Constructive Profiling, A Rogue Strategy

Well done Ms. Palin, my head is spinning.



Now I hate picking on people and with my recent coverage of Sarah Palin, it feels like I am.  But when someone consistently provides comments like this with blatant disregard for human decency (or perhaps her own political career), she deserves several posts.

In the video, Ms. Palin speaks of Major Nidal Malik Hasan, claiming that it was "a fear of being politically incorrect that we did not...profile this guy."  She also claims that there were "massive warning flags" including evidence of his contact with Al-Qaeda.  This despite evidence that Hasan was self-radicalized, not an operative of Al-Qaeda, which would, through a conservative lens, make Fort Hood a terrorist attack.

"Profiling in the context of doing whatever we can to save American lives, I'm all for it then," she states with proud defiance, seemingly enticed by the idea of making "liberal heads...spin".

Now where do you start?  How about here: 93% of Fox News viewers believe that Hasan was a trained terrorist and that Fort Hood was a terrorist attack, which he and it were not.  Palin's remarks perfectly walk the line provided by the evidently defunct political machine posing as a journalism bureau Fox News.

The warrant-less tap on his email would have been a gross invasion of civil liberties and while it might have saved the victims of Fort Hood, we cannot lose our humanity in order to save human lives.  It has been clear since the attack on September 11th that Fox-Republicans are willing to sacrifice civil liberties and rights provided under the clearest articles of the constitution for the sake of catching this unknown and unseen enemy, "the terrorist."  The finger pointing and disregard for the law coupled with rampant paranoia is borderline McCarthyist.

Radical is apparently a word for "not my" when juxtaposed with beliefs in the Fox-right camp.  Though Hasan was a muslim, his rampage was fueled more by psychological unrest than with belief in someone other than Jesus.  Of course, the ultimate irony is that while Ms. Palin condemns the mentally ill for having "radical" (read: non-Christian) beliefs, she herself just released "Going Rogue" which proclaims how much different she is from the typical Republican.  Different?  Rogue?  Radical perhaps?

And finally, yes my head is spinning since you used the term profiling Sarah, but only because the treatment of Muslims in this country has been blatantly racist under the guise of constructive profiling the whole time.  The idea that we should allow and accept undue profiling of Muslims in defense of Americans is, again, losing our humanity to save human lives.

I apologize for the rant since I know that all of us understand just how absurd her remarks are.  Heck, all of us understand how absurd her presidential bid is.  But when millions of Americans listen to her errant statements and accept them as fact, her comments need to be responded to.

Anyone else as mad as I am?  Feel free to leave your comments at the front desk.