Good To Know: Sarah Palin Believes In Racial Profiling, Glenn Beck
by Latoya Peterson, originally published at Jezebel
Sarah Palin believes that political correctness is for fools and racial profiling is the way to stop violence. Thing is, if (as she tells Sean Hannity) “liberals’ heads explode” over her comments, it’ll be due to exposure to utter stupidity.
The only good I can see coming from Sarah Palin’s media march is that any possibility of her running for President in 2012 will, most likely, be shot to hell.
First, she’s on Newsmax, calling Fox News comedian Glenn Beck “effective“:
Glenn Beck I have great respect for. He’s a hoot. He gets his message across in such a clever way. And he’s so bold – I have to respect that. He calls it like he sees it, and he’s very, very, very effective.”
Of course you think he’s a hoot – what he does is comedy! Well, unless it’s a disgusting metaphor that he used incorrectly. Melissa over at Shakesville bravely decided to wade into Beck’s world and create a transcript:
America has spoken clearly, consistently-we don’t want [government-paid healthcare]. And for the first time in history, we don’t think it’s the government’s place to give it to us. We’re kind of reading this [holds up unidentified piece of paper] from time to time now. We are-excuse this analogy, but I feel like it’s true-we’re the young girl saying [puts on scared voice and crying face] “No, no-help me!” [back to regular voice] and the government is Roman Polanski. In the end, I think we’re all gonna be cowering in France. [A few more moments of babbling about "unfunded liabilities" before the video cuts out.]
Melissa says: “Universal healthcare = rape. Awesome.”
I say: Can this asshole even get a goddamn joke right? If the government is Roman Polanski, then they would be cowering in France, not us. And doesn’t France have womb-to-tomb care, which is what we’re apparently protesting against? Fail! Fail! Fail! If Jon Stewart kept botching jokes like this, Comedy Central would have fired his ass.
Palin’s love of Beck’s inane sputtering seems even more strange when you consider he just won the Anti-Defamation League’s title of “Fearmonger-in-chief:”
The Influence of the Mainstream Media
Though much of the impetus for anti-government sentiment has come from a variety of grass-roots and extremist groups, segments of the mainstream media have played a surprisingly active role in generating such segment. Though a number of media figures and commentators have taken part, the media personality who has played the most active role has been radio and television host Glenn Beck, who along with many of his guests have made a habit of demonizing the Obama administration and promoting conspiracy theories about it. Beck has acted as a “fearmonger-in-chief,” raising anxiety about and distrust towards the government.
Please note the headline the ADL gave Glenn Beck: Mainstream Media.
But back to Palin.
The tragedy at Fort Hood on November 5, which resulted in the deaths of thirteen people and injuries to dozens of others, has been co-opted by those who would seek to further their own agendas. The Republicans are already on the move:
House and Senate Republicans, emerging from the most detailed briefings given to Congress since the Nov. 5 attack killed 13 at the central Texas Army post, said delaying investigations would put off legislative efforts to give military officials the tools to prevent similar tragedies in the future. They said such an effort would not interfere with the criminal investigation of shooting suspect Nidal M. Hasan, an Army major who was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan.
“Congress also needs to move forward to make sure we do our work to get to the right conclusions,” said Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee.
Catch that? We need to get to the right conclusions. Wonder what those would be?
Sarah Palin knows. Here’s an assessment that she shared with the Weekly Standard yesterday:
She commented on the trail of evidence linking the alleged Ft. Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, to militant Islam. “There were such clear, obvious, massive warning signs that were missed,” she said. “This terrorist, even having business cards” that identified him as an “SoA” or soldier of Allah. Palin blamed a culture of political correctness and other decisions that “prevented — I’m going to say it — profiling” of someone with Hasan’s extremist ideology. “I say, profile away,” Palin said. Such political correctness, she continued, “could be our downfall.”
