Just when I thought it was safe to quit yammering about politics…

That dip-shit Republican VP candidate, Sarah Palin, has to start spewing stupid bullshit… again.

Last night on NBC Nightly News, Brain Williams asked Palin whether she thought abortion clinic bombers were terrorists. She responded by saying: “I don’t know if your going to use the word ‘terrorist’ there”. WTF? What do you mean ‘I don’t know’? She has been so freakin’ sure about William Ayers being a domestic terrorist, emphasizing his ties to Barack Obama whenever given the chance, but the woman doesn’t know if people that blow up public medical facilities, without regard for the people in or around them, to promote their extreme religious views on abortion are terrorists? The definition of “terrorist” is “a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities” (according to Wordnet). People, like the wack-jobs associated with the Army of God, certainly fit the definition! Palin proves my worst fears about her in one fateful sentence: She is not on the ticket for any other reason than to appease the extreme Christian right by appealing to their worst qualities. Why didn’t she just say “Of course clinic bombers are terrorists!”. That wouldn’t offend anyone except the most radical Christian terrorist sympathizers! How dare this woman label herself a feminist or a patriot, when she can’t even acknowledge that bombing a medical facility in this country is a terrorist act against the American people & to do so in the name of one’s religious beliefs makes these loonies no better than the hijackers responsible for 9/11! I am in shock, because I honestly didn’t think a mainstream politician in this day & age could get away with spouting such unbelievable bullshit on national television. Wow. Watch the video:

To clarify, Sarah Palin just identified Ayers as a terrorist for targeting federal buildings, mere symbols of our government, but doesn’t think the label applies to people that target citizens of this country & public facilities used by these citizens. As if the American government & it’s buildings were somehow more sacred than the people living here. Un-fucking-believable.

Let us review her asinine logic:

First, William Ayers, the man she insists on mentioning whenever a mic is in front of her, was a co-founder of the Weather Underground, a radical left organization active in the late 1960’s & early 1970’s. In October of 1969, the Weathermen incited a “riot” in the streets of Chicago, later referred to as the “Days of Rage”, intended to show just how pissed many Americans were about the on-going war in Vietnam. In the words of Ayers himself:

"The Days of Rage was an attempt to break from the norms of kind of acceptable theater of 'here are the anti-war people: containable, marginal, predictable, and here's the little path they're going to march down, and here's where they can make their little statement.' We wanted to say, "No, what we're going to do is whatever we had to do to stop the violence in Vietnam.”

Bill Ayers & his companions kicked of the Days by bombing a statue commemorating the police officers killed in the 1886 Haymarket Riot (I’ll discuss that boon-doggle in another post). The blast blew out a shit load of windows, but harmed no one. The “riot” consisted of (at most) 350 protesters smashing the windows of cars & buildings for a mere four blocks before a police barricade of 1000+ officers splintered the group by using tear gas, billy clubs, pistols, and, on two occasions, ramming police vehicles into the crowd at full speed. The “riot” lasted a half hour.

After Fred Hampton (leader of the Black Panthers) and Mark Clark (B.P. member) were gunned down in their home while sleeping by Chicago police (assisted by the FBI & it’s COINTELPRO ideology), the Weathermen went underground & issued a “Declaration of a State of War”. Then they bombed several unoccupied police vehicles.

The Weather Underground bombed the U.S. Capitol mailroom on March 1, 1970 to “protest the U.S. invasion of Laos”, the women’s bathroom at the Pentagon on May 19, 1972 “in retaliation for the U.S. bombing raid on Hanoi”, and the Harry S Truman Building on January 29, 1975 “in response to escalation in Vietnam”. These actions were preceded by communiqués that provided evacuation warnings & not a single police officer or civilian was killed in the attacks. Read the FBI files on the WUO HERE. The organization took credit for 25 bombings of courthouses and Department of Correction offices, the attacks being retaliation for the murders of various Black Panther inmates at the hands of correctional officers or in response to the murder & assaults during the Attica Prison Riots. In 1970, the Weather Underground accepted $20,000 to break LSD advocate Timothy Leary out of prison & smuggle him to Algeria, which they executed non-violently & were never charged with.

After the Vietnam War ceased, the Weathermen essentially disbanded. The federal government dropped all charges against William Ayers after misconduct on their part surfaced. Ayers went on to pursue a career in education, currently he is a professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago. His work in educational reform led to the fated meeting of Ayers and Obama (a congressman from the state of Illinois). The two served on the board of a community anti-poverty group &, later, Ayers donated to Barack’s re-election fund.  

In the eyes of Sarah Palin, William Ayers is unquestionably a terrorist. In my humble opinion, Ayers took to heart the message in our Declaration of Independence: “to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” Certainly the atrocities of the Vietnam War & the civil rights abuses, hell…flat out murders, at the hands of the U.S. government can be considered “destructive” to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Bombing shit may not have been the most socially acceptable course of action, but voting & peaceful protest wasn’t doing much and I can’t blame anyone for getting frustrated.

