But Wait ... By Palin's Definition, Mohamed Atta Isn't A Terrorist

This campaign gets stranger and stranger -- and more and more frightening. Brian Williams asked Sarah Palin a fairly straightforward question, based on her repeated use of the phrase "domestic terrorist" to characterize Bill Ayers. Williams asked: "Is an abortion clinic bomber a terrorist under this definition, Governor?"

Palin tried several evasive maneuvers before alighting on this answer:

"I would put in that category of Bill Ayers anyone else who would seek to campaign, to destroy our United States capital and our Pentagon and would seek to destroy innocent Americans."

Forget the tortured syntax for a moment. What is truly and deeply frightening in this exchange is the lengths to which Palin will go to avoid disparaging abortion bombers. She is so desperate not to characterize the Eric Rudolphs of this world as terrorists that she forges a severely narrow definition of the act: You have to target the Capitol or the Pentagon to qualify.

That even lets Mohamed Atta off the hook, since he attacked the World Trade Center. Like the doctor's offices and medical clinics struck by abortion terrorists, it's a civilian target. We know that Sarah Palin doesn't believe that Islamic militants who kill civilians aren't terrorists. That leaves only one way to interpret these words: She either supports the bombing of abortion clinics or she wants the political support of those who do (and then there's that reference to "innocent Americans," which seems to suggest that clinic staff or patients are not innocent).

Can anybody think of another explanation?

Either interpretation would seem to reinforce what I call the black-helicopter theory -- that this campaign is deliberately stoking extremism. As for the idea she might have sympathy or at least tolerance toward these attacks -- well, let's hope not. But she had already said these words as she writhed in the unforgiving claws of what should've been a straighforward question:

"Now, others who would want to engage in harming innocent Americans or facilities that it would be unacceptable to -- I don't know if you're going to use the word terrorist there, but it's unacceptable, and it would not be condoned, of course, on our watch."

So the strongest things she's willing to say about bomb attacks on abortion clinics (which have caused deaths as well as destruction) is that they're "unacceptable" and wouldn't be "condoned."

I guess that's something.

So, here we have a Vice Presidential candidate and potential President who has close ties to a separatist party founded by a man with violent hostility toward the U.S. government. She accepts blessing from a "witch-fighting" pastor, when "expelling witches" is its own form of terrorism (witch-hunting may sound quaint to American ears, but it's a living and hideous practice that claims hundreds if not thousands of women and children each year).

Let's face it: The $150,000 in clothing, the highly paid make-up artists, the potentially illegal use of Alaskan state funds to fly her family on junkets ... all that's trivial next to the extreme views suggested by these comments. This is not a game of "gotcha" based on a poor choice of words or associations. This is a pattern -- the pattern of a deeply disturbing individual, one who is not only unqualified to be President but who also holds some profoundly un-American opinions.

And John McCain chose her -- or, more precisely, must take responsibility for her selection. It's his name on the campaign bus. His acceptance of Palin betrayed stunning indifference to the responsibilities of leadership. That is all we need to know about him.

It's no wonder the young woman who claimed to have been attacked and mutilated by a large black Obama supporter turns out to have performed the act on herself (which the mirrored "B" on her face should have made obvious). But before the truth was revealed, we're told she got a phone call from Sarah Palin. This is a campaign that will try turning any lie to its advantage.

Self-mugging: The perfect metaphor for John McCain's campaign.

Sure, there's a strange fascination in listening to Sarah Palin speak. Every sentence seems to pass through an surrealistic archway, as if its grammatical rules had been designed by M. C. Escher. Will it turn into a flock of birds, a school of fish, become its own wall or ceiling or stairway? But underneath this tangled skein of language, a picture is beginning to emerge. It's a frightening picture and an ugly one.

It's a picture that the most expensive makeup artist in the world can't hide.

______________

(PERSONAL NOTE: I'll be appearing at the Kernville Freedom Festival in Kernville, CA tomorrow, along with Marc Sussman, Richard Greene, Scott Ritter -- who was right about Iraq -- and several others. I'll be speaking and will play two short music sets. It's a great place to camp out if you're coming from the Coast.

RJ Eskow blogs when he can at:

A Night Light
The Sentinel Effect: Healthcare Blog
Future-While-U-Wait

Comments

[LiberTLover]

I guess the guy who blew up the Fed building in Oklahoma wasn't by her definition a terrorist either. She makes my brain cringe with her vapid idiocy.

[BlackJAC]

For gops, it's not "terrorism" when done by white conservatives.

[feo]

We can thank Palin for one thing: we found out exactly how much it costs to put lipstick on a pig.

[BlueBoomer]

I am NOT pro-abortion, I am Pro-Choice.

I have long held and stated the opinion that those who bomb or otherwise physically attack abortion clinics are NO DIFFERENT THAN THE ISLAMIC EXTEMISTS WHO STRAP A BOMB ON THEMSELVES AND WALK INTO A CROWDED MARKET PLACE AND DETONATE IT...

EXTREMISM IS EXTREMISM, regardless of the hemisphere and regardless of the "religion" being "served".

Right now, Sarah Palin is 25 miles away from my home, and where I might otherwise be inclined to go to that community to run errands, I wouldn't go anywhere near it now, not just because of the traffic issues, but because I'd be afraid of inhaling residual putrid airborne particles!... It makes me feel unclean at the very thought of it!...I need a shower now.

[MadJeffersonian]

Palin and logic cannot be in the same sentence.

[ctman47]

You have hit the nail right on the head with Palin. Say the McCain/Palin ticket loses (or better PRAY the McCain/Palin ticket loses) and she runs again it will not be on McCain's agenda but her own.
Her agenda is way out of the mainstream even for the Republican Party. So if she lets Palin be Palin,
the truth will bury her.

