Thanks a LOT, Sarah Palin.
3 02 2010Sarah Palin has called for President Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel to be fired.
My first thought was, “How can this be? Why do I actually agree with Sarah Palin?” And then I looked out the window to make sure there wasn’t some sort of giant asteroid hurtling toward Earth, or a plague of locusts on the horizon.
She wants him to be fired not for any substantive policy issue, or strategy issue, or corruption, but because behind closed doors he called a liberal strategy “f–ing retarded.” She apparently thinks that it’s not because Rahm Emmanuel is in his late 40s and people of that generation used that term pretty frequently in the school yard when talking about their friends, or a dumb idea, or a million other things. She does not believe this was meant as an insult to liberal Democrats. She does not believe that it was simply a stupid juvenile thing to say. She would like us to believes that it was an intentional by the Chief of Staff to the President as a slur used to insult and humiliate the developmentally disabled. Nice try.
And thanks a LOT, Sarah Palin. Now that you’ve opened your pie hole, we’re probably going to be stuck with him for the next seven years.
Since we’re being all politically correct, shall we prepare ourselves for a scathing Facebook post from some paid blogger Sarah Palin that decries this?
Limbaugh: There’s Rahm Emmanuel out there who’s in big trouble for calling liberals, for calling liberal activists “f-ing retards”. Sarah Palin demanded that he be fired. Instead he has apologized… I think the big news is the crackup going on. But our politically correct society is acting like some major insult has taken place by calling a bunch of people who ARE retards, “retards.” … So now there’s going to be a meeting. There’s going to be a “retard summit” at the White House.
Not to split hairs, but for what it’s worth, please note that Emmanuel called a plan “retarded” and Limbaugh called actual people “retards.” Just sayin’.
Or, perhaps she’ll be outraged over THIS?
LIMBAUGH: Oh, I’m a huge supporter of women. What I’m not a supporter of is liberalism. Feminism is what I oppose, and feminism has led women astray. I love women. I don’t know where all this got started. I love the women’s movement — especially when walking behind it.
Remember that Palin recently bemoaned the fact that today’s media objectifies women, and blamed the National Organization for Women for not speaking out about it. Call me a cynic, but I won’t hold my breath waiting for the outrage and the call for Rush Limbaugh to be fired.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:23 AM
Limpaw will undoubtedly spin this into the fact that he was ‘impersonating’ Rahm using Rahms own words against him. I’m sure with a bit of research one could find many uses of the ‘R’ word over at faux not-so-much news in the last year alone. Used maliciuosly it’s an unfortunate choice of wording. But trying to remove the ‘R’ word will not be the same as trying to remove the ‘N’ word from society. Sure, it would be better to use the Thesaurus alternates of cretin, half-wit, idiot, imbecile, moron, or simpleton… but they just don’t have the same shock value. Her ‘ness will continue to play the ‘retahd cahd’ only in situations that will benefit her and her purse. Inasmuch as the multiple ‘0′ value structures on her remote property are concerned, if lightning (or two bears rubbing two sticks together) caused a fire that burned them to the ground, how would she explain that to her insurance company while she tries to collect monies for the value of the buildings? Oh wait! That’s right… they are worth ‘0′ so there will be no such claim! Yeah… right!
Charlatan. (Thesaurus… beguiler, cheater, deceiver, trickster, cheat)
February 4th, 2010 at 8:26 AM
The fact that Emanuel’s use of the word took place not only in a private closed session but also IN AUGUST, over three months ago makes it quite obvious Sarah’s just playing gotcha.
Can anyone imagine a world leader, Commander in Chief, who’d react that way?
February 4th, 2010 at 8:30 AM
The fact that Emanuel’s use of the word took place not only in a private closed session but also IN AUGUST, over three months ago makes it quite obvious Sarah’s just using whatever she can to slam the Obama administration.
Her statement reveals that she’s pretty much phoning it in.
“Yes, Rahm is known for his caustic, crude references about those with whom he disagrees, but his recent tirade against participants in a strategy session was such a strong slap in many American faces….”
it wasn’t “recent”, it took place in August. She probably didn’t even bother to read past the headlines. Or at least, her ghost-blogger didn’t.
Can anyone imagine a world leader, Commander in Chief, functioning this way?
February 4th, 2010 at 8:32 AM
Beth is right. In order for SP to have deliberately named her child after Down’s Syndrome, she would have had to READ about it somewhere. Case closed.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:33 AM
I just saw a piece on MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell. She reported that in a Glen Beck interview, Glen used some permutation of ‘disabled’ in derogative way and asked Palin if that offended her. With a slight giggle, Palin replied no, not at all. It was part of that inane discussion on political correctness. I believe that is also the context in which Ann Coulter used the term repeatedly and in a derogatory way (all in a single breath it seemed).
