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Today, Sarah Palin took to her media arm of Twitter, whereupon she unleashed more of her scholarly international policy adroitness:

“Book burning=bad;Cleric running 4 Afghan Parliament calling 4 murder of US children n response 2 scorched Korans=worse. Where’s media focus?” In case you failed Palinese, let me give you her ghost-written Facebook version, which tends to be slightly more digestible for those who speak English as their first language:

“Koran Burning Is Insensitive, Unnecessary; Pastor Jones, Please Stand Down (Updated)

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by Sarah Palin on Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 2:56pm

Update: Book burning is bad. But the Muslim cleric who is running for parliament in Afghanistan is calling for the murder of American children in response to scorched Korans, which is worse. Where is the media’s focus?”



Sarah is SO right! OMG! I mean, if there were no Quran burning, this Afghani candidate would not be calling for the murder of US children but it’s the Afghans we should be focused on here. We should not think about whatever or whoever gave Pastor Jones the idea that he could or should burn Qurans. Also, we should not think about what kind of right wing militia would defend Jones, because it turns out those Real Americans who are Sarah’s base are the people so willing to show up armed to defend Pastor Jones. Yikes.

Since Sarah works in the media, I’m thinking (which I know I shouldn’t do; it’s so unhip, uncool, and just plain un-American!) maybe she can do something about this inequity and get the media on the right focus for once. I can’t help but admire Palin’s willingness to call herself and her boss out on this issue. The media should indeed be focused on just how we got here. I couldn’t agree more.

But wait…this is Sarah Palin. Maybe we should do a quick fact-check before we get all nutso, eh? After all, we can’t all be like C4P and other fans who “reported” on Palin’s tweet as if it were true without checking on it.

Ten minutes of google searching landed me at Free Republic, C4P and finally I found the actual quote. Turns out, Sarah’s accusation is utterly false. The AP reports the quote accurately:

“It is the duty of Muslims to react. When their holy book Quran gets burned in public, then there is nothing left. If this happens, I think the first and most important reaction will be that wherever Americans are seen, they will be killed. No matter where they will be in the world they will be killed.” — Mohammad Mukhtar, a cleric and candidate for the Afghan parliament, in response to a plan by the head of a small Florida church to burn copies of Islam’s holiest text to mark the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”

This lie is even worse than Palin’s Death Panel lie. This lie is so irresponsible as to render me speechless. Let us not forget that this is the person John McCain told us had plenty of “experience” and also the person the GOP is selling as a viable candidate for President in 2012. Sarah Palin just threw a lit match onto gasoline that she herself poured all over our troops and she did it with a Big Lie.

This is how Palin operates. Go back and read the tweet again. There are Little lies and then the Big lie. One is either so stunned by the stupidity of the Little lie that they miss the Big lie, or they are so enraged at the Big lie that they miss the little Lie.

The Little lie (the diversion from the Big lie) is that the media isn’t focusing on the right things. In response that that, I’m thinking maybe Palin can go on Fox from her Aspirational White House studio in Wasilla and explain what the media should be focusing on. Like how no one is surprised (except for her) that the Afghans are not happy with Qur’an degradation, which is kinda why those official people who are actually doing their jobs like General Petraeus and Secretary of State Clinton were warning people like Sarah Palin to tone down the bigotry which was fueling the crazy scam artist in Florida (aka: Pastor).

The scariest thing about this is that she doesn’t seem to grasp that the media isn’t reporting on this because it is not real. She may well believe her own Little lies. But then, she is not known for her accuracy or veracity. A note to those new to the Palin game: This is why she gets wrongly accused of being stupid.

But the fact that Palin does things like this and is still the GOP front runner for 2012 is just proof that in GOP land, it doesn’t matter what you don’t know. What matters is having the guts to go on Twitter and Facebook and really face your critics and engage in intelligent debate. Reagan would surely be so proud, because Reagan would have admired a person hiding at home who used Twitter and Facebook to tell a lie so inflammatory it endangered Americans around the world. Every thing she does just screams “Leader” and “Good for USA”, eh? I’m ready for a rousing chorus of “USA” myself.

But back to the Big Lie. The Afghan candidate did not say anything even close to resembling a call for the murder of US children. How does Palin justify this? It’s just like her Death Panel lie. It’s a fallacy of her own imagination she’s using to whip up divisiveness and fear that in this case, may well lead to violence on a horrific scale. How is Palin any different from Pastor Jones on this?

Into the craven echoing emptiness of what used to be the moral center of the Republican Party, I now ask just when will Republicans stop trying to harm this country? When will it be enough? What, exactly, are they waiting for?

Sarah Palin is the Right’s radical, extremist weapon of mass destruction, packaged and sold as a pretty, but clueless in that cute “common-sense” way, PTA hockey mom. They are using Sarah Palin as their flame thrower in what can only be a deliberate attempt to have this country attacked again. And why would they want to do that? I think you know the answer.

To coin a phrase, just because you can tweet, doesn’t mean you should. Especially when you’re throwing a match of a lie on an inflammatory issue you ginned up for political purposes.