[DosaHut]

Ancorage Daily News endorse OBAMA!
hahahaa

[thespius19]

I was at the Federal Building the morning of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

I picked up pieces of human bodies; pieces of children.

I'm disgusted that ANY American wouldn't be willing to admit and condemn ANY act of bombing or murder or terror against ANY of our fellow citizens by ANYONE, U.S. citizen or not.

Make no mistake about it: someone who bombs an abortion clinic, someone who burns a cross in a yard, someone who sends packages of white powder in the mail to a business IS A TERRORIST AND IS NO BETTER THAN THE PEOPLE WHO ATTACKED THE WORLD TRADE CENTER.

It is clear that we have an emerging militant fringe within our Christian Churches in the U.S. which mirrors the Islamic extremists in many ways. It's shameful.

[fetchezlavache]

I am and always willl be pro-life. Bombing aborrtion clinics and shooting doctors and nurses is terrorism. Terrorism in the final analysis is not a weapon in support of any real cause. It is always founded on an obscene indifference to human life and it undermines the cause in question. If Sarah Palin cannot say the same, she is not in any true sense `pro-life`.

[woodchips]

terrorism (noun)

"the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear"

The radical fringe of the "pro-life" movement made a conscious decision back in the 90s to shut down abortion clinics by terrorizing doctors, patients and staff. The list of arsons, shootings, and bombings is extensive. Some links here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion-related_violence
http://www.prochoice.org/about_abortion/violence/history_violence.html

How many spin cycles does it take to call this anything other than terrorism?

[Infokronea]

Ah yes, but which M. Atta? Is Palin talking about the 9/11 Atta or the Atta that worked for Abu Nidal (See also BCCI and arms to "friendlies" under Reagan)? The one thing the GOP has never owned up to was why Atta's name was not on the watch list after Atta was extradited to Israel from New York prior to the 26 Feb. 1993 attack (re: 12 April 1986 bombing; FYI: his 1990 conviction in Israel was overturned 29 September 1994). Sure, this Atta was not involved in 9/11. But his name should have been on the watchlist nonetheless. So why wasn't it? And was this second Atta, the guy that became the basis for linking Iraq to al Qaeda, the real reason Abu Nidal was killed? FYI: This information can be found in the on-line archives of the New York Times, the Edward F. Mickolus terror incident data (International Terrorism in the 1980s: A Chronology of Events Volume II, 1984-1987 and Terrorism, 1992-1995: A Chronology of Events and A Selective Annotated Bibliography), or (using name variation Mahmoud Atta) in the book Guarding the Secrets: Palestinian Terrorism and a Father's Murder of His Too-American Daughter by Ellen Harris (1995, ISBN: 0-02-548335-8). Bottom line: If the GOP can't keep something this well documented straight because it continues to believe there is such a thing as a "good" terrorist, how can they be trusted to protect us as a Nation?

[motleycat]

... capital and our Pentagon and would seek to destroy innocent Americans."

She doesn't consider bombing an abortion clinic terrorism because she doesn't think those people are innocent.

She probably condones the destruction of all Americans who disagree with her, because they wouldn't be categorized as "innocent" either.

[LiberTLover]

The words narcissistic meglomaniac come to mind...she is scary.

[linux]

I bet there are more than a few Alaskans who are getting to know Sarah for the first time.

[tomas0808]

I have to bring this up as well. The only reason she and McCain are getting approx 40% of the vote is because of repub education policies of the last 30-40 yrs. If America were actually a civilized country with free education they would not stand a CHANCE! They would MAYBE have 10% of the vote.

[Goliadkin]

I think the clarification that Brian Williams needed to ask for was this:

"Governor, this is a very simple, direct question that can be answered with a yes or no, and the American people want to hear your answer. Are abortion clinic bombers terrorists? Yes or no?"

Williams had the stones to ask the question, but he didn't have the stones to demand a straight answer.

Yes or no?

[cardtosser]

I am going out on a limb here, but I would guess that few opponents of abortion support clinic bombings. While Palin is a strong opponent of abortion, she wouldn't have to bend far to condemn clinic bombers and maintain her principled position. Few of her supporters would turn away from her for that.

I think what we see here is just a poor performance in answerinig a question, unfortunately a frequent problem with Palin.

[Doofus]

"I would put in that category of Bill Ayers anyone else who would
seek to campaign, to destroy our United States capital and our
Pentagon and would seek to destroy innocent Americans."

It would seem, maybe, that she'd also exclude Tim McVeigh
& Terry Nichols for the Oklahoma City bombing. However, to
be fair, the phrase 'and would seek to destroy innocent Americans'
is the catch-all that gathers in Atta, McVeigh & Nichols.

You know, however, that she's mostly interested in bringing a
hammer down on Ayres & anyone who ever shared a dinner
table with him.

[Kirk59]

Williams should have pressed her with a follow up but probably feared he would be criticized for it. Had he done so, he could have revealed that Palin believes that "God's law" supercedes anything decided by our Supreme Court, and so the victims of abortion bombings do not meet the definition of "innocents" in here eyes. Her followers know exactly what she meant.
After their Nov 4th spanking the Republicans are going to have to decide which side they are on. The Palin's of the world are totally uncompromising in their beliefs. If they want to keep the religious right in their tent they are going to lose the rest of us. Either they cut them loose and let them form their own splinter party, like the minority religious parties in Israel, or another party will emerge to take their place.

[Doofus]

"Spanking"? If 2006 was a "thumpin'", I think we're expecting a "major a** whumpin'".