The hypocrisy remains stunning.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:35 AM
People who walk behind Limbaugh have to hold their breath while trying not to look at that movement… but I digress. It’s his better side. And end.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:36 AM
Well I REALLY hate to say this but Palin succeed…once again.
This was for 3 reasons…
1: to distract from the immoral/illegal disbursements of SarahPac
2: these disbursements reveled that Rebbeca Mansour, one of the founders of
C4P, most likely coordinated the “grassroots” beggathon between the Alaska
Fund Trust, C4P AND $arah Palin…. remember live on rice and/or Ichiban
noodles do you can give give give…till it hurts hurts hurts? The one where
Palin was not AT ALL INVOLVED!
3: Mansour had been an unemployed, self declared screen writer (try to find
ANYTHING she wrote I double dare you)……so is most likely not ONLY Palin’s
Fakebook key puncher, but author as well. I refer back to comments Palin
made on FOX condemning her own Fakebook edict.
We knew all along that Palin doesn’t write her own Fakebook nonsense, but
NOW we know who is and …………so does everyone else.
That is unless you can come up with a big enough distraction…… to bury the
REAL story AND see if the media will continue to attribute the Fakebook
edicts and ravings to Palin.
If Palin isn’t writing this than who would report it? If a “screen writer” is
“makin’ stuff up” …why pay attention?
The media bought this hook line and sinker………NO ONE is paying attention
to the real story here……..sigh………way to go Palin, way to go.
The media are as intelligent as the teabaggers!
February 4th, 2010 at 8:38 AM
14 Ratfish Says: February 3rd, 2010 at 10:09 PM
Sarah- the silence is deafening.
———
Her remaining silent from this point forward would be golden.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:38 AM
Oh silly Rush. We know it’s not women, or their movement that you love.
Do you know what a “beard” is? Nice try, though.
February 4th, 2010 at 8:59 AM
Thanks for connecting Rush to Emmanuel, Hey; apparently you agree on something with Sarah AND Rush and Emmanuel agree on something. Now I am looking for the giant meteor heading for earth.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:04 AM
She apparently thinks that it’s not because Rahm Emmanuel is in his late 40s and people of that generation used that term pretty frequently in the school yard when talking about their friends
____________________________________________
Doesn’t Sarah fit this category too? You mean to tell me that no kids on Alaskan playgrounds in the 70’s used the word retarded? Including Sarah?
Not buying it….the word was pervasive when I was little.
1) I think she has had extremely good luck picking fights that have given her plenty of press…now she seems to be losing her touch (much to our enjoyment).
2) She’d be an idiot to pick a fight with Rush, he’d crush her! I’ve always thought that her real goal was not to replace Obama, but to replace Rush.
3) I hope McCain loses….he has disgraced himself beyond all belief.
4) again….Sarah use your considerable platform to raise money for Down Syndrome….how about a PSA….how about participating in special olympics?
How about therapy & a coat for that poor baby?
P.S. has she said ANYTHING about Haiti?
February 4th, 2010 at 9:06 AM
The whole issue seems fake, off-message for the Sarah brand, and RAM-generated. Not the Sarah her bots “know” and love. She LOVES being politically incorrect, sayin’ it like it is, one of the good ol’ boys, jeez she grew up with Papa Heath, and have you heard Todd? She loved those guys from Orange County Choppers. Rush personifies her supporters, he can’t speak without saying “retard” in some context. Her resignation tweet promised “10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps”!
I think she, as Levi indicated, is far more at home with a “retard” sensibility than any crook-fingered politically-correct nomenclature. The irony is she and Rahm have more in common as tough-guys than poor RAM with her drummed-up controversy bein’ all offended and girly and huffy.
Not that I personally think it is an appropriate label for any disabled kid, this is all about the posturing done on behalf of the half-Gov.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:11 AM
Great stuff. Palin is so far gone in her bid to cash in, it does’nt matter how foolish anything she says is. It only has to keep her name in the headlines. Now, to get some major media to print these sorts of observations.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:12 AM
On second thought [ref my posting @ 44] and with a disclaimer that I am NOT a psychologist/psychiatrist (I don’t even play one of TV) …
Knowing what we now know about the timeline of the pregnancy**, she might very well have chosen the name she did because she was so resentful of carrying/having [to have] a child that would demand time and care of her. Resentful to the core that this child wouldn’t be one she could leave to its own devices; one that could not, as her other children had done (and were essentially doing), ‘raise’ itself.
The bile rises in my throat to even think the above would be a reason she’d name the child its condition…but, sadly, knowing how difficult it is for a narcissistic personality to not do *exactly* as they want to do, she might have specifically chosen the name she did to ‘vent’ her resentment on an on-going, daily basis. In her own (twisted?) mind, the role of “martyr” –because of being saddled with a Down child – *not* for any other ‘reason’– was one she did not (and would not) suffer lightly. If the child was going to hurt her (by being Down Syndrome), she would hurt the child right back (by naming it a ’shorthand’ for the syndrome: Trig.) I’m sure modern-day (legitimate) Freuds are having a field day with her. beth.
