What do you see?
Alaskans Speak (In A Frightened Whisper): Palin Is “Racist, Sexist, Vindictive, And Mean”
“It was kind of disgusting,” Lucille, who is part Aboriginal, said in a phone interview after admitting that she is frightened of being discovered telling folks in the “lower 48” about life near the North Pole.
I see the eyes of a racist and a global warming denier. Sad indeed; and, her racism helps to clarify how climate disintegration is a human rights issue.
Update:
(Someone needs to cover her sexism of having called Hillary a “b****” next)
Sarah Palin and Me September 6, 2008 by Charley James –
Anonymous sources are the bane of a reporter’s existence, and have been at least since Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein used them extensively to unmask Watergate and topple Richard Nixon.
Frankly, writing as someone who has been covering news since the late 1960s for everything from local newspapers to major market TV and radio stations to a major business newsweekly, journalists don’t like citing anonymous sources any more than much of the public likes reading pieces that quote people without attribution. Alas, more often than not, the reality is that in a highly-explosive story such as my piece about Sarah Palin published here on Friday, granting anonymity may be the only way to get a source to agree to be interviewed.
So I am not surprised that a number of readers who wrote comments about the article raised questions about my sources. It has happened before, especially when I tackled a subject that raises a lot of dust, and it will happen again. Although I won’t reveal any sources – I honor promises of anonymity – let me explain how the story unfolded and sources came to my attention as I did the reporting.
Crossposted at Native American Netroots
Here is how her racism helps to clarify how climate disintegration is a human rights issue. First, Palin denies that sooner than later, the ice is melting.
Exclusive: Scientists warn that there may be no ice at North Pole this summer
"Last year we saw huge areas of the ocean open up, which has never been experienced before. People are expecting this to continue this year and it is likely to extend over the North Pole. It is quite likely that the North Pole will be exposed this summer – it's not happened before," Professor Wadhams said.
There are other indications that the Arctic sea ice is showing signs of breaking up. Scientists at the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre said that the North Water 'polynya' – an expanse of open water surrounded on all sides by ice – that normally forms near Alaska and Banks Island off the Canadian coast, is much larger than normal. Polynyas absorb heat from the sun and eat away at the edge of the sea ice.
Inuit natives living near Baffin Bay between Canada and Greenland are also reporting that the sea ice there is starting to break up much earlier than normal and that they have seen wide cracks appearing in the ice where it normally remains stable. Satellite measurements collected over nearly 30 years show a significant decline in the extent of the Arctic sea ice, which has become more rapid in recent years.
This has already had the dire consequences for Indigenous peoples who have had to relocate six years ago “in the remote Alaskan island community of Shishmaref,” yet all she cares about is drilling where ice has melted. Consequently, that and this aren’t in Alaska,
but this is.
Global warming: The Inuit were the first to highlight Alaska's Aug 19, 2005
The indigenous people of Alaska could become the first global warming refugees as their frozen homeland goes through the quickest defrost since the end of the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago.
Source
Indigenous peoples from the Arctic have long argued that global warming was having a dramatic effect on their environment. In 2002, villagers in the remote Alaskan island community of Shishmaref voted to relocate to the mainland because rising sea levels threatened to overwhelm their community.
And just how does she feel about the Indigenous people that have had to relocate?
Racial and ethnic slurs may be “just Alaska” and, clearly, they are common, everyday chatter for Palin.
Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.
I still see the eyes of a racist and a global warming denier,
since “f**king Eskimo’s” and “Arctic Arabs” is how she refers to Alaska’s Aboriginal people at the same time as she refers to Obama as, “a Step-N’-Fetch-It, ‘darkie musical’ swipe.” Let’s discuss more how her racism helps to clarify how climate disintegration is a human rights issue by thinking about a fictional scene from a movie, The Dark Knight.
You know what I noticed? Nobody panics when things go according to plan. Even if the plan is horrifying. If tomorrow I tell the press that like a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, because it's all, part of the plan. But when I say that one little old mayor will die, well then everyone loses their minds!
I caught myself substituting the people losing their houses who are in the public domain verses the Indigenous peoples from the Arctic who have had to relocate. Few have panicked in this election for Indigenous peoples from the Arctic who have had to relocate, because that’s “Part of the plan” of Manifest Destiny.