Interesting. Because obviously, racial profiling worked so well before. In fact, due to the government’s racist actions in World War Two, many Japanese Americans lost their homes, their lives, everything they had – and for what? Mike Shinoda (of Linkin Park fame) cut a track for his solo project that explored his family’s history in the internment camps. A student on YouTube spliced the song with images and facts from the era:
The U.S. government ultimately paid close to $1.6 billion dollars in reparations for their insistence on profiling.
Now Palin and company want to repeat history, as those who don’t learn from it so often do.
Palin-Beck 2012 [Politico]
Glenn Beck: Asshole [Shakesville]
Rage Grows in America: Anti‑Government Conspiracies [ADL]
Republicans criticize Obama’s Call To Delay Hill Inquiries On Fort Hood [Washington Post]
Palin On Nidal Hasan: “Profile Away” [Weekly Standard]
Exploring Japanese American Internment [Asian American Media]
Official Site [Densho]
Related: Casting Out: Exploring the Racialization of Muslims [Racialicious]
The Greatest Cliché: The Unexamined Propaganda of “Political Correctness” [Zuky]
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
abrildelsol wrote:
Ugh. Stuff like this makes life really hard. It’s hard to avoid hating others when this is the shit they pull.
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 3:18 pm ¶
Minotaar wrote:
Palin and Beck are trawling for assassins with their message of hate. Death threats against Obama are over 400% higher than EVER RECORDED BY THE SECRET SERVICE.
If Obama is assassinated, there is going to be riots the likes of which have never been seen in the US.
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 3:48 pm ¶
gail wrote:
I think the saddest thing about Ft. Hood was that performance evaluations of the shooter showed he had no business providing psychiatric treatment to anyone, and needed treatment himself. So, people within a system (in this case the military) that have already failed to act on information to ensure the well-being of their personnel are going to get even broader power and be held to even lower standards of accountability for their actions…I’m praying.
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 3:52 pm ¶
atlasien wrote:
The internment worked… that is, it very effectively worked to transfer money and assets from Japanese-Americans on the West Coast into the pockets of their white neighbors and competitors.
I think that reveals the really dangerous pattern of what could happen again. It’s not just that a group — Muslims — is hated and profiled. But if ramping up the hatred and profiling is also economically advantageous, that’s when the worst disasters can happen…
I have to hope that something like the internment won’t happen again. And I don’t think it will happen again, because our civil rights infrastructure is stronger now. Unless we enter into a prolonged economic depression. Then all bets are off.
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 4:09 pm ¶
Seattle Slim wrote:
I have two words:
Timothy McVeigh.
Profile that, Sarah, you chickenhead scaliwag.
I’m sorry but this woman is my archnemesis.
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 4:09 pm ¶
Mary wrote:
@ Minotaar:
Co-sign, completely. Palin should never be allowed to live down the angry mob mentality she stoked at her campaign rallies in the final days before the election. Israel observers were comparing it to the atmosphere before Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. It’s one of the many failings of the mainstream media that this hasn’t been thrown in her face at every opportunity. She was playing with fire, a fire on which Glenn Beck has been more than happy to pour gasoline. Of course she loves him.
And if, god forbid, something does happen to Obama or his family, watch Palin and Beck do the aw-shucks-skedaddle away from any responsibility. It makes me want to puke just imagining it. “I’m just a rodeo clown.” “Say it ain’t so, Joe!”
What really turns my stomach is that I agree with Glenn Beck’s statement “I love my country, but I’m afraid for it”… but for very, very different reasons than him.
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 4:15 pm ¶
Minotaar wrote:
In the public eye, they will do the aw-shucks skedaddle, but in private, this is all planned.
Trawling for assassins is not something people do by accident:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/18/rachel-maddow-frank-schae_n_362415.html
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 4:33 pm ¶
Crystal wrote:
I think it’s interesting that this post ties the problem back to financial liability in the end. I see it was originally published at Jezebel, where maybe it’s not enough that racial profiling is RACIST and EGREGIOUS. It also can be expensive, when the tide turns, and I guess in some venues that should be pointed out.
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 4:44 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:
@Crystal –
Sadly, people aren’t very motivated by the right thing to do (especially when they think its them vs. an enemy), and a lot of the pro-profiling folks are also trying to do things like reduce government spending, so I figured knock out both using the same historical facts.
