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As a rule, I make a deliberate and conscious effort to ignore the former half-term governor of Alaska. But once in a great while, attention must be paid.
Like many conservative pundits, Sarah Palin is criticizing President Obama for his administration's inconsistent statements on the Benghazi, Libya, attack. Unlike many conservative pundits, Palin used the term "shuck and jive" to describe Obama's behavior.
In a Facebook post today, Palin wrote: "Obama's Shuck and Jive Ends With Benghazi Lies." She also used the term in the text of the post, which concludes, "President Obama's shuck and jive shtick with these Benghazi lies must end."
Let's put aside, at least for now, the fact that the latest Benghazi revelations appear to be entirely uninteresting, and even the most unhinged White House critics are yet to document any administration "lies" associated with last month's attack.
Let's instead ponder a fairly straightforward, two-part question: "Shuck and jive"? Seriously?
It's quite possible that Palin just isn't informed enough to understand the phrase she used (more than once), so Alex Halperin referenced the Urban Dictionary:
To shuck and jive" originally referred to the intentionally misleading words and actions that African-Americans would employ in order to deceive racist Euro-Americans in power, both during the period of slavery and afterwards. The expression was documented as being in wide usage in the 1920s, but may have originated much earlier.
"Shucking and jiving" was a tactic of both survival and resistance. A slave, for instance, could say eagerly, "Oh, yes, Master," and have no real intention to obey. Or an African-American man could pretend to be working hard at a task he was ordered to do, but might put up this pretense only when under observation. Both would be instances of "doin' the old shuck 'n jive."
As Jeffrey Goldberg concluded, Palin's choice of words "isn't an example of a racist dog-whistle because it's too obviously racist to be considered code."
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It is not about Palin. It is about the Obama White House
The White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers
assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 that an
Islamic terrorist group had claimed credit for the attack, official e-mails
show.
Derp,
Yet another gop right wing non human trying to throw @!$%# at the Obama Administration in hopes something will stick. FAIL
Derp
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Oh right, don't forget that the traitor Romney was out there making comments before he even knew anyone was killed. He slams the President in front of our enemies instead of showing a united front as we should be doing. NOOOOOOO, Romney thinks national security is to air any and all dirty laundry to the world so our enemies can have a good laugh!
So where are you drpaultyler? You can't drop turds around and then just walk away!
I am here.
Clinton says it is critical to look at the totality of information before coming to any conclusions. This I can understand but it has been days 43 days and we still don't have an official statement from the President. Sure, we heard from him the day after in the Rose Garden but at that time no one new anything. Words from the WH.
Perhaps it is not wise to divulge everything publicly until a strategy is formulated. In a situation like this sometimes the less said the better. Now what if the plan for getting Osama had been blabbed about and Romney and company shot off their mouths prematurely! National security is a tricky business. Give the President some credit for his deliberation!
I give all the credit in the world, just don't lie about it. What does he have to hide?
Why do you assume there is something to hide? Why do you assume he's lying?
My BIG question drpaul, is what is Romney hiding and lying about? Show us your taxes, Mitt!!!!
YOur right, maybe we shouldn't assume. But the on side of the media assumes Romney has something to hide the other side assumes Obama has something to hide. The taxes thing at this point is moot. People have been begging for those way too long. Time to move on. WHy can those in government just tell us the people the truth, it is like pulling teeth. This kind of stuff leads to more hearings and committees on the hill doing investigations. When they should be doing what they were elected to do.
However, at this point I am not sure our elected officials even know what their jobs are.
Well, it's not the media that attacks Obama and insinuates he's un-American, a socialist, and dis-respects him beyond belief except for Fox News. I think the Republicans have damaged politics beyond repair. They are poor losers, petty, indulge in dirty tricks, obstructionists, and liars. I have lost ALL respect for that party.
Mitt should not be getting away with not showing his taxes. It will never be moot to me.
Well if he should get away with it. Then what are those that want to see them going to do about it.
Wow, at least she didn't suggest that anyone was going to "put y'all back in chains", that would be truly offensive, right? Hypocrites.
Can't Understand Normal Thinking. Or keep a job, for that matter.
An acronym doesn't make it any less bigoted. @!$%# off, misogynist.
