Orlando Jones slammed for tweets calling on liberals to 'kill Sarah Palin'

From 3 days ago, Fox News:

Orlando Jones slammed for tweets calling on liberals to 'kill Sarah Palin'

Celebrities have been known to post tasteless tweets on Twitter, but critics are slamming comedian Orlando Jones for crossing the line when he tweeted that liberals should “Kill Sarah Palin.”

Following the death of Muammar Qaddafi, the MADtv star tweeted, “Libyan Rebels kill Gaddafi, if American liberals want respect they better stop listening to Aretha & kill Sarah Palin (:”

Despite his addition of a smiley face emoticon, the Twitter community did not react well to Orlando’s post.


“Why does @TheOrlandoJones think it’s funny to call for Sarah Palin to be murdered? #palin #liberaltolerance” said one tweet.

Jones shot back, “No I don’t. I think it’s funny you are so upset about my inane tweet.”

After receiving widespread criticism for his hateful tweet, the comedian spent the better part of Tuesday attempting to defend himself.

“My tweet was farcical not funny or a call to action. 100 bucks 2 the 1st person who can count the # of Palin jokes about killing Democrats(:,” Jones tweeted.

One person tweeted in response, “@theorlandojones why would you say to kill Sarah Palin then? Who does that? It’s inciting to others..”

Jones tweeted back, “Inciting? I agree to disagree. As positive comments do little to incite good. Those perceived as negative do just as much(:”

Finally, after dozens of tweets, Jones decided that 140 characters weren’t enough to properly articulate himself and posted the following statement to his Facebook account: “My job as an artist is to hold up a mirror to society. I do not decide how people feel or react to that. My tweet hit a nerve. That’s good. The fact that is has taken precedent over the serious issues that face us is not good. That’s media outlets vying for attention and ad dollars.

“Was it my best line? No. It would be great if those individuals who are genuinely outraged redirected that energy toward the greater good. Any anger directed at me and my right to free speech is an absolute waste of time. I am not a statesman. My comments reflect no political affiliation. It’s just me being me, in a world that will never comfortably mix political correctness with artistic expression. For that, I offer no apologies, excuses or wisdom.”

Early this morning, Jones remained defiant, tweeting, “Its tempting&more comfortable 2 keep your head down, plod along, appease those who demand: ‘Sit down&shut up, that’s a quitter’s way out.”

It Has Been One Month Since Sarah Palin Called Herman Cain "The Flavor of the Week"

From Slate: It Has Been One Month Since Sarah Palin Called Herman Cain "The Flavor of the Week"

It was late in Fox News's prime time on September 27 that she told Greta Van Susteren this:

Take Herman Cain. He’s doing so well right now. I guess you could say, with all due respect, he’s the flavor of the week.
Since then we've had two presidential debates, and Cain's survived them. When Palin made her comment, Cain was at 5.5 percent in the RealClearPolitics national poll average. The next day, a Fox News poll would peg him at 17 percent; right now, he's at 25 percent in the polling average.


Palin's lack of faith was amusing, but not uncommon. John Dickerson writes today on why Cain's surge isn't going to fade so fast. (One reason I'd add here is that Cain already had a boomlet, back in May, and he's experiencing his second boost.)




Perhaps the thickest part of the cushion for Cain is that his conservative voters don't have anywhere else to go. Michele Bachmann was eclipsed by Perry. That isn't going to happen to Cain. There aren't any eclipsing figures left. Gingrich is having a slight burble of resurgence but he's unlikely to become the new flavor; one of the qualities of being a flavor of the month is that people don't know much about you. Gingrich, for better or worse, is the best known of the bunch. Perry has a long uphill slog to regain what Cain took from him, which will be hard to do in part because Cain is more appealing to voters.
How do we know that Cain is more appealing? Gallup's polling on affinity for candidates found that Cain, consistently, had the broadest appeal to Republicans. Dan Balz locked that CW in amber this week with this story about a focus group that was extremely warm on Cain and saw Perry as a bully. A lot of that is just native to the two men -- Cain is possibly the most good-natured national candidate I've ever seen -- but part of it is related to how they've handled the issues that annoyed their bases. When Perry was challenged on immigration, he said that anyone who opposed his college tutition plan "didn't have a heart." We didn't even get to discuss the merits of the plan, just the fact of Perry's disregard for critics. Cain's big gaffe this month was a mushy abortion answer to Piers Morgan, which he immediately tried to apologize for and clean up. It did some damage, but not Perry-level damage.