In 1823, the Christian Doctrine of Discovery was quietly adopted into U.S. law by the Supreme Court in the celebrated case, JOHNSON v. McINTOSH (8 Wheat., 543). Writing for the unanimous court, Chief Justice John Marshall observed that Christian European nations had assumed "ultimate dominion" over the lands of America during the Age of Discovery, and that--upon "discovery"--the Indians had lost "their rights to complete sovereignty, as independent nations," and only retained a right of "occupancy" in their lands. In other words, Indian nations were subject to the ultimate authority of the first nation of Christendom to claim possession of a given region of Indian lands. [Johnson: 574; Wheaton: 270-1]
Palin’s racist use of “Arctic Arabs” spit towards Indigenous peoples suggests oil theft by overturning governments; or, in this case hoping the ice melts to steal the oil. In that same dark light, Palin’s use of “f**king Eskimo’s” suggests resentment over the fact theInuit have laid a claim in the Arctic region themselves.
"We are launching a claim in the Arctic only on behalf of the Greenlanders," which would inherit any of Denmark's Arctic territory once they become independent, says Svend Auken, a veteran Danish politician and former energy minister.
Why does Palin refer to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” and "f**king Eskimo’s?” Like the character played by Michael Cain states in “The Dark Knight” said.
Some men (people) just want to watch the world burn.
In other words, she wants the ice to melt,
May 08, 2008
This is a video journal chronicling a visit by Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times writer and Dot Earth blogger, to the drifting, cracking sea ice around the North Pole with a climate-research team. More on that trip is online at nytimes.com/revkin and nytimes.com/learning/globalwarming.
so she can “Drill, Baby Drill!”
But the “Arctic Arabs” and “f**king Eskimo’s” as Palin racially calls them are in her way while they have hope with Obama, who she racially calls "a Step-N’-Fetch-It, ‘darkie musical’ swipe.” How ignorant, arrogant, and racist of her.
Labels: winter rabbit
Ahistoricality on 9/06/2008 11:12 AM:
That LA Progressive piece is extraordinary, but I wonder if we've actually reached the point where the backlash against the idea that people should avoid ethnic slurs is so strong that it just reinforces her "regular josephine" credentials.
This is perhaps one of the most scurrilous and declasse posts I've read in a long time.
If you disagree with someone's position on issues....fine. Then shout it.
If you think someone is inexperienced for the job....fine. Then shout it.
Sarah Palin is far too conservative for me on most issues---abortion being at the top of that list---however, to devise such a "MoveOn" / "Daily Kos"-hot-flash-encysted-with-oozing-hatred type of post says much more about the nexus of your intellectual capacity than anything else.
To be fair, it's understandable that most rabid liberal feminists are getting whiplash over Palin. After all, she embodies everything they have been telling women to be.
Palin has succeeded in raising a large family and also have a very successful career. And, she's quite attractive, funny, and smart.
(Perhaps her husband is a "good wife".)
As an Obama supporter, I would urge some of you rabid posters to take a deep breath and perhaps get in a good workout at the gym.
This type of post is an embarrassment to the academy.
It was very difficult for many Obama supporters to get beyond his 20-year association with Jeremiah Wright---probably one of the most unapologetically racist clowns on the planet, and also horrificly anti-Semitic.
If a white presidential candidate had such associations with a KKK preacher, that candidate would have been history long ago.
There is no point to all this libel and feverish misogyny toward Palin.
Everyone should take Obama's lead and lay off the outrageous personal attacks. Perhaps he knows better than most what a gift he has been given by the voters for overlooking all his questionable associations.
There isn't one successful politician who doesn't have, or hasn't had, a questionable association.
Try a few measured responses for a change.
Try upholding the etiquette of the alleged intellectual milieu you inhabit.
If all else fails, sit back and take some lessons from the master.
Immerse yourself inside the Diva's pedantic dreams of the Mighty One.
LIS!
Whatever you do, dear scholars, lighten up and follow Obama's lead.
You are only making Palin a victim in the eyes of voters.....and Obama needs all the independent voters he can get right now.
No matter your ideology, it's not good politics to trash a working mother with five children whom she and her husband actually support!......instead of relying on the taxpayers to do so.
