdown to the most recent “ground zero mosque” hysteria.

There's a lot to digest in those two sentences, so let me give it go...

First of all, I'd like to just go ahead and state the obvious. It's clear that Powers recently purchased the one-size-fits-all, lefty paint-your-political-opponents-as-racists brush set. These are the brushes they use to paint those whom they disagree with as "racists." We all know they do this to shut people up, considering the label of "racist" holds much shame in our society. Too bad for them, merely calling someone a racist doesn't make it so. One actually has to BE racist these days for the charge to stick considering the lefts over-usage of their magical racist paint brush kits.

Now, back to the issues that make up Kirsten Powers' not-so clever canvas.

She starts by calling the Black Panther voter intimidation controversy, "phony." I'm sorry, but how exactly is the Justice Department "stonewalling" a case involving Black Panther members, caught on tape brandishing batons outside of polling stations on election day to intimidate Republican voters, "phony?" The entire controversy played out of Fox News, while virtually all of the other networks did what they always do for the administration. They distorted it, or just outright ignored it. Even though the story came complete with eye witnesses, video evidence, a whistle-blower, and a racist (the real kind) member of an organized group who had once stated on camera, "You want freedom? Your gonna have to kill some crackers. Your going to have to kill some of their babies!"... But according to Kirsten Powers, Republicans are the one's guilty of "racial demagoguery."

Next on the list of issues Ms. Powers wishes to paint Conservatives as racists on, is "Arizona’s draconian illegal-immigrant crackdown." I take it Kirsten has never lived anywhere near the border, nor has she ever had to deal with the crime rates, prison population, drain on the overall public fund, overcrowding in schools, and hospital closures as a result of a large number of unaccountable, undocumented aliens living in the community. Well I do and have for many years. Recently however, things have become much worse considering the war between the Mexican government and the powerful cartels, along the border. I wouldn't expect someone who lives in the Beltway to understand the situation in it's entirety. But I also wouldn't expect that same person to view the grievances of a population under assault, as racism.

I have plenty of Latino friends. I also have Latino family members who live in Arizona, who just so happen to support the law that Governor Brewer tried to put into place. A law that is in no way "draconian." People of the left... If you have not read the Arizona law, please do so pronto, before you too demagogue this simple legislation. You can do so here.

That brings us to the “ground zero mosque hysteria." Conservatives like Governor Palin have stated for the record, that this is not about the "right" of the Cordoba House to build their Mosque next to the site of the attacks on 9/11 at the World Trade Center. There are many components to this story which I do not have time to go in to. I will just point out that this isn't about Islamophobia, or "hatred." It is a matter of sensitivity to the families of the dead, who have asked Imam Abdul Rauf time and time again to reconsider the location. This is about respect to those families and this nation, plain and simple. That's not hate Kirsten.

Her piece 'rambles' on:

Leave it to GOP darling Sarah Palin to turn up the heat with a bizarre defense of the hateful Dr. Laura’s “n-word” rant.

In a rambling Facebook post, the former Alaska governor asked incredulously: “Does anyone seriously believe that Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a racist?”

Why, yes, Sarah. Yes, we do.

This incident is instructive, because it bears the hallmark of many GOP blunders in the area of race. Palin truly cannot understand why anyone would think that Dr. Laura is racist, or why Palin’s defense of her is disgusting. In Palin’s world, apparently this kind of behavior is acceptable, which tells us quite a bit, actually.

Why didn't she just spell it out for us? Actually, she didn't have to. The implication is clear... With that statement, Kirsten Powers tries to suggest to her readers that Governor Palin is racist for sticking up for Dr. Laura, after the statements she made on the radio.

While I think what Dr. Laura said on her show was in very poor taste, I also understood what she was saying. Powers acts as though Dr. Laura was calling someone the N-word, in a hateful way, when that wasn't the case at all. Did we not just get beat over the head (figuratively speaking) by the media about understanding "context" in regards to the episode between Andrew Breitbart and Shirley Sherrod? If "context" is good enough for Shirley Sherrod, then why isn't it good enough for Dr. Laura?

So, NO , I do not think Dr. Laura is a racist. I think Governor Palin stepped up (graciously so) to help someone who was being maligned as a "racist" by Media Matters, to highlight that context and point out the left's hypocrisy on the issue. After all, the left just got done celebrating the life of the former Senator from West Virginia, and former recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan, who also had been known to say the N-word from time to time. Although in his case, he meant it in the bad way.

It's ridiculous the way the left spins each issue in such a manner as to paint these pictures about their opponents, instead of debating the issues on their merits. If they think they can mindlessly throw Governor Palin into the waste bin of maligned Republicans they have targeted with their racist smears, they are sorely mistaken. You see, Governor Palin has a base of support who understands her character. We are fully aware that she is no racist, and we will come ferociously to her defense when such accusations are thrown in her direction.

By the way, if any leftist wants to paint me as a "racist" for writing this... You're going to have to pick which one of my races I think is superior to all the others, considering I am of mixed descent.

Why Sarah Palin Enhances American National Security (and Israel's, as Well)

Jeffrey Goldberg wrote a piece for the Atlantic Tuesday titled, "Why Sarah Palin Endangers American National Security (and Israel's, as Well)." The piece is a case study in leftist philosophy in regards to foreign policy. Goldberg offers up a bigoted view of Conservatives who support Israel, mixed in with the all too familiar, 'blame America first' mantra. By the way, every word of this piece is solely his opinion, as he offers no sources or links to back up any of his assessment. He starts off asking, "Why do I find Sarah Palin dangerous?" Go ahead, genius... Tell us:

There are two reasons, the first having to do with Israel, the second with America, though they are related. I certainly appreciate the sincere feelings of Christian Zionists. I have theological, spiritual, political, and personal trouble (nobody knows the troubles I've seen) with the branch of Christian Zionism that yearns for the destruction of Israel because it holds that Armageddon will be the harbinger of Christ's return, and Sarah Palin has affiliated herself on occasion with people who adhere to this branch.