Sarah Palin to speak at RPOF Nov. 3 “victory dinner” fundraiser

From the Orlando Sentinel: Sarah Palin to speak at RPOF Nov. 3 “victory dinner” fundraiser

Republican superstar speaker Sarah Palin will be the headliner at the Republican Party of Florida’s Nov. 3 “victory dinner” fundraiser at the Disney Grand Floridian Resort in Orlando.

Palin, the former Alaska governor who ran for vice president in 2008, has been best known this year for not running for president and yet still drawing at least as much attention as the nine announced candidates.

“This gala dinner comes just a year before one of the most important elections in Florida and the nation’s history,” RPOF Chairman Lenny Curry stated in a press release issued by the party. “Having a Republican leader of Governor Palin’s stature and importance is yet again proof of the crucial role Florida will play as the year unfolds. We are so grateful that Governor Palin has accepted our invitation.”

Added Florida Governor Rick Scott: “Governor Palin’s participation in our Victory Dinner next month will help to ensure that we have the resources necessary to take back the White House.”

Palin endorses Ron Paul's position on international militarism

From Digital Journal: Palin endorses Ron Paul's position on international militarism

In the wake of the killing of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, the anti-militarism sentiments of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul appear to be gaining ground with the GOP establishment, as Sarah Palin openly backed Paul's position.
The controversial killing of Libya's Colonel Gaddafi has brought with it a wave of international scorn and scrutiny at the United Nations and has bred further distrust of Western governments among some strategically important nations.
In the United States, many in the Republican Party are heaping blame squarely on the doorstep of the Obama White House.

For his part, President Obama used Gaddafi's murder as a hawkish platform to warn other authoritarian governments that their model of governing "inevitably comes to an end," as Reuters reported on Thursday.

President Obama's militaristic warning stands in stark contrast to the long-held desire of Libertarian-leaning Republican presidential candidate Congressman Ron Paul to dial back the over-stretched and under-funded American empire. Paul's position has largely been rejected by mainstream Republicans, as it flies in the face of the GOP's view that a strong America is built on an interventionist and militaristic foreign policy.

However, as Paul's Libertarian ideas have been gaining ground among the Republican Party, particularly with the advent of the Tea Party movement, certain voices among the GOP now appear to be welcoming Paul's staunch criticisms of a cavalier and war-mongering White House. In an appearance on Fox News, Sarah Palin openly endorsed Ron Paul's position.

“You’ve got to give it to Ron Paul," Palin said. "Whether you agree with everything he says or not, at least he is one there in Congress trying to make our President stick to the law and understand that Congress does have a role to play in these foreign policy decisions that are made and Ron Paul, I think hit the nail on the head, when he came out and said Obama had better be careful when he interjects himself and our country in other nations’ business.”

Ron Paul's campaign quickly agreed with Palin's points, highlighting Paul's position in further detail.

"Mrs. Palin was seconding Paul’s criticism of President Obama’s decision to intervene in Libya, but I would add that unless the rest of the Republican presidential field also begins to become more selective about U.S. interventions, it will remain politically and mathematically impossible to actually reduce our debt in any serious manner," Jack Hunter stated on the Ron Paul campaign web site. "Our annual deficit is $1.5 trillion. Our total so-called national security spending is $1.2 trillion."

Mendte - Maybe Sarah Palin Was Right About Death Panels

From KPLR 11 St. Louis (in the Entertainment section!): Mendte - Maybe Sarah Palin Was Right About Death Panels
(KPLR)— I want to introduce you to Helen Wagner. She is 91-years-old and still going strong. Or at least she was until she fell after suffering a stroke and broke her arm. Helen is the mother of my sister-in-law Peggy and she and my brother Bob rushed Helen to the emergency room. Her doctor met them there and ordered a series of tests.

The next day the hospital called and told my sister in law to come pick up her mother. She was stunned and asked, "Well what did the test find?" She was told there were no tests done and that Helen wasn't even admitted to the hospital she was just held for observation

My brother, sister in law, and doctor threw a fit and the hospital said they would sort things out. They kept her another night for observation and performed none of the doctor ordered tests. they told the family that they would transport her to a nursing care facility if someone didn't pick her up immediately.

My sister in law and brother pushed the issue until they got a meeting with hospital administration who said 'we are embarrassed by this' but that under a new medicare crackdown they weren't allowed to admit her.