That, dear scholars, is the real issue.
Not whether some girl has a kid out-of-wedlock.
Live your life. Do as you wish. Just support it yourself!
Moreover, as someone who has a grandmother who is exactly one-half Cherokee Indian.....
......and as someone who took numerous cultural anthropology classes--(as electives)--with a major in fine arts.....
......I can tell you that much of this "noble, victimized native" schtick is just that: BS.
Show the "natives" the money and they will do any "cultural" dance you prefer.
This is a great opportunity for the rabid left to take an "Arab carpet ride" into a knock-off version of a Michael Moore slamfest, however.
Again, try toning down the overwrought emotional BS.
Some of us know better.
Debrah, though I disagree with you, you're completely within your rights to attack and criticize this post. I'll just add two clarifications: first, keep in mind this is a liberal site, so it's not unusual to find items here that are strongly partisan and liberal; and second, the author of this post, like many of my frontpagers, is not a member of the historical "academy."
Winter Rabbit on 9/06/2008 1:50 PM:
Ahistoricality,
Great point, and it makes me wonder if since what is at stake is so enormous, that calling them out on it doesn’t make them fight that much harder. The peculiar thing I’ve seen in the Religious Right as a whole is they have to play the victim. Like Ferraro’s statements, they turn it around and claim racism.
http://www.slate.com/id/2186553/
If that works and people become convinced we’re in a “new age” as I heard again and again during the DNC, you just may be right.
Anonymous,
I thought that myself all morning as people objected to this. Very peculiar indeed.
Jesse,
You and me both brother, and for the precise reason you quoted.
“Director for presidential candidate John McCain, approvingly calls "near dictatorial power" to every future president and vice president at a moment in history in which the twin dangers of global warming and nuclear war threaten us far more seriously than has any nation with which ours has ever clashed.”
If or when tragic history repeats, I can look the future generations in the eye and say I tried to do something. It is to them we will answer.
Debrah,
I didn’t mention abortion, her husband; I think the attacks on her child are disgusting and immoral. Everyone who knows me here knows I’m not a world scholar, and that my degree isn’t in history. The thesis sentence is “her racism helps to clarify how climate disintegration is a human rights issue.”
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=071002_1_A11_hSurv58086
“According to 2006 U.S. Census estimates, 43,364 self-identified American Indians live in Tulsa County. Statewide, the number is 397,041.
Findings from the study indicate that although the respondents knew that Indians are different in culture, they were viewed less positively than black people, a factor they attributed to "subtle racism."
One aspect was perceived privileges, such as free health care, researchers said.
Researcher Dennis Combs, a former TU associate psychology professor who now works at the University of Texas-Tyler, said the findings are surprising because college students are perceived as liberal regarding race issues.
"Also, Native Americans may also be subject to a newer form of racism called subtle racism, which is centered on them as being different, having poor work ethic, and unfavorable," said Combs, who conducted the study along with student Melissa Tibbits.
Indians also are more likely to be regarded with "blatant prejudice" than black people, the survey showed.”
You wanna explain this a little more?
“......I can tell you that much of this "noble, victimized native" schtick is just that: BS.
Show the "natives" the money and they will do any "cultural" dance you prefer.”
TO "Winter Rabbit"--
Thanks for your comments.
I'm on the run this afternoon; however, I would adore spelling out the gross exaggerations about "native people" of the US.
But it's a self-explanatory statement.
And I am not an expert on John McCain's platform. Am not supporting John McCain; however, I believe that even he and his entire family are strong supporters of getting ahold of the global warming challenge.
My ire is raised when you construct an entire post around a few phrases attributed to Palin....as if you or any of us know her innermost feelings about "natives".
I am---and rest assured, many voters will be----turned off by these excitedly emotional attacks on the woman.
It's just so great to see a few women on the political stage right now---Palin, Jill Biden, and Cindy McCain---who are actually stylish and have gams that don't have to be hidden behind stodgy pantsuits!
Allow the process to play out without the not-so-well-hidden misogyny and partisan unfairness.
Again, Palin's ideology is not my own; however, like most of America, I can give credit where credit is due.
She is hell-on-wheels.