**[her 'thinking about' terminating it in New Orleans; her not telling Todd about being pregnant until she was, what 3-4 months?; not telling (IIFC) Todd the baby was Downs for a loooong time after she found out; her not telling anyone, not even her children and parents, about the pregnancy until she was what, about 6 months?; not telling anyone, not even her daily-contact coworkers, that she was pregnant until she was 7 months; not telling anyone, not even her other children!, that the baby had Downs. Methinks the lady (and I use that term advisedly) was resenting the child --and more to the point-- his condition, from the get-go. b.]
February 4th, 2010 at 9:15 AM
when Rham apologized b/c of palin’s hissy-fit, then wasn’t creedence just bestowed upon her?…btw, according to an tv interview, Levi said she called her own baby the “R” word.
we need to STOP this vicious cycle of reading what she spews and circulating it around…she’s not significant enough.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:18 AM
ooops – (IIFC) would be (IIRC). beth.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:21 AM
Beth: I too doubt that the origin of the name was TRI-G. But, you’ve got to admit that every single time she refers to him in public, she prominently states “my special needs” baby, not just my baby. Of course when Levi was there in the privacy of her home she said “my retarded baby”, according to him. Point being that she NEVER fails to try to get publicity for having a “special needs” baby. Although that never stopped her from carrying him around at those night rallies with people screaming, flashing cameras, wind, and so forth. Aside from her, and aside from the above, I don’t think it makes any sense to keep sanitizing all these labels, as we end up with “challenged” people….which can mean literally anything at all, or “special needs” people…..which also can mean literally anything at all. That organization ARC that someone mentioned before…..guess what the letter “R” represented until the mid 90s? I had a cousin who was referred to as “retarded”, she was. And everyone loved her. Getting rid of the word “retarded” is NEVER going to stop kids from ridiculing each other over some perceived deficiency.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:29 AM
” … as a slur used to insult and humiliate the developmentally disabled.”
Actually it seems that she see the “slur” as directed at her, as is every other word uttered in the world.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:38 AM
Lainey~
“…we need to STOP this vicious cycle of reading what she spews and circulating it around…she’s not significant enough.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I could not agree more.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:41 AM
It’s all about the context…..”retarded” is not a bad word, but a descriptive one…..when it’s not used in insulting way. I taught high school for a quarter-century and responded like this: “Retarded means slow to learn or delayed. It hurts me when I hear you use it as an insult, because my son is retarded, and someday it might hurt him.”
I’d insult Sarah, but I am so tired of her.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:44 AM
I would NOT put it past her mean-spirited, selfish persona to name Trig that way…also too, she is neglecting his “special needs” by not supplying him with glasses or a hearing aid or whatever it is he needs to develop…she is setting him up for failure and (imo) possible commitment into a facility, so SHE doesn’t have to take her time to care for him…she is so used to leaving her other kids to ‘raise’ themselves…look what a good job they’ve done so far. where is todd the tool in all of this? aren’t they his kids too? maybe he has doubts by her past behavior.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:50 AM
By some accounts Palin refers to her own child as “my little retarded angel”. I know people say Levi is not a credible source, but frankly, I don’t think the kid has the imagination to LIE about this. I think he kind of chuckled a little when he heard it and then later said, “WAIT A MINUTE….”.
Apparantly it was a slow FACEBOOK day for Sarah, the hypocritical grifter extroadinaire.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:54 AM
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/02/04/2010-02-04_rush_limbaugh_on_rahm_emanuel_retarded_comment_liberal_activists_are_retards.html
so far 79% think she should make limbaugh apologize…….everyone is waiting, Sarah
February 4th, 2010 at 9:58 AM
Lainey@56 – Rahm apologized LAST WEEK. palin’s hissy fit had nothing to do with it. palin is chasing the story here.
February 4th, 2010 at 10:01 AM
DEO, clearly Levi is not lying, for exactly the reason you mention. Same with her not knowing how to shoot a gun. Can’t want for THE book.
February 4th, 2010 at 10:03 AM
txindygirl, I know that he apologized first. Then, she glommed onto the apology to exploit it, making it her own.
February 4th, 2010 at 10:28 AM
If Sarah doesn’t blast Limpbaugh then she needs to fold her cards and keep her yap shut, and leave the world alone.
February 4th, 2010 at 10:29 AM
@txindygirl
so you’re saying Rahm apologized without pressure from the media frenzy over the letter she wrote? I didn’t know that…then why is this a story connecting the two?!
btw, was this an actual letter or was this a brain fart of hers on her FB page?