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 4:47 pm ¶
Crystal wrote:
No, totally. Good post, good strategy.
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 5:10 pm ¶
Minotaar wrote:
What really makes me angry is that most states where people demand reductions in government spending are also states that receive more federal dollars than they pay in taxes. Redneck conservative hypocrites.
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 5:26 pm ¶
The Chemist wrote:
I admit this is potentially derailing so I’ll understand if you don’t approve this comment.
While I do agree that Beck is an ass, I can’t say I’m terribly impressed the ADL called him on it. The ADL is very politicized organization, and as far as I’m concerned not really credible as a civil rights or antiracist organization. Perhaps when their defense of the racist Israeli regime wanes and when they no longer think to play Oppression Olympics as they did with racist cartoons out of Denmark- then maybe I’ll actually care what they think.
I do have to admit that the right does hold the ADL’s opinion in some esteem (for now) so at least that’s something.
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 9:21 pm ¶
Digital Coyote wrote:
Are we surprised by her support for this? She already had a nasty rep in Alaska for how she dealt with the needs of the natives….unless it was taking advantage of her husband’s ability participate in specially sanctioned events or practices.
Does that mean that she and Mr. Palin should be profiled because they have a large cache of arms and are known to have contact with a group that wants Alaska to break off on its own? I still think some of her support for keeping an eye on brown folks and hate for the President is left over bitterness about losing a state crown to a WoC.
———————–
@Mary: Have you seen those “Pray for Obama” stickers that reference that nasty passage of the Bible?
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2009/11/bumper-stickers-for-psalm-1098—-a-wrong-hearted-prayer-for-obama/1
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 10:00 pm ¶
ashlynn wrote:
I agree with atlasien- the chances of internment camps returning are slim to none. We as minorities, are definitely in a position where we certainly would be able to quash even the mildest thought. And if that were to be- that history would attempt to repeat itself- we would make sure it doesn’t.
But still, people like Palin and Beck definitely are planting seeds of worry in many of us. Between Beck’s penchant for hate speech and Palin’s sheer incompetence, the potential damage is untold…
Posted 19 Nov 2009 at 10:03 pm ¶
Keith wrote:
Both Beck and Palin are opportunists, looking to get even richer off the fears of an already over worked, underpaid, stressed, and struggling white working class population. I doubt they even believe half the conservative talking points they parrot.
Posted 20 Nov 2009 at 1:18 am ¶
EMP wrote:
Please don’t post that picture of Palin again. *shudders*
I never knew who Glen Beck was before Mr. Obama became President. He seems to have used fear and hate as a spring board to fame.
Posted 20 Nov 2009 at 10:53 am ¶
Pickly wrote:
@Keith:
That’s not an assumption I’d make at all. It’s the sort of opinion that may be comforting, but it’s not as if someone can’t have strong beliefs and seek some sort of advantage at the same time. (Certainly, day to day there are a lot of people who combine beliefs with doing things to the own advantage.
@Digital Coyote:
Unless the viewpoint started at around the time of the beauty thing, that seems a pretty wild assumption to make. (since it seems more of a celebrity gossip type of explanation that often appears here, where someone’s opinion has to be from something they’ve lost or failed at, as opposed to picking up some opinion or action from somewhere else.
Posted 20 Nov 2009 at 10:59 am ¶
Keith wrote:
@Pickly – NO! It’s comforting to think that people are simply good or evil, that people are strictly 2 dimensional villains or good guys in some 2 bit cliche B movie, but what motivates those with power and wealth is more power and wealth. Glenn Beck makes about 18,000,000 a year off his brand and Sarah Palin went from resigning as Governor of Alaska to starting a book tour and charging 6 figures to do appearances. Playing the game has less to do with what people actually believe and more to do with getting the results they want. Lee Atwater would be a prime example of this.
Posted 20 Nov 2009 at 12:30 pm ¶
Keith wrote:
Not to Mention They both tend to contradict themselves when it comes to appeasing their fan base. Beck literally crying about healthcare needing to be reformed after spending time in the hospital after hemorrhoid surgery, and pretty much everything in Palin’s new book.
