What Sarah Palin REALLY Cares About//UPDATE: LA Times on what Sarah and Common have in common

If nothing else, Sarah’s new advisers have managed to bring her Twittermania under some semblance of control.
Last summer, it seemed that Sarah was tweeting hourly, to the extent that it was devaluing her “brand.”

I’ve always thought that Twitter was the perfect medium of expression for Sarah. If she has to extend a thought, feeling or impulse beyond 140 characters, the vacuity of her mind becomes plain for all to see.

But even within the Twitter framework the sheer relentlessness of her tweets lessened the impact of her opinions. If somebody never shuts up, we stop listening to anything they have to say.

The post-Tucson version of Palin sometimes lets whole days pass without twittering. Not counting re-tweets, Sarah has only tweeted five times this month.

Thus, when she does, we’re more likely to assume it’s about something that matters to her.

That’s why her most recent tweet is so interesting:

Oh lovely, White House… http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/09/burn-a-bush-michelle-obama-invites-rapper-common-to-a-poetry-reading/

What got Sarah’s goat?  Michelle Obama’s invitation to the Grammy-winning hip-hop artist Common to participate in tomorrow night’s White House tribute to American poetry.

No problem when Barbara Bush welcomed child-molester Michael Jackson to the White House.

But let a black president’s black wife invite a black rapper to a broad-based celebration of an art form–poetry–that Sarah knows nothing about, and her lily-white knee jerks immediately in outrage.

In THE ROGUE, I’ll have plenty to say about Sarah Palin’s attitude toward people of color.

But with today’s tweet she’s given us all a little preview.

UPDATE:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/05/sarah-palin-and-common-have-at-least-two-things-in-common.html

36 Responses to “What Sarah Palin REALLY Cares About//UPDATE: LA Times on what Sarah and Common have in common”

  • trapper:

    hmmm, has it really been proven that MJ had pedophilic tendencies? His closest friends fervently deny such things as do I.

    Also, remember that Sarah was an Obama supporter before he became her opponent, much like how Hillary assumed the role of Obama’s political mentor before he stabbed her in the back by opposing her. Everyone in this business only looks after themselves.

  • Molly_WI:

    Hey, hey, Joe, “alleged” child molestor.

    Although I was convinced at the time, I still don’t “know” know.

  • SCmommy:

    I KNEW it! I suspected she was a racist from the first time I heard her spit out the words “community organizer” and the venom-spittle collected in the corners of her mouth. When she started the “not one of us” garbage, it was plain to see. When she thought his family was fair game, but hers was off limits (though she paraded hers around at every stopover & the Obama girls only made cameo appearances). Not to mention her support of Arizona’s “show me your papers” laws.

    She is just beyond contempt. Despicable.

    Somebody spill what you know & make her go AWAY!!!

  • Joe:

    Like all blogs, this is an opinion blog. In my opinion, Michael Jackson was one sick dude.
    Why do you think that as a grown man he had all those little boys around him all the time?

    Anyway, Michael Jackson isn’t the point: Sarah Palin is.

    –Joe

  • CougInPortland:

    I have to admit, Joe, this one threw me for a loop. The tweets are usually directed to specific people, this one was to the White House. We know she has it in for Michelle Obama for promoting healthy eating, so why not directly to her? I’m at a loss. So junior high, and NOT someone I want as the “face” of my country.

  • Molly_WI:

    I had a debate once with my sister’s father-in-law about whether (his position) modern music with it’s thumping rhythms was inferior to “classical” music. It just made me very upset that he thought of course it was self-evident that his position was the “correct” one, and that my opinion was not worthy of debate. Sure, I conceded, the mathematical brilliance of a Mozart piece was a joy to listen to, but that music had started, historically and amongst native Americans and Africans and who knows who else, with a rhythmic beat that was just as legitimate of an art that moved people as his so-called superior classical (ie Mozart, Beethoven, Bach) music.

    He was not moved by my position. I rather kept at the debate longer than I should have in polite company just because he irked me so much–and I do love Mozart et al.