February 4th, 2010 at 11:06 AM
Has our society lost its moral compass? Are we sliding into that morass of bad manners and crossed boundaries? Members of our media and political arenas are beginning to look and act like characters from that horrid movie “Idiocracy”
What’s the difference between playground bullies and Rahm, Rush and Sarah?
Publicity.
I am beginning to feel like a Dixie Chick.
February 4th, 2010 at 11:23 AM
Rahm said the health care was retarded, not an individual, and it is. He meant no offense to any one, but the plan is flawed, and that is what he meant. We are making too big of a deal over the word he used.
Palin and Limpbaugh, they used is to describe people and children, that is wrong, very wrong. They need to be called on that, not Rahm. And Rahm apologized way before Palin got her panties in a wad.
February 4th, 2010 at 11:47 AM
“Rebiblieans” love their new puppet. When LIM and FOX NEWS
need a SPIN, there is $arah.
February 4th, 2010 at 12:23 PM
You guys just aren’t being fair! Clearly there is a huge difference between a political staff person using a rude slang word behind closed doors, with a group of seasoned politicos, six months ago, and a mere radio-show host who only reaches, by his own esitmation, one hundred million people using a variation of the same word three times in a recent diatribe. It isn’t right to expect Palin to hold the national radio-show host to the same standards we would hold a well-known foul-mouthed guy in a private meeting.
February 4th, 2010 at 12:35 PM
Rush liken the view from behind women, that’s a good one…Has any one EVER seen him with a woman? I think its pretty clear which way he leans !!! and it ain’t to the right.
February 4th, 2010 at 1:16 PM
How did calling a retarded political “program” retarded, translate into calling Sarah’s “special needs” baby a name — 3 months after the fact? It doesn’t compute and she doesn’t even know that.
She milks that kid for all she can, by God the kid is going to pay, we are going to pay, everyone is going to pay for her having to rear an unwanted child that can’t leave his mother…ever.
She was not prepared for God’s opening this “door” that she plowed through and lo, a Downs Syndrome life-long anchor. She’ll find a way to relieve herself of this unfair-to-Sarah-burden, just wait and see.
If she cared anything at all for the fate and future of these special children, we would have seen her on PSA’s calling for research and better forms of treatment. When she can get them to pay her to “appear” and help, then she will show up.
February 4th, 2010 at 2:03 PM
Doesn’t it look like Rush is calling Sarah out? Right on top of the issue, he comes out and intentionally pushes the word over and over. Its as if to say, you think that anyone can’t use that word just because you have a baby that you call retarded? Come on Sarah, bring it on.
Sarah, your baby isn’t retarded, he has Down Syndrome, he’s a “special needs” baby, not retarded. Shame on you for thinking of your baby as a retard…and then have the gall to go and call for Rahm’s firing for using it to describe Dem’s retarded program
Hell, Sarah would have called it retarded too, if she had been there and thought of it first.
With the tax man barking at your heels, you’ll need to dance faster than this, he is fast gaining on you.
February 4th, 2010 at 3:21 PM
Tsk. Tsk. How does Palin respond to Limbaugh’s throwing down the gauntlet on “retard?”
I know! Let’s get Mikey to do it!
Mikey (aka Meg Stapletongue) responded thusly to The Plumline’s inquiries:
“I asked Palin spokesperson Meghan Stapleton for comment on Rush’s rant, and she emailed me this:
“Governor Palin believes crude and demeaning name calling at the expense of others is disrespectful.”
It hardly has the passion of her response to Rahm, and there’s no call for him to step down. But given Rush’s stature among conservatives, it’s pretty interesting that she went this far, denouncing his on-air rant as “crude and demeaning name-calling.”
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/palin-camp-rips-limbaugh-hits-his-retard-comment-as-crude-and-demeaning/
Yes, Sarah….where’s your personal outrage on Fakebook? When can we expect Rush to quit his eleventy zillion dollar job in deference to your mandations?
I assume it’s too much to hope for that these two high-principled behemoths will take their disagreement to the cage-fighting level…..
February 4th, 2010 at 4:18 PM
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/020410dnmetpalinperry.e628ea79.html
February 4th, 2010 at 5:21 PM
What a complete A&* she has become…along with all her family and support staff and everything she touches…. amazing…
February 4th, 2010 at 5:58 PM
Remember this the next time you hear their favorite word “libtard” used… or come to think of it, any of the other legitimate descriptions of lower IQ: idiot, imbecile and moron.
And then there’s just plain stupid.
February 4th, 2010 at 6:05 PM
FINALLY, cabingate makes Huffpo’s front page!
February 4th, 2010 at 11:18 PM
#59 pinhead (you do know that’s a little iffy, don’t you, Zippy?) –
Excellent observation on the Limpbo beard.