Now, on the other end of Sarah Palin’s Terrorist-O-Meter…

Abortion clinic’s have been targets of extremist Christian terrorists since shortly after the Roe v. Wade decision was passed down in 1973. Stalking, kidnapping, murder, attempted murder, assault, arson, clinic bombings, and vandalism have been perpetuated by extreme Christian terrorists in the name of a radical pro-life agenda. Over 200 bombings & arson attacks have been committed since Roe; many of the perpetrators never being tried do to the statute of limitations running out before charges were brought. Still others escaped prison time by pleading not guilty by reason of insanity. The first documented arson occurred in 1976, when an Oregon clinic was attacked by Joseph C. Stockett. Most recently, arson attacks were made on a Virginia clinic in May of 2007 and a New Mexico clinic in December of 2007. A bomb planted in an Austin, Texas clinic in April 2007 was defused by a bomb squad without resulting in injury. All three cases are, as of yet, unsolved.

Beginning in October 1998, abortion clinic terror expanded to include the threat of anthrax attacks. Letters sent to clinics would contain powdery substances & threats that the recipients were going to die by exposure. As of 2002, 654 such letters have been received by clinics nationwide. In 2001 alone, 554 letters were sent out by Clayton Waagner, an escapee of DeWitt County Jail in Illinois & a member of the Army of God. In his own words (as posted on the AOG website):

"So the abortionists don't get the wrong idea, I don't plan on talking them to death. I'm going to kill as many of them as I can.... It doesn't matter to me if you're a nurse, receptionist, bookkeeper, or janitor, if you work for the murderous abortionist I'm going to kill you."

Waagner has since been recaptured & tried for various crimes in several states, including threatening to use weapons of mass destruction and violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

Unlike the Weather Underground’s zero death toll, the Christian extremists responsible for abortion clinic violence have murdered seven people in their quest to “protect life”. The first was Dr. David Gunn of Pensacola, Florida in 1993. He was shot three times, at point blank range, while exiting his car at the Pensacola Women’s Medical Services Clinic by Michael Griffin (now serving a life sentence for murder). Paul Hill, a dedicated anti-abortion advocate, appeared on national television calling Griffin’s action “a justifiable homicide”.

In 1994, 69-year old Dr. John Bayard Britton and his body guard, James H. Barrett, were shot and killed at the Ladies Health Center of Pensacola, Florida by Paul Hill, the same man that spoke on behalf of Michael Griffin a year earlier. Britton’s wife June was also injured in the attack. Hill was executed in 1993 for the murders. Also in 1994, receptionists Shannon Lowney and Leanne Nichols were gunned down at two different clinics in Brookline, Massachusetts by John Salvi. Five others were injured in the attacks. Salvi confessed to a non-lethal attack on a clinic in Norfolk, Virginia committed days before the murders in Massachusetts.He would later commit suicide while serving two life sentences for the murders. In 1998, Officer Robert Sanderson was killed in a clinic bombing in Birmingham, Alabama while working as a security guard. A nurse was also injured. The now-infamous Eric Robert Rudolph, also responsible for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bombings, was convicted of the crime and is serving a life sentence.

Most recently, in 1998, Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot and killed in his home in Amherst, NY by probably the most prolific anti-abortion terrorist, James Kopp. Slepian was taken out with a high-powered rifle through his kitchen window, in front of his wife and children. James Kopp was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List in 1999, while on the lam throughout Europe. He was eventually captured in France in 2001 and charged with reckless murder with depraved indifference to human life. Kopp has been linked to the shooting of Dr. Garson Romalis of Vancouver, Dr. Hugh Short of Ontario, Dr. Jack Fainman of Manitoba, and an unnamed physician in Rochester, NY.  

The Army of God is the extreme pro-life version of al Qaeda. It is an underground network of domestic terrorists who believe that the use of violence is appropriate and acceptable as a means to end abortion. The first mention of the Army & it’s mission is thought to have occurred in 1982, when clinic arsonists, Don Benny Anderson and brothers Matthew and Wayne Moore kidnapped an Illinois abortion provider and his wife. In 1984, the organization sent death threats to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun and took credit for several clinic bombings, as well as bomb attacks on the National Abortion Federation and the ACLU offices. James Kopp, Eric Robert Randolph, and Clayton Waagner have identified themselves as AOG members (Kopp is even mentioned in the group’s manual, under it’s Special Thanks section). Other key members of the AOG include Michael Bray a.k.a. the “Chaplain” (a man that has been jailed for clinic bombings and publically applauds similar actions taken by others), Neal Horsley ( head of the American Coalition of Life Activists, the host of the now-defunct Nuremberg Files website which posted the name, addresses, phone numbers & personal information of abortion providers with the injured ones highlighted & the murdered ones stricken out, and the Abortion Cams site located HERE, which posts photographs and video of patients, staff and physicians entering and exiting clinics), Shelley Shannon (convicted arsonist & serving time for the 1993 attempted murder of Dr. George Tiller, also referenced in the Special Thanks section of the AOG manual), and Donald Spitz (the host of the AOG’s website, located HERE).

How Sarah Palin can see a gray area with regards to the terrorist actions of these people is beyond me. Visit anyone of the sites I’ve linked to & I’m sure you would agree. I know this post has been long & rather detailed, but the point had to be made. William Ayers is constantly vilified for his actions against a corrupt government waging an unjust war in Vietnam. Sarah Palin has made sure you know his name & understand he is, in fact, a domestic terrorist.  Yet the Army of God, Eric Randolph, Paul Hill, James Kopp … Governor Sarah Palin would not use the word “terrorist” to describe them. I wonder, what would she call them?

No comments:

Post a Comment