    Anyway, my point is that SOME people think only SOME sorts of poetry, and rap, are REAL poetry, based on some preconceived preference, just like my sister’s father-in-law, who believed what he believed, liked what he liked, and thought anybody who didn’t agree with him was just uninformed. (Did I mention the man is also an attorney?) So, Sarah, I’m guessing, would, due to her personal preferences, already assume that any “black” poetry would be inferior to the stuff she remembers from school–“I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree” anyone?. It actually takes quite a lot of talent to be an effective rapper, and I even heard a program on NPR (shudder…..) about a scientist who was studying the brains of very good rappers, who can just come up with words phrases and ideas that all come together in perfect timing and still make sense……Now, I am NOT somebody who really “likes” rap or even poetry of really any sort–I much prefer literature. But again, for Sarah Palin to bother to make a condescending twitter post about the invitation of a particular poet/rapper just really does make one wonder what caused the knee-jerk reaction.

    Can’t wait to read about her views on other black people.

    PS Sarah thinks she isn’t racist because she married a man who is 1/8th Yupik, and she hired a man who nobody even knew was part African American (Bill McAllister).

    http://americashotmusician.org/Sarah_Palin_Complaint.pdf

  • g:

    Sarah knows nothing about poetry, rap, hiphop or Common. She just tweets what her handlers tell her to tweet like a good propaganda tool.

  • Molly_WI:

    OK, sorry to be picky.

  • Lilybart:

    Word in Anchorage is that Palin was heard by a waitress to say, “So, Obama beat the Bitch!” regarding the Dem primary.

  • carollt:

    Mrs. Palin is a bitter women. She cannot get over the 2008 election. She never has anything but hateful things to say about the President and the First Lady. I think the fact that the President and his family of people of color, if you will, only adds to Sarah’s hate.

    I can’t help but feel sorry for Mrs. Palin. Hate does not bring happiness; anything but. Hate will eat a person alive.

  • Dr:

    Her tweet shows no class or sense of American culture. No wonder she is loved by the low IQ, uneducated, whitebread trash of this country. interesting that educated wealthier Republicans don’t find her presidential. She has no class. And she could never be a leader for this entire diverse country.
    I’m glad you talk about this in your book as her sick and disturbing obsession with Barack Obama is sick. She stupid, ignorant and full of hate.

  • KatieAnnieOakley:

    Palin has got to stay in the collective political dialogue; what else is she gonna do? Go home and be a parent to her kids? No way; that, to Palin would equal death. No, she’s had a great big-heapin’-helpin’ of the limelight, and she’ll be DAMNED if she’s relegated to the back seat ever again. So she continues firing her missives behind her firewall, safe in the knowledge she can’t be asked questions if she’s unavailable to the public. Because all $arah cares about is $arah. And what will happen if the crowds stop cheering her… and how her life will change forever if they do.

  • Joe:

    I heard that, too, more than once. I could never find a waitress who confirmed.
    Rumor is cheap and easy, facts can be hard to find.

    –Joe

  • AFM:

    Hey Joe it might be a rumor but somehow I wouldn’t put it pass a Palin saying something like that. Gee I wonder how the quitter is going to take it when her precious virgin Bristol is going to shack up with two black guys? Maybe she’ll be ok because of the all she really cares about is the color green.

  • Lynne:

    It’s just so typical of her to fire off a ‘facebook fatwa’ to rally her base, which is very, very base. She is an ideological whore; willing to be whatever they want her to be, for power and fame. There isn’t an intellectually honest cell in her entire being.

  • CougInPortland:

    I remember that! Which is why the White House reference smacked me of racism. She knew what she was doing. Like a dog whistle to her followers that has been mentioned on other blogs. Incorrigible.

  • CougInPortland:

    That’s why it threw me for a loop. I was raised to give people the benefit of the doubt. In my headm “she didn’t really just DO this, did she?” Yes, she did.