You see if a patient is admitted, Medicare then has to pay more for rehab. Even more if the patient is there for three days.

An advocate for the elderly who got involved in the case then said something chilling. Medicare may have seen she was 91 and made the decision not to pay.

If that's true, then the government overruled a personal physician to save money because Helen was too old.

When I heard the story I couldn't help but think about the death panels that Sarah Palin warned about on her facebook page. She was ridiculed for that claim during the State Of The Union the president called her out.

Now after hearing Helen's story I couldn't help thinking, maybe Sarah Palin was right.

Sarah Palin: Newt Gingrich Would 'Clobber' Obama In Debates, GOP Candidates Like 'Bickering' Children

From HuffPoPolitics: Sarah Palin: Newt Gingrich Would 'Clobber' Obama In Debates, GOP Candidates Like 'Bickering' Children

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich performed best in Tuesday night's Republican debate in Las Vegas and compared the other candidates to "bickering" children.

"I think we are more interested in substance. And that's why, like, tonight Newt Gingrich again I think did the best because he seems to be above a lot of the bickering that goes on," she said to Fox News' Greta Van Susteren on "On The Record," following the debate Tuesday night. She added that the former House speaker would "clobber" President Barack Obama in an debate.

She also praised Herman Cain for being more specific about his 999 plan. "Herman Cain, thankfully, although a lot of people are criticizing his plan, he does have some specifics that he laid out. And that was appreciated. That's what I was looking for. Didn't get a lot of that."

The former Alaska governor, who declined to run for president in 2012, also praised Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) for her straightforwardness. "It's refreshing to hear somebody candid and blunt like Michelle Obama -- or Michele Bachmann -- I'm sorry -- tonight. She came right out and she said, no, she would not cut foreign aid to Israel because they are such a strong ally."

Palin did not always like the tone of the debate. "So when the debate started, a couple minutes into the debate, my kids started walking through the door after school and after play dates, and they're kind of griping and bickering amongst each other, then the debate in my other ear, the candidates are up there bickering and fighting amongst each other. And I honestly for a minute or two there didn't know which group I be listening to and which group was making more sense," she said. "Thankfully, the candidates kind of calmed down and started talking more about detailing the things that -- serious -- an electorate that is very serious in these serious times needs to hear."

She attacked Texas Gov. Rick Perry for signing a bill allowing undocumented immigrants who are Texas residents to pay in-state tuition rates. She called his attack on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for once employing -- and subsequently firing after two Boston Globe stories -- a lawn care company who hired undocumented immigrants, "a little bit of a cheap shot."

Palin said the debates are "still so valuable" and again bemoaned that Obama did not have a primary challenger.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich performed best in Tuesday night's Republican debate in Las Vegas and compared the other candidates to "bickering" children.

"I think we are more interested in substance. And that's why, like, tonight Newt Gingrich again I think did the best because he seems to be above a lot of the bickering that goes on," she said to Fox News' Greta Van Susteren on "On The Record," following the debate Tuesday night. She added that the former House speaker would "clobber" President Barack Obama in an debate.

She also praised Herman Cain for being more specific about his 999 plan. "Herman Cain, thankfully, although a lot of people are criticizing his plan, he does have some specifics that he laid out. And that was appreciated. That's what I was looking for. Didn't get a lot of that."

The former Alaska governor, who declined to run for president in 2012, also praised Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) for her straightforwardness. "It's refreshing to hear somebody candid and blunt like Michelle Obama -- or Michele Bachmann -- I'm sorry -- tonight. She came right out and she said, no, she would not cut foreign aid to Israel because they are such a strong ally."

Palin did not always like the tone of the debate. "So when the debate started, a couple minutes into the debate, my kids started walking through the door after school and after play dates, and they're kind of griping and bickering amongst each other, then the debate in my other ear, the candidates are up there bickering and fighting amongst each other. And I honestly for a minute or two there didn't know which group I be listening to and which group was making more sense," she said. "Thankfully, the candidates kind of calmed down and started talking more about detailing the things that -- serious -- an electorate that is very serious in these serious times needs to hear."

She attacked Texas Gov. Rick Perry for signing a bill allowing undocumented immigrants who are Texas residents to pay in-state tuition rates. She called his attack on former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for once employing -- and subsequently firing after two Boston Globe stories -- a lawn care company who hired undocumented immigrants, "a little bit of a cheap shot."