Someone said the truth will win out, don't bet on it. If we sit back and let the republicans lie and they win elections the truth won't have won out. The GOP took over the house, in 2010, after two years of lying about and obstructing any legislation the President tried to pass. We should never believe that the electorate is factually informed. We need to get the word out to our friends and neighbors. For example, we need to keep Romney's 47% comment alive, yet you rarely hear it any longer. Most things drop from the news in less than two weeks no matter how egregious it is. Romney disrespected 47% of the people and he's still in the race and has a chance to win the presidency. So, let's not assume that the truth will win out.
That's the sad fact that goodness and truth do not always prevail over evil and lies.
Sarah, if you see Kay you, say hello.
I guess you all have forgotten not to feed us bears unless you like us to come around more often.
You're being way too charitable, Steve.
Romney = empty suit and a danger to the global economy and lets not forget the foreign policy team he has (W 2.0), social agenda against women and contraception and quite frankly I want medicare to be the same... coupons dont pay for old age and surgery but i am sure the hospitals would love to just take my home as payment so i can spend my last days in a homeless shelter
It is a disgrace and a reproach to America that we have people like Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter and Donald Trump making comments on the national stage. These people do nothing but muddy the water, confuse the issues, and coarsen and cheapen the national political discourse. My biblical quote for the day, referring to these people is Job 38:2 where God says " Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge ?"
Palin is so trashy. Can you imagine her in the White House? I'm thankful that alternate reality didn't pan out. Since her VP bid she's leaned more toward reality TV than being a respected statesman. We really lucked out in 2008.
It is normally not worth the time or effort to track what the almighty Sarah Palin has to say given her record of being a rabid publicity hound willing to say anything if it means a camera is on her. But these remarks are the most offensive, racist and out of bounds garbage Ms. Palin has ever uttered. It's easy to decipher when Republicans are losing a race; they resort to name-calling, desperation, and, in the case of our president, pure and vile racism. Palin's horrible attempts at race-baiting voters is no different than the attempts to disenfranchise minority voters or to phone African American voters and tell them election Day has moved to November 7. - progressive
I call for a 50 year suspension of any 'news', media comments, reports about, on or by Ms. Palin. For our own health and welfare . . . . enough of this pathetic bimbo . . . . PLEASE !!
Palin is troll writ large. Best to ignore completely.
Got to hand it to her, though -- she can still figure out ways to get attention. Ugly, stupid, offensive ways... but she doesn't seem to mind. I say, don't give her the attention.
romey is like palin,,good looking on the outside but empty inside,,someone mention romney is a puppet for someone,,could it be cheney,,,,the old evil bush followers are all there with romney plus an other evil ryan,,,scary
I agree that Bush, Romney, Palin, et.al., are puppets. The original neo-cons like Cheney, and -- more importantly -- the big money PACS, they are the puppet MASTERS.
Palin'a a dumb skirt.
Hurk hurk hyuk, boy how original to call a woman dumb.
Yeah, have some respect.
Name calling aside, are we REALLY better off now than we were in 2008? The President is a good man who has stong principles, but he was given the task of managing a nation when he never managed anything before. He was doomed to fail from the start. I can't vote for the man again.
WTF? The President has managed the country for 4 years and done a great job.
But you'd vote for Romney/Ryan??? The business robot and out sourcer of all he manages the off shore guru and his side kick the Papist???? seriously??? Go independent at least!
I have heard "I can't vote for him again" before. I wish people could tell me WHY not… what specifically is it?
I am not hearing WHY there is any good reason to roll the dice on Rmoney, the outsourcer in chief. Tax cuts, that's NOT going to help.
I don't get it either. Romney who can't take a stance on any issue. Romney the whore who would say and do anything to get a vote. Romney the foreign policy specialist who thinks Israel and Palestine should be put on a wait and see basis. Romney the man who disdains 47 percent of the country. Romney who wants to start another war some where any where so he can play with his battle ships.
Nope, I don't get it.
this machine keeps posting twice. I don't get that either!
Considering the economic disaster Pres. Obama inherited, he's done near miracles getting the country (and perhaps the world?) back on it's feet. And he did it with damn little help. Geez, don't you remember Mitch O'Connell stating that "job 1" was to make sure the President was a one-termer ? Don't you remember John Boehner screaming about jobs... and 'his' House has done squat to help create them ?
Now, Romney wants to turn back the clock to pre-911 stances with all of the policies AND STAFF that nearly made us into a third world country ?
Wow... I'm amazed... and I only touched on ONE "success" item, above- the economic rescue.
Okay,
so let's give Obama four more years. But if he just once after Nov 6th opens
his mouth and blames anyone else for his failures, then we will know the real
Obama, a shell of a leader.