  • Somehow, Mrs. Palin’s obvious racism wears on me more than anything else in her supermarket of flaws. Whether it is Sambo or not like us or this latest railing against a black rapper… or even all her code words in every single speech she gives…

    I am white, and grew up without overt racism — mostly. My first real love, a lad named Terry Joy, white, son of a blue-collar worker, was according to my mother, not good enough for me for two reasons. One – his family was blue-collar (my adopted dad worked in a bank and was therefore white-collar), and two – he had big lips. Yes, his face was adorned with what my mother defined as “ni__er” lips. That was probably, and in my mind, a more egregious disqualifier than his economic heritage.

    It’s hard, if you grew up white and are past a certain age, to not have some twinges of racist thinking. Fight it. Disown it. And move on.

  • Ottoline:

    There’s a way in which I LOVE her racism because each expression of that view cements it with a no-nothing, uneducated, simple-minded, narrow-minded, and evil person. Each of her quotes illustrates what kind of people are racist and that we want no part of her or her ideas. Better to have her express it so we know who she is than for her to keep it covered up, so one might suspect she’s not so bad.

    She IS that bad. AND she hoaxed us.

  • Dr:

    What handlers??

  • lee:

    Time will take care of that old nag.

  • notafaux:

    I don’t do Twitter, but I’m wondering whether anyone has tweeted a reminder to Sarah Palin–in her own preferred medium of communication–to the effect of “Crosshairs: Don’t retreat, reload. Dead and wounded in Tucson, AZ.” I ask, which is the more damaging message: Provocative rap lyrics or actual human casualties?

  • Greggwetzel:

    She knows nothing of art or history or culture, she is a cipher, an empty vessel and a dangerous and foolish person.

  • Julian:

    I think you’ll find it was “Sambo beat the bitch”. A real class act our Sarah.

  • Gyalist:

    I’m not so sure. I believe that she has listened to some hip-hop. I’ve always found it curious that she uses phrases like “shout out to Wasilla” (at the end of the VP debate) and “kickin’ it ol-school” (lame joke she made for not using a teleprompter). I’m sure that if I gave it more thought that I could come up with more phrases that she has used.

  • Trivia:

    Palin’s media manipulation has always been among her biggest strengths and one of her tactics seems to be that — on certain occasions — the more outrageous the statement, the more effectively she can re-focus the media’s attention.

    For example: her nutty, 100% empathy-free response to Giffords’ attack … ?

    In all the resulting outcry, very few (if any) pundits ever pointed out that it was the SECOND TIME Palin had fomented violence.

    Back in November of 2008, the Secret Service had publicly linked her vicious campaign rhetoric with Obama starting to receive death threats. (UK Guardian, 11/08/08)

  • makeherstop:

    A couple years ago I was at a party with a few other couples and one of the women I met mentioned she had graduated in 1982 from Wasilla (I live here). I asked her the long list of folks I know who graduated from that year and she knew them all (it wasn’t a large class). At the end I said, “So you know Sarah.” More like a statement then a question. She kind of lit up and said yes and that in fact, she was one of the girls that had moved to Hawaii for school with Sarah (I think there were four of them). I tried to act nonchalant – everyone’s a little skittish out here about “who knew Sarah when” – but I said, casually, “Oh, so what exactly happened that made you guys transfer so quickly from that first school you were at?” And she lowered her voice a tad (although there weren’t really that many people in the room), “Well, it did rain a lot. But also, we were some of the only white people there and we just didn’t feel comfortable. The pamphlets we’d seen beforehand showed lots of other white kids – but when we got there, we were about the only ones.” Hmmm. I tried to act unphased. Then I asked if she had much contact anymore with Sarah. “No,” she said. And I got the sense she probably hadn’t for a long time. But then she mentioned the girl that Sarah was actually the closest to from that group (her name escapes me and I don’t want to have to go did around in Going Rouge – is it Tilly? something like that). She said even Tilly (or whatever her name is) could barely get in contact with Sarah. That Tilly had gone through the book signing line (this was right after Going Rouge came out) and had only been able to give Sarah her phone number (Tilly that is). I’ve spoken with a couple other “BFF’s” of Sarah – well, one in particular, who said basically the same thing – that she is completely inaccessible to anyone. This other person said, “I could go over there, walk in and just say, ‘Sarah, what is going on?'” But then she went on to say, “But I’m not going to. She knows where I am. If she wants to see me, she can call.”

