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Palin & Olbermann on the R**Skins

No, Sarah you can't quit at half time and still win a Superbowl ring.

“No, Sarah you can’t quit at half time and still win a Superbowl ring.”

It’s not often these days that we at The Mudflats get to write about Sarah Palin AND our old friend Keith Olbermann in the same story. It brings us back to that odd time when Palin went from being Republican nominee for Vice President of the United States, to ‘The Quitter.’

But by some magic they’ve both been talking about the same issue – the despicable name of the Washington DC football team.  I’ll give you Sarah Palin’s word-salad first and then follow up with Olbermann’s fun take on the team owner Dan Snyder.

Palin, ever the martyr, makes this about “the PC police” and a First Amendment issue (proving yet again that she has no idea what the First Amendment actually IS). Taking to her Facebook page last week, she ranted:

redskins-rednecksNothing should surprise us lately; but when the Politically Correct Police bust Ditka, they hope the silent majority will cower under leftist control. My goodness, Ditka merely spoke his mind. This accomplished and esteemed coach knows there are big issues to be addressed in America today; there’s no intent to offend by referring to a team by the name they’ve proudly worn since day one and chose with pride in our native ancestry and obviously had absolutely no intent to insult; and the liberal media’s made-up controversies divide our country. The government’s intent to force any owner of anything, in this case an NFL entity, to change a name is the antithesis of the American way of working through differences. Ditka said he actually likes the Washington Redskins, and he’s a man full of commonsense and admired patriotism.

Mike Ditka, the sports commentator, for those who missed it said this:

What’s all the stink over the Redskin name? …It’s so much [expletive], it’s incredible. We’re going to let the liberals of the world run this world. It was said out of reverence, out of pride to the American Indian. Even though it was called a Redskin, what are you going to call them, a Proudskin?

Palin, who used to be Governor of a state with the highest percentage of Natives in the country, disagreed with Ditka on one point though.

He thinks the name should always be Washington Redskins, as a source of pride? Take the word “Washington” out and I’ll agree the team name is a great source of pride.

Yes Sarah, “Washington” is much more offensive than the Native American equivalent of the n-word. Washington, the name of our first President and your favorite founding father. Remember? This isn’t a liberal or conservative thing Sarah, this is a respect thing. This is a you don’t get to decide what people are offended/horrified by thing. You got in a massive tizzy when Dave Letterman made a joke about your daughters – “free speech” and expression didn’t seem to matter too much then.

But let me quote the excellent words of Baxter Holmes in Esquire Magazine earlier this year.

But “redskins” is not just a twisted compliment, like “Savages,” “Warriors,” “Braves” or “Red Men.” It represents a trophy of war—the bloody scalp of a murdered Native American, slaughtered for money, the amount dependent on whether it was a man, woman or child.

The team has had the Redskins name since 1933, when it was based in Boston, so it’s easy to say, “We’ve always done it this way.” But if America “always did it this way,” then terms like “Wetback,” “Negro,” and its much uglier cousin would still be a part of our lexicon. We learn.

Also, consider the history of Native Americans, a race all but annihilated because of genocidal policies instituted by people like Spencer Phips. Our identity has been stripped away, lost to time, yet the most offensive word toward us still exists—where else?—but in this nation’s capital.

Mr. Holmes is correct – we evolve; we move forward in this country. Which is why many, at least in the Lower 48, were horrified when Congressman Don Young casually used the term “wetbacks” in an interview. It does not matter whether or not 60 years ago, before Young was a Congressman, if it was considered to be a non-offensive term by his Dad. Neither Don Young, nor Sarah Palin get to decide these things.

Now – on to Keith Olbermann with the news. 

Olbermann has a great story on how R**Skins owner Dan Snyder might be using the whole name scandal to get something that he wants – a new stadium. Once again, using Natives to get free land. Shocker. Since it’s Keith – I won’t spoil the story by writing more – just watch. [Story starts at 2:44 but I recommend watching the first segment about how the NFL is finally changing their punishment for players when they abuse their wives]

Please also check out Indian Country Today‘s story on Palin.

Related Mudflats Stories:

The “R” Word: NFL Time to Change the Name

Don Young “We used to hire wetbacks.” 