I as a voter will go with the other side. I have heard too many excuses
and apologies.
He works for me I don't work for him. Just like everyone else inside the belt. They work for the people.
What failures???? Be specific! I think he is a fine leader.
Romney doesn't work for the people certainly not 47 percent of us. From Romney all you hear is flip flops. Imagine him as president. The world will go topsy turvey trying to figure out what he's up to- some leader. He will probably out-source our country to the biggest bidder.
Show us your taxes, Mitt!!!
He said he would cut the deficit, but again couldn't do that blame goes to the Repubs.
newsblog903 we are doing two different conversations on the same blog. I am getting a little lost.
Me too. Let's just call it a night and have a glass of wine or something. This rape business and racist stuff has really done me in!
Okay, not much on wine. and those other two topics I will leave for others.
I am African American, and I am not offended nor surprised by Sarah Palin's comment. Sarah Palin is an idiot. She is the poster child for a racist. What I am curious about however is how she came accross that language. Has someone in the Republican Party printed a book of offensive language to use toward African Americans (this Presidenty in particular)? That certainly would explain some of the language floating around these days. What does bother me though is the climate of hatred and extremism we are living in. Unfortunately, I am being exposed to a lot of the same meaness my great grandparents, and grandparents had to indure. "Post racial society" not yet.
That could be it, I think there is an element of saying things and then acting all insulted because someone calls them out for it.
I was not a bit surprised either. I am in the privileged sector. It's not that I never messed up but I never said anything maliciously, only out of guilt or something else. I'm at least listening and learning.
I wish it (post racial society) would hurry up and get here. It's coming, I keep thinking, I keep hoping.
You'd think the Repubs would have begged Palin for silence, begged! Palin is "all American dangerous" as the rest of the integrity-lacking GOPs. Pandering to racists in 2012. The rest of the planet isn't laughing at us, they are gasping in horror.
Why would you bother wasting your time discussing anything that woman has to say. She just says this stuff to get attention. Why else would she force her daughter to embarrass herself on dancing with the stars and get her husband to compete in the ill fated stripes for stars. The Media should not report anything she says or does and let her image fade into the abyss where it belongs.
Makes me wonder how confident the Romney campaign really is when we have Palin tossing out some red meat, Trump trumping up another loser moment and Mourdock making a rape "gaffe"...... Maybe all of that "supercharging from the debates" has started to discharge! I voted absentee ballot a week ago...PLEASE make sure you vote! Our future is too important!
One of the saddest days of this past year was the day that Sarah Palin decided to not run for President. The comic relief we could have had over the past few months would have been priceless! Even better than Willard's Fact Free Campaign Tour, I'd bet.
Sorry, it's only funny when there isn't a chance of them winning.
We've too many hypnotized people with voting privileges not to feel they do have a chance, ie: Mitt. He'd be a laugh a minute if there wasn't a clear and present danger of him actually being elected.
Stupid is as stupid does. Palin is not relevant to anything and never has been. I actually tuned in to Faux News the other day to see what their take was on the e-mails regarding Benghazi and she was on (followed by Liz Cheney - ACK!). She is just as dumb and shrill and incoherent as ever, bless her heart!!
Dear Sarah,
You still look like a real bitch in red, maybe you should try purple or blue. Of course, this will only offset your wonderful exterior slightly. Purple is the best color to Shuck and Jive in (scarf optional), BTW.. bitch!
Akin calls McCaskill a dog and that's terrible. Fauxgressive calls Palin a bitch and gets upvotes. Nice.
Wasn't it Palin herself who said she was a Pit Bull with lipstick???
Sorry Mech but she has publicly stated time and again that she despises my very existence as a gay-married American and a taxpayer (of the highest bracke.. I mean order). Maybe I should get a second opinion. What would you have me call this bitch?
"Fauxgressive" indeed. One cannot even speak the truth!
She wears that title as a badge of honor, high fiv-ing the fellow race slingers.
Sarah should get a life how long is someone like her going to hang on when she is a true loser,get off the bus already lady.
I often wondered if racism was finally dead in America. After all, we did in 2008 what no modern democracy has ever done and we elected a minority to occupy our highest office.
Sadly, Ms. Palin has demonstrated that racism is alive and well in the Republic. Does anyone here really think she would have used this phrase if the President was Hilary Clinton? Nah... Wouldn't happen.