Friday 29 October 2010

Diplomacy in the age of the Twitler - Why Sarah Palin has no place in mainstream US politics


Palin - Couric Interview

Sarah Palin has been on the "little twittering thing" again.

The former homemaker from Wasilla, Fox News contributor, highly paid screecher and renowned foreign policy expert, spotted two tweets by Philip J. Crowley, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.



Crowley tweet 1


Crowley tweet 2

As should be apparent to virtually any human being with a properly functioning brain, Crowley was trying to be diplomatic in order to try to solve the current US hostage crisis in Iran. The two hikers Joshua "Josh" Fattal and Shane Bauer detained by the Iranian authorities since July 31, 2009.

Crowley was walking a fine line: The "friendly" first tweet was immediately followed by a much more nuanced second tweet. It seems unlikely to me that the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was very pleased, even though the tweets were not aggressive.

I think we can all agree that Crowley was exercising diplomacy in order to try to solve the current US hostage crisis in Iran - over twitter, which seems to be quite a novel way to handle the situation.


"Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states. It usually refers to international diplomacy, the conduct of international relations through the intercession of professional diplomats with regard to issues of peace-making, trade, war, economics, culture, environment and human rights. International treaties are usually negotiated by diplomats prior to endorsement by national politicians. In an informal or social sense, diplomacy is the employment of tact to gain strategic advantage or to find mutually acceptable solutions to a common challenge, one set of tools being the phrasing of statements in a non-confrontational, or polite manner."

In a "non-confrontational or polite manner." Seems reasonable, does it not?

Not if you ask Sarah Palin. Her Neocon advisors like Randy Scheunemann who has the blood of more than 100,000 Iraqis on his hands have taught her well.

Sarah Palin tweeted twice as a response:


Palin Iran - tweet 1


Palin Iran - tweet 2

Sarah "Twitler" Palin doesn't want diplomacy. She wants war. It's as simple as that. No "kowtowing" to anyone for Palin.

These tweets by Sarah Palin are even more embarrassing in light of the fact that it seems to be a tradition in Iran to pardon prisoners on birthdays of leaders as well as on national religious observances.


Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has signed a decree to pardon 708 political, military and civilian prisoners, the official news site of Ayatollah "leader.ir" reported. Head of the Iranian judiciary system Sadig Amoli Larijani appealed to the Supreme Leader with a letter requesting to pardon 708 prisoners in connection with the birthday of Imam Ali - June 26.


Pardons are common occurrences on national religious observances in Iran, and Wednesday marked the birth of Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, a revered figure in Shi'a Muslim tradition.

Maybe the homemaker from Wasilla should just stay out of international affairs, an area that she clearly has no clue about.

It's also not surprising that in 2008 Sarah Palin already believed that the USA is at war with Iran:




But there is another incredibly interesting point, which some of our readers also pointed out in the comments today:

Todd Palin, as is well documented, was a member of the Alaska Independence Party from 1995-2002. Sarah Palin tried to cover up this fact and demanded from the 2008 campaign that they deny it. This famously led to a fight with Steve Schmidt - CBS reports:

Palin blasted out an e-mail with the subject line "Todd" to Schmidt, campaign manager Rick Davis and senior advisor Nicolle Wallace, copying her husband on the message (all of the e-mails are reprinted below as written).

"Pls get in front of that ridiculous issue that's cropped up all day today - two reporters, a protestor's sign, and many shout-outs all claiming Todd's involvement in an anti-American political party," Palin wrote. "It's bull, and I don't want to have to keep reacting to it ... Pls have statement given on this so it's put to bed."

Her reference to a single protestor's sign and "many shout-outs" was indicative of Palin's occasional tendency to take anecdotal evidence of a minor problem and extrapolate it into something far more menacing. The final of the three presidential debates was just hours away, which would mark the unveiling of the soon-to-be canonized Joe The Plumber.

The Joe The Plumber narrative was the Republicans' secret weapon -- the last chance to put a chink in Obama's seemingly impervious armor. It was not a time for distractions, but the campaign was compelled to deal with the drama that seemed to follow Palin wherever she went.

Schmidt hit "reply to all" less than five minutes after Palin's e-mail was sent. "Ignore it," he wrote. "He was a member of the aip? My understanding is yes. That is part of their platform. Do not engage the protestors. If a reporter asks say it is ridiculous. Todd loves america."

This clear cut response from the campaign's top dog carried an air of finality, but it did not satisfy Palin. She responded with another e-mail, adding five more names to the "cc" box, all of whom traveled on her campaign plane. They included her senior political adviser Tucker Eskew, senior aide Jason Recher, the lone traveling aide from her Alaska office Kris Perry, press secretary Tracey Schmitt and personal assistant Bexie Nobles.

Palin's insertion of the five additional staffers in the e-mail chain was an apparent attempt to rally her own troops in the face of a decision from the commanding general with which she disagreed. Her inclusion of her personal assistant was particularly telling about her quest for affirmation and support in numbers, since the young staffer was not in a position to have any input on campaign strategy.

"That's not part of their platform and he was only a 'member' bc independent alaskans too often check that 'Alaska Independent' box on voter registrations thinking it just means non partisan," Palin wrote. "He caught his error when changing our address and checked the right box. I still want it fixed."

Palin was attempting to bend the facts ever so slightly to fit neatly into her version of events. In truth, the box that Alaskans have the option of checking when registering to vote states the full name of the party, "Alaskan Independence Party," not "Alaska Independent," which would make an error by uncommitted voters more plausible.

Clearly irritated by what he saw as Palin's attempt to mislead her own campaign and apparently determined to demonstrate that the ultimate authority rested with him, Schmidt put the matter to rest once and for all with a longer response to everyone in the e-mail chain.

See also the report in Salon by Max Blumenthal and David Neiwert.

Why is this relevant in respect to Iran? Because it's a little known fact that in 1993, the Alaskan Independence Party found an illustrious sponsor: The Islamic Republic of Iran.

Vogler's greatest moment of glory was to be his 1993 appearance before the United Nations to denounce United States "tyranny" before the entire world and to demand Alaska's freedom. The Alaska secessionist had persuaded the government of Iran to sponsor his anti-American harangue.

That's right ... Iran. The Islamic dictatorship. The taker of American hostages. The rogue nation that McCain and Palin have excoriated Obama for suggesting we diplomatically engage. That Iran.

AIP leaders allege that Vogler, who was murdered that year by a fellow secessionist, was taken out by powerful forces in the U.S. before he could reach his U.N. platform. "The United States government would have been deeply embarrassed," by Vogler's U.N. speech, darkly suggests Clark. "And we can't have that, can we?"

The prospective sponsorship by the Islamic Republic of Iran happened in 1993. What did Sarah Palin do the following year, in 1994, just after the infamous AIP leader Joe Vogler planned to denounce the "tyranny" of the United States of America at the United Nations? She attended the annual AIP Convention!





That's Todd and Sarah Palin for you. American traitors - and liars through and through.

Why the mainstream continues to ignore these damning facts, only God knows.


ScarahPlainUSA tweet


Apart from that, Sarah Palin says it herself - it's perfectly ok to be judged by your associations:




It's only ignorance and forgetfulness which makes diplomacy in the age of the Twitler possible. Sarah Palin shouldn't be allowed to get away with her warmongering and her lies. She herself was shaped by extreme political forces, and should have no place in mainstream US politics.


Palin - Iran Cartoon
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PLEASE RE-TWEET:

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