Palin said the debates are "still so valuable" and again bemoaned that Obama did not have a primary challenger.

However, she said the candidates were evasive: "It amazes me that the candidates so often get to escape actually answering the question. They get to spin and pivot and go off onto their sound bites that they want in the 10 seconds that they have to make a point," she said. As vice presidential candidate in 2008, Palin beat expectations in her one debate but performed poorly in several interviews.

"I think the hosts need to kind of dig a little bit more and come back to that candidate and say, No, that's not what I asked you. Here's what I asked you. Please answer it," she said.

Palin Plays Simon Says

From the National Review: Palin Plays Simon Says

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin recently said something both profound and essential. As she was nearing her decision not to launch a presidential campaign — appearing to discern what role she could best play in national affairs, and perhaps preparing to let her most ardent supporters down easy — she asked Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, “Is a title worth it? Does a title shackle a person?” She continued: “Does a title take away my freedom to call it like I see it and to affect positive change that we need in this country? That’s the biggest contemplation piece in my process.”

Such questions could be interpreted as indicative of a dismaying attitude toward public service. But they may also demonstrate an admirable self-awareness, and a keen appreciation of the different ways one might play a role in public life.

We all have our roles. There are expressly political roles; there are roles that are a mix of political rallying, education, and entertainment; there is purse service — donation and stewardship. Some are more focused on using creative talent, and some seek full-on cultural engagement. And we are not all destined for C-SPAN or ABC, for a podium, or for the silver screen. But all of us have a call — a desire that we may recognize as having been put in our heart as a gift, as a mission.

Just ask Bill Simon.

A funny thing happened when I was on the phone with him this summer. In the heat of the debt-ceiling debate, I had called to ask him about the debate, about how Washington was handling things. Simon was polite, sharing his opinion, sharing his concern for the need for fundamental reform. But it was impossible not to notice that, while he was happy to help a writer in need, he had much more important things on his mind, things of a much more fundamental and enduring nature.

Simon is known as a successful businessman, a philanthropist, briefly a politician (he ran for governor of California in 2002), and the son of a former U.S. Treasury secretary. He was raised in a big Catholic family but had subsequently fallen away. He writes in his new book, Living the Call: An Introduction to the Lay Vocation (coauthored with Michael Novak), that he had had fleeting moments of piety, as he “yearned for greater spiritual engagement, but that feeling would usually disappear amid the busyness of life.”

Then, he explains, “about a dozen years ago, with some significant professional and material success under my belt, I began to feel that something was missing, that maybe these things in my life — my family, my faith, and my career — shouldn’t be separate. And maybe the balance among the three wasn’t quite right.”

And so, as he is happy to tell you, he started to pray. He started to encounter the richness of his Catholic faith. He started to read St. Francis de Sales, for the first time. “The Catholic Church has had 2,000 years of thinkers and traditions that are every bit as relevant today as they ever were,” he tells me — something that, about a dozen years ago, “a cradle Catholic was discovering for the first time.”

He is now 59, and he now realizes that there is a role in his Church for the laity, that God calls us all to play a role in our families, in our places of business, in our communities.

“I don’t feel like I should devote the bulk of the rest of my life to getting a greater return on my financial investments,” he says. “I want to make a positive difference in people’s lives. I have found a calling.” He is utterly convinced that his work now is to get people to focus on eternal business. The book he has written isn’t about his story — it’s about the various ways in which lay people that you may pass on the street today live out what they believe. We won’t all go to Calcutta, but there are real opportunities to serve our brothers and sisters all around us, doing small things with great love close to home, and answering more sweeping calls.

There is a sense out there that we have lost focus. In their own ways, both the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Street movement are expressions of this concern, one that goes beyond mere policy. What needs to occupy our minds and our souls is what Simon wishes he had known all along: that we all have our roles — in church, in the culture, and in our homes as much as in politics. And our roles need to be rooted in and headed toward something beyond the next business deal or the next election. Real moral courage and leadership runs deep, inspired by something beyond ourselves.

Simon now talks enthusiastically about The Imitation of Christ, a treasure trove of practical spiritual pointers, and a book he wishes he had known about much earlier. Bill Simon now has a very different role from any he had previously played or sought. He is not shackled by titles. He is responding to a call, and nourished by the wisdom of the ages. It’s beyond the headlines, with the power to make new ones.