If you and the envious rabid feminists try to go after her so personally, voters will notice and will respond accordingly.
Here's but one outrageously gratuitous and infantile-in-its-desperation example that makes my blood boil.
If I post how I really feel about such low-rent and gutter tactics, Jeremy would have to delete the comments.
This is really quite astonishingly moronic and requires only a two-digit IQ to take the bait:
Besides insulting Obama with a Step-N’-Fetch-It, “darkie musical” swipe, people who know her say she refers regularly to Alaska’s Aboriginal people as “Arctic Arabs” – how efficient, lumping two apparently undesirable groups into one ugly description – as well as the more colourful “mukluks” along with the totally unimaginative “f**king Eskimo’s,” according to a number of Alaskans and Wasillians interviewed for this article.
Now, taking off my editor's hat for a moment, my own thoughts on Palin:
Sarah Palin is a young-earth Creationist. She is pro-life without exceptions for rape, incest, or health of the mother. She is a Pat Buchanan supporter. She is the most conservative person to occupy a slot on a major-party ticket since at least Barry Goldwater (unless you count George Wallace's 1968 run as a major-party ticket). In addition, she served as director of indicted Senator Ted Stevens' 527 organization as recently as 2005, and she is at the center of an abuse of power scandal that threatens to derail her nascent gubernatorial administration. I do not deny her political acumen or her winning personality. However, for these reasons, and others, I think she would make a tragically terrible Vice President.
Ahistoricality on 9/06/2008 4:56 PM:
Debrah,
I know I'm going to regret this, because you're a troll, but I've read your comments twice and can't make heads or tails out of your objection. You say that a white candidate with KKK ties would be "history", but object to WR's quotation of material which is equally damning. WR isn't the one being vulgar here, or unfair: he's pointing out that the candidate has a history of vulgarity, unfairness and chauvinism.
That's politics.
If there are sufficient facts to rebut or qualify these charges, cite them. It would help to read the article cited first. This isn't about "a few statements" and it isn't about "innermost feelings"; it's about whether the candidates have any understanding of the issues and the character to be leaders.
JY quote: "She is pro-life without exceptions for rape, incest, or health of the mother."
1. Does that mean she is against capital punishment for everyone or that she only opposes capital punishment in cases of rape and incest?
2. Do you know anyone who ISN'T "pro-life"?
Truth is, Ms. Palin is pro-choice, as witness her statements about choosing to give birth to her youngest, despite knowing the baby would be born with Down Syndrome.
She has also stated that her pregnant daughter chose to keep her baby.
Ms. Palin is ANTI-choice when it comes to many other issues, but not on the issue most near and dear to the majority of women in this country.
Anonymous, I'm not certain exactly where you're coming from, but Palin is pro-life and has said so repeatedly. The fact that she referred to her and her daughter's decisions to keep their pregnancies as choices is a sign of her hypocrisy, not of her wavering on pro-life issues. She's perfectly happy to force other women to carry their pregnancies to term, just not her own daughter.
TO "ahistoricality"--
You see, right from the start......just out-of-the-gate, you show yourself to be infantile.
"A troll"?
Let me explain something to you very delicately, fellow: I am the only one between us using my name in this exchange.
Please do all of us a favor and apprise yourself of the meaning of the word cyberspace "troll".
Someone who shows up under an assumed moniker just to flame and who really doesn't care about the issues.
Such an impotent display you've provided everyone. You have to contaminate the proceedings with ad hominem that would more aptly describe the way you go about "trolling".
I wouldn't think of giving the respect of engaging you on the actual topic. You forfeited that with your first comment.
Aren't you the one who laments having been passed over for tenure?
Try growing up.
The tenure committee probably witnessed the emotionally infantile mass of ill will that I have seen from your post.....and said, "No thanks."
Winter Rabbit asks plaintively, "What do you see?"
It appears that many in the country are just as curious about Palin's ojos as is Winter Rabbit.
Unknown on 9/07/2008 11:13 AM:
Actually, Debrah, using a pseudonym on a site that respects psudonymity is NOT "infantile." On the other hand, attacking someone's relationship with their tenure committee because of a single BLOG COMMENT is the very DEFINITION of "infantile."
Stop with the personal attacks, please.