Posted 20 Nov 2009 at 12:39 pm ¶
Sean wrote:
Say it ain’t so, Sarah. I felt so much safer when you kept the eye you didn’t use to wink with on Russia.
“The only good I can see coming from Sarah Palin’s media march is that any possibility of her running for President in 2012 will, most likely, be shot to hell.”
Absolutely! That’s the reason I’m personally glad she has a New York Times best-seller. Between that, her “blame the media and McCain campaign strategists” tour, and Levi Johnston, H. Ross Perot has a better shot in 2012.
Posted 20 Nov 2009 at 12:50 pm ¶
Digital Coyote wrote:
@Pickly:
Just because she hasn’t said she’s bitter, doesn’t mean she isn’t. The woman has issues and there have been numerous issues that have been blogged about here and at other sites about what kind of a blow that does to the privilege, self-esteem, and notions of status some people have. Palin’s also got a long track record of pointing fingers at anyone but herself, which is consistent with that sort of thing.
PoC in Alaska made it clear that she was ignoring them, including refusing to show support for a Juneteenth festival (but the separatists up there can get a video message) and plotting to run a pipeline through their land before she quit. Mrs. Palin’s actions at the rallies late in to the campaign also suggest that she has absolutely no compunction or care about whipping up people who feel strongly about PoC and people who aren’t Christian. Anyone who genuinely feels doing so is wrong wouldn’t put so much effort in to pointing out an “other.”
People hate cats for life because they were scratched as children. She might hate PoC because someone snatched what she thought was her crown. She might’ve learned it from her parents in Idaho, which isn’t a bastion for tolerance, and that was the straw that broke the moose’s rack. *shrugs*
Posted 20 Nov 2009 at 2:09 pm ¶
Kendra wrote:
On the subject of internment, anyone heard of Fema Camps?
Posted 20 Nov 2009 at 4:26 pm ¶
Sean wrote:
@ Kendra
Yep… they used to call it the lower 9th ward.
Posted 20 Nov 2009 at 5:11 pm ¶
Pickly wrote:
@Keith:
It seems you misread the point I was making.
There’s no reason that people can’t both have strong beliefs, and seek power and advantage. (Certainly, if the beliefs work to their advantage, strong beliefs and greed can definitely go together.)
I’m not sure how you went from this to “2-dimensional good or evil”.
@Digital Coyote:
I’m not arguing about the policies she’s made, or about the personality, just that jumping to assume the beauty pagent is a big leap to make. (It’s along the same petty lines as assuming someone’s opinion comes from, sort of as you said, getting beat up as a kid, or “can’t get laid”, or other sort of gossipy excuses/explanations for people’s behavior that don’t seem to really address much.)
The overall point being, as in the last paragraph of your post, that the policies and viewpoints could have come from all sorts of places, and we who aren’t that person don’t have any way of knowing.
Posted 20 Nov 2009 at 6:15 pm ¶
DigitalCoyote wrote:
@Pickly:
You’ve assumed that I said all of her reasons for support for this idiocy is because of her failed pageant bid. I said “some” not all.
My last paragraph that you responded to meant no more than there are insignificant catalysts that can lead to a lifetime of hate. If the conditions of her formative years were not conducive to tolerance, that might have helped push her over by reinforcing ideas about the “other.”
I could very well be right. I could very well be wrong. The overall point being: you don’t know. If it’s too “gossipy” for you, ignore it and move on.
Posted 20 Nov 2009 at 8:13 pm ¶
Slush wrote:
I personally hope with all my might that Sarah Palin does not run for President. All the guffaws about her capacity and intelligence are the same ones the left made about George Bush. And what happened with him??
Plus, as was suggested there are a lot of people in this country, both more intelligent and less intelligent than Sarah Palin, who believe racial profiling is not a problem but is in fact sensible policy. Especially against Muslims and Arabs. She’s unfortunately not out in the fringe there, even if she is praising Glenn Beck.
