Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Strike three! You're out, Sarah Palin!

In writing and in speech, Sarah Palin has a problem with citations. She cites others' work, out of context, to support whatever she's chosen to write or talk about.


Strike One
Defending 'Death Panel' Claim, Sarah Palin Misleadingly Quotes Op-ed That Criticizes Her
In a September 8, 2009 Facebook note, Sarah Palin posted her written testimony for the New York State Senate Aging Committee. In her testimony, she defends using the "death panel" phrase and insists "its accuracy has been vindicated." To support this false claim, Palin cites a piece written by the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson. She doesn't mention that Robinson's very next sentence calls her "death panel" claim outlandish and false. ...

Strike Two
Palin Advocates War With Iran After Apparently Misunderstanding Buchanan Column
Citing a column by Pat Buchanan that clearly argues against conflict with Iran, Sarah Palin on Sunday suggested that a war with Iran would be good policy and a boon for President Obama's 2012 reelection hopes. ...

Strike Three
Palin Takes the Easy Road on Climate Change
... Palin's post [on climate change] is a prime example of such an attempted diversion. She writes, "The IPCC’s supposedly definitive report proving the theory is riddled with serious errors," while bulldozing over the fact that those errors don't speak at all to the core of climate science. In reality it's a perverse sort of ad hominem attack on the IPCC and the 620 scientists who authored the 4th assessment report. The argument goes: they've made these errors, therefore everything they've said must be an error. But, in reality, none of these mistakes undercuts at all the scientific consensus that greenhouse gases have raised and will continue to raise global temperatures, a belief held by nearly all climate scientists.

She then tries to back herself up by suggesting that the former head of the IPCC, Greenpeace UK, and the Natural Environment Research Council are in her corner. They clearly are not. They have attacked the IPCC because they believe, rightfully so, that these petty errors can be used by opportunists to distract from the central and unwavering truths of climate science. Alan Thorpe says as much in the article to which Palin links:

We open ourselves up to trouble if we start getting into hearsay and grey literature. We have enough research that has been peer-reviewed to provide evidence for climate change, so it is concerning that the IPCC has strayed from that. ...


There you have it. Sarah's out. Time to retire the side?

8 comments:

DiAnne said...

Sarah Palin is reckless with the truth. She wouldn't know how to research something to prove a point if her life depended on it. What surprises me is that her ghost writer doesn't seem to have those skills either. I guess all that journalism education she got in those colleges was a waste.

nswfm said...

Nope, she's a liar. A lazy one at that.

Thanks for documenting this fraud, snowbilly.

ella said...

Strike FOUR (and I suspect there are more to come!):

EXONORATED of all misdeeds re Troopergate RIGHT AFTER she was found GUILTY OF ABUSE OF POWER.

Sorry, I do not have her exact quotes, aka word-salad, handy.
But say it she DID!

snowbilly said...

ella, you're right. There are so many it's easy to forget some. The blog had a post about Sarah's response to the Branchflower Report: Sarah Palin's Half Truths.

Anonymous said...

They're not going shut up and sit down...

DCCC to highlight 'Palin's Primaries

snowbilly said...

Anon. @ February 23, 2010 1:21 PM:

Here's a direct link to Palin's Primaries.

There's more than this, though. There are plans to put the Republicans into some jams: make Republican members of congress choose between supporting the people or the monied interests on a number of bills. It may get interesting.

Hoo Haa said...

Ella, strike four is worse than most think (Game Change, p409):
"On October 10, when the Alaska legislature issued a report on Troopergate stating that Palin had abused her powers but not broken the law, Palin proclaimed to reporters that she'd been cleared of all wrongdoing. When her staff told her she would have to walk back her statement because it wasn't true, she said, "Well, why was I told otherwise?" - neglecting the fact that her talking points had made the results of the report quite plain."

People ("enemies") are making the fabulist lie.

Bluedog Alaska said...

Nicely done. As an Alaskan, I think the worst part about her climate change lies is the fact that she herself established a subcabinet to explore strategies to counter the effects of global warming in Alaska. The report begins with her statement:

"Dear Alaskan,
"Alaska’s climate is warming. While there have been warming and cooling trends before, climatologists tell us that the current rate of warming is unprecedented within the time of human civilization. Many experts predict that Alaska, along with our northern latitude neighbors, will warm at a faster pace than any other
areas, and the warming will continue for decades." Etc. etc.

Unfortunately, she has yet to be held accountable for any of her lies and hypocrisies, no matter how blatant.

But I'm glad people like you continue to document them.