General Sarah and Our Homegrown Suicide Bombers

Sarah Palin makes crystal clear that unless the mainstream talking heads focus Americans' attention on the choices that actually are up for grabs in this election, our lives and livelihoods are on the line.

Extreme? I think not. How many indicators does it take to make one probability? We see intimations of what I'm talking about in the police state rampaging in St. Paul this week. We see intimations in Palin's extremist Assembly of God roots, with all its assertions that Democrats are bound for Hell, no less--not for political oblivion, but for Hell. They're obvious in Blackwater, Inc., and in the utterly unscrutinized Patriot Acts 1 and 2. Plainly we see them in the explosion of utterly unaccountable detention centers all across the land, dedicated now to immigrants, but to whom tomorrow? There will be somebody, because the Corrections Corporation of America doesn't plan on backing off a 35% annual rate of growth in the stock market, you can bet your tutu on that. (Do the math: Private prisons are reimbursed by states on a per diem/per capita basis. The more people in their greedy maws, the more money they make.)

The list continues. James Watt lives in Palin's disdain for God's creatures. Polar bears? To Hell with them, too. It's pure DOMINIONist theology, rooted here-- "And God has given him DOMINION over them"--and in the desperation that makes a soul convinced of its evil willing to incite Armageddon by any means necessary--global warming, nuclear war, whatever.

If we can't see our mortal peril here, I fear for all of us. The analogy I see is to suicide bombers. Dominionists, Reconstructionists, the End Timers all are willing to sacrifice themselves and their own children to their twisted version of salvation. The rest of us are simply irrelevant.


Somewhere I just this second read that in order for the Republicans to win, they have to distract the country from the straightforward fact that we're in a hell of a mess that they created--economically, environmentally, internationally, infrastructurally, and constitutionally--not necessarily in order of priority.

Distraction is Palin's first mission. If she continues along last night's lines--and she will--Republicans will move to the Right and the media will reflect her sarcastic attacks as water reflects whatever crawls beside it. It's a terrifying thought, because as I've said here before, the Far Right Christianist approach to governing is one election away from implementation. That's her second mission. John McCain, fool that he is, doesn't realize how badly he's been had.

(If there are terms here you're not intimately familiar with--Dominionism, Reconstructionism, etc.--please do your homework. There are links in the Righthand column under Heads Up that will point you in reliable (fact-based) directions.