While I tend to agree that internment camps is not something to worry about, I’m not incredibly confident about it. People have an amazing capacity to forget/ignore/retell history such that they pretend they are not repeating the atrocities of the past, when in fact they are.
Posted 21 Nov 2009 at 6:56 pm ¶
Minotaar wrote:
Palin’s photo is so repugnant I cant even stand scrolling by it!
Posted 21 Nov 2009 at 7:36 pm ¶
m. wrote:
Look at Sarah Palin’s track record. This is nothing new, and shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone.
She just penned and had published a self-serving stack of toilet paper in which she lies about her “support” of the claims to self-determination and tribal sovereignty of Alaska Natives…she has NEVER: okaying the theft of resources for the highest bidder is far from ’supportive’. (Then again, we also have to consider that ’sovereign’ is defined by non-Natives as “keep the land, give us the resources”. Her and John McCain, the B.I.A. superhero/AZ anti-Indian voter, were always a match made.)
She needs to be held accountable for what comes out of her mouth, and these statements decrying “political correctness” are only part of the problem. That infamous remark she made about pitbulls and hockey moms? …it was made just two weeks after a 6 year-old Native girl in Anchorage was attacked and mauled by a pitbull and died. It was front page news in Alaska for an entire week. A week later, another child in Anchorage was attacked by a pitbull and taken to the hospital. Everyone in Alaska knew about it. Sarah was certainly no exception.
Her statements are telling, in that she has pretty much warned us that she’s been a threat to poor people, Native people, soldiers/vets and their families…and now this rallying behind a fucker like Glenn Beck.
Posted 21 Nov 2009 at 10:54 pm ¶
Sobia wrote:
@Slush:
“While I tend to agree that internment camps is not something to worry about, I’m not incredibly confident about it. People have an amazing capacity to forget/ignore/retell history such that they pretend they are not repeating the atrocities of the past, when in fact they are.”
I agree. What was Guantanamo but the beginnings of it? Sure, they didn’t round up and ship off random American Muslims, but there were enough innocent Muslims in there to warrant alarm and distrust of American justice and judgment.
Posted 21 Nov 2009 at 11:07 pm ¶
Squidfly wrote:
Only in America, could a white woman and her family of grifters, get plucked out of obscurity, and make millions of dollars and command a fetish like devotion, from the media and the unhinged electorate…with a book she didn’t even write.
Posted 22 Nov 2009 at 5:44 pm ¶
allheavens wrote:
@ Minotaar:
I co-sign. I anything happens to President Obama or his family this country will literally go up in flames.
And there would not be a hole deep or wide enough for Palin, Beck, Hannity and Limbaugh to hide.
What these people are doing is unconscionable and they are doing it not because they are true believers but for a damn dollar.
If all four of them got hit by a bus tomorrow I would not loose one nanosecond of sleep over it.
Posted 22 Nov 2009 at 6:37 pm ¶
Pickly wrote:
@Digital Coyote:
If it is gossipy or petty, and involves this sort of politics, it is a concern of mine, because this sort of stuff gets in the way of a lot of imformation, and pretty much serves an “us vs. them” purpose, as opposed to more of an information sharing purpose.
I personally hope with all my might that Sarah Palin does not run for President. All the guffaws about her capacity and intelligence are the same ones the left made about George Bush. And what happened with him??
The last couple of elections have had a lot of the attention getting candidates not get, or not come close to getting, a chance to run for president (Dean, Clinton, Guliani), so hopefully that’s a good sign. (Depending on who does end up doing well in the primaries, of course.)
Posted 23 Nov 2009 at 12:16 am ¶
sandeep wrote:
the most powerful thing in the article is the video. the japanese internment camp period was something ive read about but never something i’ve immersed myself with. i’d say the video is the single greatest reason to avoid palin-esque antics. fear mongering leads to improper treatment. let due process be the method by which we dole out justice. mob mentality can lash out in some pretty terrible ways which can hurt alot of innocent people.
Posted 25 Nov 2009 at 12:07 pm ¶