    I really think that is the attitude of most people out here who knew her in a somewhat close fashion – not only are most residents in the State totally over her; most folks in the Valley are, too. It’s always weird for me to hear it, though, from those who supposedly know her the best.

    But – Joe, I’m wondering if you’ve discovered this yet: Sarah really has no close friends. She has a couple clinger-on types who look like the old, late 40’s version of the partiers they used to be in high school; but she never had any really close friends, again, except a couple people from her childhood. Have you discovered this? I’ve lived out here for years now; and as soon as I realized Sarah was the biggest show in town (which took me all of about a couple weeks to figure out), I started casually asking around about, “who are her close friends?” When you ask the people everyone thinks are her best/close friends – the Francie’s, the Adele’s, the Kristin’s, etc. and those folks – or people very close to them say, “No, I’m not a close friend. I just know her from years ago,” you begin to realize (or I did), that this is a woman with no real close friends. At all.

    Yes, her family is always there and always taking care of Piper or making sure someone knows where Willow is supposed to be (Trig has his nanny so he’s taken care of). But even they (her family) I think are showing the strain of all the Sarah Crazy. If you watch the video the news reporter from the UK did around the Iron Dog and watch esp the interview with Chuck and Sally – you can really see the exhaustion on Sally’s face. At one point she weakly laughs at the suggestion that Sarah always, “runs things by them.” And she wryly, exhaustedly notes, “Yeah, runs it by so fast,” (or words to that effect).

    Better go. (I feel like I just spent a half hour on a therapist’s couch!)

  • Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel:

    Joe, according to this .pdf filed after $P refused to observe Juneteenth, Bill McAllister claimed to be African American. http://americashotmusician.org/Sarah_Palin_Complaint.pdf

    To rephrase, $P, have you ever SEEN Bill McAllister??

  • Chris:

    I’m curious how many people who were once believers and fans of Sarah aren’t anymore. There have to be some who have fallen away. It would be interesting to hear what they experienced from when they first liked her to when they didn’t, and what made it happen.

    At least I hope this has happened to more than a few, lol.

  • jcinco:

    Actually the way I heard it was “Sambo” beat the bitch. Which is why it was repeated to show how racist she is/was.

  • Sally:

    The way I heard was that she said, “The ni***** beat the Bitch.” Such a lovely, refined woman is Sarah (for being trailer trash.)

  • Sally:

    Julian, you are right…that IS the way I read it, too. So she must have encountered the book “Little Black Sambo” at some point in her life. Why would that book be in a school in Idaho or Alaska, or even on a bookshelf somewhere?

  • makeherstop:

    I had a curious conversation one day, about a year ago, with an individual who had worked on Sarah’s gubernatorial campaign. At the beginning of that race when the Republican Old Guard in our state completely discounted her, you could count on one hand the folks who were working for her. This woman was one of those people. During that campaign Sarah abruptly tossed her under the bus, for no known reason, and it was an absolute eye-opener for this person. Sarah’s treatment of her was brutal, betraying, and grossly self-serving; so, in other words: typical. When I saw this lady last year I told her the thing about Sarah that most blew me away was her constant penchant for lying. She shook her head slowly and quietly said, “I know the lying is a big deal. But the thing I can’t get over is her viciousness. She is so very vicious.”

    (Come on, Compromising American Journalists – let’s have another Joshua Green article designed solely to make her sound viable. Time’s a wastin’).

  • lilly lily:

    Grew up in a white neighborhood that slowly was mixed race. My older mothers finest neighbor was a African American woman who attended her funeral.

    No one in our family is racist, but when the really horrendous riots and burnings in the late 60’s occured we thought it best to relocate my mother, but she refused as she had a fabulous flower garden which everyone in the neighborhood valued. They all would have protected her if anyone tried to harm her. Even in the worst of times some people are capable of looking beyond skin color, and can transcend race issues no matter how difficult.

    Sarah Palin is not one of them. She lives in an all white world with a rare token Uncle Toms like her apologist, the teacher Adrienne.

  • serena1313:

    HEAR HEAR!