{"id":3845,"date":"2011-01-12T12:16:58","date_gmt":"2011-01-12T20:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=3845"},"modified":"2011-01-12T12:16:58","modified_gmt":"2011-01-12T20:16:58","slug":"the-bullseye-bimbo-claims-blood-libel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/01\/12\/the-bullseye-bimbo-claims-blood-libel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bullseye Bimbo Claims “Blood Libel”"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took four days for Sarah Palin\u2019s handlers to teach Palin the speech she gave in response to the criticism she has rightfully received over her own violent speech and her targeting Gabriel Giffords with gun sight crosshairs.  While responsible people on the left are not saying that Jared Loughner is one of her followers, or anything other that a very sick mind, we have said that Palin and others of her ilk contributed to a culture of violence, specifically gun violence, that may have contributed to this tragedy and has already resulted in other deaths.  Not only has Palin denied accountability for her part in that culture, but also, has accused us of manufacturing a \u201cblood libel\u201d.  According to Wikipedia<\/a>, a blood libel is the false claim that religious minorities, most commonly Jews, murder children to use their blood in religious ritual.  That false claim was then used as an excuse for European persecution of Jews and violence against them.  In short, Palin is accusing us of using a vile false claim to make her a target for violence.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\"crosshairs\"Sarah Palin’s Facebook page essay [Bullseye Bimbo delinked] and video in response to the Tucson shootings – a tragedy in which she found herself the centerpiece of a debate over civility in political discourse – was crafted as both a defense of her own actions as part of the grand tradition of "our exceptional nation," and a strike against her critics<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

That she waited four days and then issued such a delicately calibrated and polished statement also displayed a trait not normally associated with the former Alaska governor: discipline. <\/p>\n

In Palin’s version of events, her controversial actions represented common cause with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who a few days before being critically wounded in the mass shooting had read the First Amendment on the House floor. <\/p>\n

"Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own," Palin said in the statement. "They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle<\/font><\/strong>, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies, not with those who proudly voted in the last election." <\/p>\n

Palin’s statement contained an instance of provocative religious imagery that might be missed by more secular voters who read her statement, but which likely will be recognized by the religious conservatives who constitute such an important part of her following. <\/p>\n

"Within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn<\/strong>," she wrote. "That is reprehensible." <\/p>\n

"Blood libel" is a phrase that refers to a centuries-old anti-Semitic slander – the false charge that Jews use the blood of Christian children for rituals – that has been used as an excuse for persecution<\/strong>. The phrase was first used in connection with response to the Arizona shootings in an opinion piece in Monday’s Wall Street Journal [Murdoch delinked] and has been picked up by others on the right<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Palin’s defensiveness was apparent in the indirect reference to criticism of a map on Palin’s Web site during the midterm elections that showed districts of congressional Democrats she had targeted for defeat marked with crosshairs<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Giffords, whose district was one of those 20, had publicly complained that this was an invitation to violence<\/strong>\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Washington Post<\/a>><\/p>\n

Palin claims to have received assassination threats.  That may or may not be true, as claiming threats against them has been a common practice used by a variety of Republicans when called on their own statements encouraging violence.  If there have been, I hope you will join me in denouncing threats of violence against Palin.  Threats of violence are a Republican tactic, not fit for civilized people to use.<\/font><\/p>\n

That said, Palin is portraying her as a victim.  She is not.  The manner in which she has chosen to defend herself makes her deserving of vilification, ridicule and distain, but not violence.<\/font><\/p>\n

Off topic:  Check out today\u2019s open thread for a great pic.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took four days for Sarah Palin\u2019s handlers to teach Palin the speech she gave in response to the criticism she has rightfully received over her own violent speech and her targeting Gabriel Giffords with gun sight crosshairs.  While responsible people on the left are not saying that Jared Loughner is one of her followers, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3845\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}