Ahistoricality on 9/08/2008 12:12 PM:
the LA Progressive reporter has revealed a little more about his investigation, including a link to a 2003 vetting document on Palin produced by Democrats...
Winter Rabbit on 9/10/2008 12:15 AM:
Antichrist? She can keep him. I think it’s appropriate all things considered, read the last part of the above diary I posted. She puts money above human beings and has the power to do so. The only thing I called her was a racist and a Global Warming denier, I would never use the language of “anti-Christ and/or torture kittens,” that’s dehumanizing. Racist and a Global Warming denier are descriptive terms. The implication as I see it is to label a condition and a set of beliefs, not to use the same language that was used to annihilate in the name of God. Read the update and read the whole article, including the link he gives to a PDF file. Palin has attacked Alaska Tribal Sovereignty, and I’ll be clarifying that in a couple days. Using a deductive argument,
http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/ded-ind.htm
racism makes her having attacked Alaska Tribal Sovereignty possible and given her fundamentalism, not surprising. Now about your last question.
As a mixed – blood married to a non – Indian, drop that angle. I’m telling you from experience. You have no idea the dynamics that can be involved and I’m telling you that as far as I’m concerned, except for the child abuse case that’s just surfaced, drop it.
It’s off limits.
I respect your right to disagree with me on this, and I assure you, if she wasn't running for the Vice President - I would not have written it. But, I wouldn't of known she was insturmental in allowing the pipeline either, which is "God's Will" as she said.
The pipeline for the traditional American Indians I've talked about it with, is the Railroad all over again. Sacred areas will be ruined because of it and how it's being planned as "progress," and Palin's name is on it.
Why We're Planning to Prosecute Cheney and Bush
Submitted by davidswanson on Fri, 2008-09-05 20:17. Criminal Prosecution
By David Swanson
Next weekend in Andover, Mass., a group of attorneys, academics, and activists will gather to plan the prosecution of Dick Cheney, George Bush, and the lawyers and advisors who, together with them, are responsible for war crimes. The conference is open to the public and expected to be well attended: http://war-crimes.info
I can't speak for everyone involved, but I can tell you why I'll be there. If I thought we could deter future presidents and vice presidents from abusing power by giving Cheney and Bush immunity for life, billion dollar pensions, and royal crowns, then that is exactly what I would propose we do. In fact, if there were just about anything that we could do that I thought would have that deterrent effect, I would advocate for it. I would give my life for it. I take the matter this seriously because we are preparing to hand what Michael Goldfarb, Deputy Communications Director for presidential candidate John McCain, approvingly calls "near dictatorial power" to every future president and vice president at a moment in history in which the twin dangers of global warming and nuclear war threaten us far more seriously than has any nation with which ours has ever clashed.
I am adamantly opposed to the possibility of imposing the death penalty on anyone, no matter what they are convicted of, because it has been shown to encourage violence rather than to deter it. Future presidents are not more likely to refrain from abusing power if they might be executed than if they might be imprisoned for life. If they are imprisoned for life, they can express their regrets in ways that their successors can understand. If they are killed, we will be the ones killing them, and we will thereby send a message to everyone that violence and vengeance are appropriate and admirable. Vengeance disgusts me. Bush and Cheney bore me. What interests me and inflames me is the desire to establish the rule of law, not for its own sake but in order to promote peace, fairness, human rights, and human survival.
Now, we may have an honest and verifiable election in November, although I can't see how. And we may elect a president and vice president who abide fully by the Constitution, the treaties our nation has ratified, and the laws that are on the books, although that seems highly unlikely. We might even see unconstitutional laws repealed, tyrannical executive orders torn up, and the Constitution amended to strengthen checks on power and expand the democratic influence of the people, although if you believe all that I've got a quick little cakewalk of a war to sell you. But think for a minute what message all those successes would send to future presidents and vice presidents and their subordinates: If you break the law, the punishment shall be that the duumvirate immediately following yours will not break the law. Oh, the horror! I can almost feel the terror gripping the spine of every future Dick Cheney and George W. Bush who will claim the throne throughout the remaining short life of our dying republic. "Nooooooo! Don't say that the next chump who comes after us won't get to be a war president! We can't stand such agony!"
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/35843