Comments

comments

Comments
17 Responses to “Palin & Olbermann on the R**Skins”
  1. mike from iowa says:

    One questioned remaimed from campaign 08
    Who mastered Snowgrifter? What was his fate?
    Insiders who knew weren’t raising a fuss
    Their lives are more viable out from under the bus

    Her chiseled jowls foaming
    Her screech fairly wailing
    Keith Olbermann’s the answer
    To Whose Nailin’ Palin?

  2. fishingmamma says:

    Dear Sarah,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW9-FOLG-iA

    Regards,

    Rational people everywhere

  3. mike from iowa says:

    Would love to lock these two in a room-her with a can of diet Red Bull and her word salad,Keith with his rapier-like wit. After about an hour,I would remove Keith and have him tested for mental illness and Palin would still be yacking and not even miss him.

  4. Zyxomma says:

    I miss Countdown, and am glad Keith Olbermann is back on cable TV. $carah, we can’t miss you, because you just won’t go away. Yes, I’d love for you to STFU. But you won’t.

  5. DrewCelt says:

    Dick Cavett summed up Sarah’s language skills perfectly when he dubbed her: “the serial killer of syntax”.

  6. mike from iowa says:

    Too bad Snowgrift Snoozie doesn’t have balls so Olbermann could give her a good swift kick there. In other wingnut stoopidity,50 of Rick Perry’s National Guard troops have applied to a food bank for food and gas money. Apparently Perry isn’t paying them until September and they have neither food or gas. Perry claims he has already secured the border.

  7. slipstream says:

    That reminds me: how is that “fire David Letterman” thing working out for you, Palin?

  8. tallimat says:

    Palin is gross.
    She likes to parade around as if she knows something about Alaska. But her stuff is so cheechako-ish. Just like her dad.
    There is a reason her in laws from the Dillingham area don’t speak or mention of her. They are hoping people won’t realize the connection.
    Anyone who has known her, spent time close to her or had too, realize one thing, its not embarrassment, it is that she is gross.

  9. Cathy Heyworth Harris says:

    Thanks Zack for another great connect-the-dots rant

  10. Alaska Pi says:

    It’s nice to hear Mr Olberman again but I find I don’t give a rat’s patoot about the stadium question- I’m just sick of the game Mr Snyder is making out of the damn team name.
    And whatzername?And Ditka? And Limbaugh? And all the rst of that waaaa, waaa, waaa, the-libruls-done-stole-my-bottle gang?
    http://nativeappropriations.com/2014/06/who-has-spoken-out-against-the-redskns.html
    cast your nasty, beady lil eyes on the list of Native tribes, groups, and folks many of whom -shock of all shocks!- cannot be called liberal by any stretch of the word who want this offensive name gone.

    • Alaska Pi says:

      And think about this dear whatzername-

      “This idea that the fight against the mascotting of Native people is something new and led by white folks is an oddly insular and navel-gazing way to understand the issue—and yet another way of cutting Native people out of the American discourse about things that matter to us. By reframing the issue this way, the Washington NFL team continues to make real, modern Native people to disappear, much as their mascot does. It’s a continuation of the extinguishment of the Native voice and the appropriation of our identity and lands.
      from a lenthgy quote of Jackie Keeler by Dave Zirin in :
      http://www.thenation.com/blog/181372/assassinating-native-american-voices-cowards-palin-ditka-and-snyder#

    • Alaska Pi says:

      and missing in this partial quote of whatzername’s crap is the assertion that poor ole Mr Ditka might lose his job for using his 1st amendment rights- repeating a line of bull from Mr Limbaugh.
      I’m with the ICTMN staff here- whatzername “has a history of not understanding the First Amendment”
      http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2014/08/28/palins-redskins-rant-using-political-football-silence-people-156620

      And whatzername, hon, rilly?
      Get off the ‘our” native ancestry routine. You are not the queen nor are you Native.
      It is my Native ancestry, your husband’s Native ancestry,.. not yours or the collective OURS
      The collective OUR did its damn level best to kill, crush, eradicate, enslave ( Pribilof slavery paid for the AK purchase, toots. Don’t forget that, hon ) Native peoples from sea-to-shining-sea, dearie.

      • AKMagpie says:

        Hear, hear!

      • Granny says:

        as you youngin’s say ‘SNAP’…as to ‘her husband’ well I would not exactly want to be related to him…he does not respect women and sells them or kills them…sorry but true dear…his is a bad man…the new butcher baker killer of Alaska with his plane and prostitutes…shrug…

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