Barry Everingham reports on Sarah Palin and the increasingly shrill and threatening American far-right.
The rigid excesses which surface from time-to-time in all aspects of American life are out there again – but this time they can hardly be ignored – the warning bells are ringing and they are ringing loud.
The message is that Rupert Murdoch and his biased TV channel Fox News are hell-bent on promoting the Tea Party and its de facto leader, Sarah Palin—a cunning nobody who rose from obscurity and is now enjoying her notoriety. She makes our own Pauline Hanson look respectable.
Palin has released the second of her memoirs America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith and Heart. Published by Harper Collins, it’s a must read for those who follow the rise of this remarkable woman who – loved, hated or loathed – could become the President of the United States of America and with it the world’s most important woman.
With Palin at its head, the American far right has stumbled into a field of anti-Semitism, racism and violence—a field so fraught already six people are dead. It would be a brave person who would blame Palin herself for this mayhem—but of late the former moose hunter, Mayor of Wasilla, Governor of Alaska and Vice Presidential hopeful has been busy.
She has either been responsible for or endorsed some of the following memorable exhortations to her followers.
Not content with advertisements “targeting” the districts of vulnerable Democrats on maps marked with cross hairs, they went public with some beauties along the lines of:
"Don’t retreat, instead reload"
"If ballots don’t work, bullets will."
"Get on target for Victory in November; help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly."
Right now Palin and Company are trying to distance themselves from the recent outrage in Tucson, Arizona when six people were killed by a crazed young man and the Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, survived a bullet passing through her head. She is by the way a Democrat and incidentally a Jewess!
Enough said.
There’s no doubt Palin’s book has been ghosted—many good autobiographies are and hers is extremely well written. Much has not seen the light of day—no mention of her plan, when Governor, for making rape victims pay for testing semen to recognize their attackers.
Her ignorance of international affairs doesn’t see the light of day either. It appears she had no idea Washington bought Alaska from the Russians, but she did say she could see Russia through her lounge-room window.
A John McCain staffer let it slip that during her first conversation with McCain after her nomination, the Presidential hopeful suggested she model herself on Margaret Thatcher.
Palin: [blank look] "Who is she?"
Well, Palin has a different take on that one. In her book, she writes:
"What a lady – what a leader. I cherish Margaret Thatcher’s example and will always count on her as one of my role models. I am not alone of course. Ronald Reagan considered her his closest ally."
Thankfully, we were spared her earlier prayer which went along the lines of:
God, please come back and bring Ronald Reagan with you—we need him more than ever right now!
She finds fault with such brilliant movies as Rendition and Green Zone which she claimed were critical of the “war” ( not the” invasion”) in Iraq. She didn’t mention the sadistic treatment meted out to Muslims in Guantanamo Bay, including two Australian citizens.
Readers might be interested in knowing her favorite song is by Toby Keith who sings in “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue”:
"And you’ll be sorry you messed with
The US of A
‘Cause we’ll put a boot in your ass
It’s the American way."
The Murdoch media has a lot to answer for in its ceaseless promotion and elevation to sainthood of this woman who it seems, for them at least, can do no wrong. But chickens do come home to roost; thousands of New York Jews have petitioned Murdoch to remove one of his worst anti-semites, Glen Beck, from the airwaves.
It shouldn’t stop at him—some of the pale imitations of the Fox commentators who write for his Australian outlets also need pulling into line.
Palin’s book should be read by every person who holds the notion of freedom dear; the prevailing sickness of the Tea Party and it’s leadership has no place in normal society.
- America by Heart by Sarah Palin, published by Harper Collins, RRP $29.90, ISBN 9780062010964.