Really? Who are are these Zionists "that yearns for the destruction of Israel" who Sarah Palin has "affiliated herself" with? Mr Goldberg doesn't say because he seems to have just reached into his left-wing bin of preconceived notions to come to that conclusion. He goes on:

But mainstream Christian Zionists -- people who believe that God blesses those who bless the Jews -- well, I'm not going to argue with that point. It is not, then, Palin's theology that bothers me as much as her actual understanding, or lack of understanding, of Middle East politics that is so troublesome.

Ah, the 'dumb' meme. You knew it was coming because leftist writers like Goldberg tend to repeat other leftist writers. Word has it that they actually coordinate that sort of thing. They've been pulling the 'idiotic, yet maniacal' card on republicans since Nixon, and I don't see their creativity expanding too far beyond that line of attack.

No, Mr. Goldberg, Sarah Palin does not lack any understanding of Middle East politics. She comprehends who our friends are, who our enemies are, and the difference between the two. Sadly, I cannot say as much for our current Commander in Chief. The tripe continues (emphasis mine):

Palin has positioned herself as a territory maximalist, arguing for the righteousness of continued Jewish settlement of the West Bank, including those parts of the West Bank, presumably, beyond the security fence. This line of argument places her well to the right of the position taken, late in his career, of Ariel Sharon. As I have pointed out on innumerable occasions, this position, seemingly Zionist (or super-Zionist, even) on the surface, actually undermines the idea of Israel as a Jewish state, because settlements are the vanguard of eventual binationalism, not of a Greater Israel. Israel simply cannot absorb the West Bank's Arabs and remain either a Jewish state or a democracy. For an American politician to argue otherwise is a danger to Israel. Sarah Palin encourages the most recidivist elements of the Israeli right, and it is absolutely vital for the Israeli right to grapple with demographic, political and moral reality, before it's too late.

Mr. Goldberg draws his conclusions from twisting her actual stance. Sarah Palin has never stated anything on record that proceeds to outline the final borders for the State of Israel. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. What has Sarah Palin actually said on the topic?

While talking to Barbara Walters, back in November of last year, she said the following in response to the dust up between Israel and the Obama Administration over the construction of new settlements in east Jerusalem (emphasis mine):

"I disagree with the Obama administration on that," ... "I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don't think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand."

Her point being that the State of Israel has an increasing population of immigrants. They have to deal with their population they way they see fit. It is not the job of America, as Israel's ally, to tell it where it can and cannot build in their own neck of the woods. This is a position of pragmatism and respect. That is the foundation of Governor Palin's view in regards to this issue, not the paranoid delusions Mr. Goldberg has in mind. A refreshing position for an American leader to take, and the proper one in my opinion. He continues:

On the second point, the danger she poses to America -- and specifically, to American national security -- 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.

How's your blood pressure after reading that line? That's what you call a distorted view of reality. His tone sums up the lefts attitude towards this nation's enemies in a nutshell. Some call it "battered wife syndrome," I just call it moronic.

Almost nine years ago, violent Islamic Jihadists attacked this country, killing almost 3,000 innocent people. The extremists who were responsible for the attacks, invoked the religion of Islam as their guiding source for doing what they did. If you have a clear "understanding" of such fanatics, you get that they did not do this because America was mean to them. They did not invoke a place called Palestine while they drove those planes into buildings, or voice any other convenient after thought they sold to America's left. The men involved in the attacked invoked their religion, and they did so in the context of a "global struggle."

Nine years later, a group with questionable financing, and questionable associations, seeks to build a religious monument 600 feet from Ground Zero. I think Governor Palin said it best in her Facebook Note:

This is not an issue of religious tolerance but of common moral sense. To build a mosque at Ground Zero is a stab in the heart of the families of the innocent victims of those horrific attacks. Just days after 9/11, the spiritual leader of the organization that wants to build the mosque, Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf, suggested that blame be placed on the innocents when he stated that the “United States’ policies were an accessory to the crime that happened” and that “in the most direct sense, Osama bin Laden is made in the USA.” Rauf refuses to recognize that Hamas is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of our ally, Israel, and refuses to provide information about the sources of funding for the $100 million mosque. Rauf also plays a key role in a group behind the flotilla designed to provoke Israel in its justifiable blockade of Gaza. These are just a few of the points Americans are realizing as New York considers the proposed mosque just a stone’s throw away from 9/11’s sacred ground.

How very provocative of her. I have no doubt what so ever, that if we were attacked tomorrow, the left would go out of their way to blame her (and Bush, of course) for the deeds of our enemies. That's what the left does and will continue to do. They have trouble seeing evil and danger for what it is. To them, any negative action taken by Islamists is nothing more than a reaction to the left's own domestic enemies. What a backwards, upside-down way to view the world. Governor Palin probably has a hard time understanding these people, as do I. That is because she follows a security philosophy that states, "peace through strength." She understands that a strong, secure America, leads to a stronger, more secure world. We are not the bad guys here. Sarah Palin understands that perfectly well.

Jeffrey Goldberg mischaracterized the Governor's position on Israeli settlements and he does not comprehend the purpose to stop the mosque being build at Ground Zero. You could say he, as well as many others on the left, lack an understanding of Middle East politics. Something we should all find "troublesome."