Sarah Palin, the Bard of Wasilla
Washington’s Emma Ashburn had some thoughts today on Sarah Palin’s latest literary stylings:
Sarah Palin: former Alaska governor, ex-vice presidential candidate, bard.
The media-savvy Republican introduced a new term over the weekend, using the word “refudiate” on her Twitter feed at SarahPalinUSA when she opined on plans to build a mosque at the site of the 9/11 attacks in Manhattan. Later, she suggested she wasn’t doing anything William Shakespeare hadn’t done.
Her first tweet on Sunday read:
* Ground Zero Mosque supporters: doesn’t it stab you in the heart, as it does ours throughout the heartland? Peaceful Muslims, pls refudiate
She changed it within hours to:
* Peaceful New Yorkers, please refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real
Holder huddles with New York team on 9/11 trials
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday flew to New York to huddle with his team that will be in charge of prosecuting and imprisoning the five men accused of plotting the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The closed-door meeting at the federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan included the prosecutors from the Southern District of New York and Eastern District of Virginia as well as representatives of the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, the Marshals Service, and the New York Police Department, according to an administration official.
A spokeswoman for Holder declined to provide details about the meeting. NBC News reported on Tuesday that a grand jury was hearing evidence against the self-professed mastermind of the attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
The five men are not expected to arrive in New York until early next year at the earliest because first the Obama administration must give Congress 45 days advance notice about how they will secure the prisoners and address any security issues.
Holder has come under blistering criticism from Republicans for deciding to try the accused 9/11 conspirators in U.S. criminal court instead of a military court, arguing that they should not be brought to American soil from the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
One tangent concern has been whether the terrorism suspects from Guantanamo would be afforded any immigration status — and therefore some rights — when they are in the United States, an issue Republican Senator John Cornyn raised on Wednesday during an oversight hearing for the Department of Homeland Security.
“For a detainee who is brought here for purposes of prosecution, they are paroled — and that’s the technical term used — but they are paroled into the country only for purposes of prosecution,” DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “There are no immigration benefits that accrue to that.”
“…a grand jury was hearing evidence against the self-professed mastermind of the attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.”
If he has already confessed to this horrendous act, then why waste the taxpayers dollars on a trial? It doesn’t make any sense. He is guilty! What part of “self-professed” don’t they understand?
He is an enemy combatant who doesn’t have a right to a civil trial. To make matters worse it is taking place in, of all places, NYC.
This is a travesty.
The First Draft: NYC awaits day in court 8 years after 9/11
Today seems a day of numbers: 8, 11, 5, 3000, 13. Put another way, more than 8 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the brutally violated City of New York learns that 5 men accused in the deaths of the nearly 3,000 people will face an actual criminal trial — in New York.
Oh, yeah, and the news comes on Friday the 13th.
The lead defendant, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, initially confessed to masterminding the 2001 attacks that set the United States on the road to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he later told a Pentagon war crimes court that the interrogators “were putting many words in my mouth.” He also said he wants to be put to death and become a martyr.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will formally announce later today that KSM and four other defendants will be sent to New York City to stand trial for the attacks.
It’s part of President Barack Obama’s plan to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which has long been a target of human rights allegations against the United States.
The proceedings in New York will be an important test of how a U.S. civilian court might handle cases involving detainees who were subjected to U.S. interrogation techniques that some describe as torture.
Wow, let’s run through everyone’s posts thus far,
Anon: Why should we care what level of satisfaction he has in his death once he’s dead? Let’s save the american taxpayer some money and just run him through a trial and execute him.
Jeff: lol, that was good 
RLM: impeach Obama because you don’t think you’re going to like the eventual outcome of a trial that happens under him? Gosh you must have been screaming for every Republican in office to be impeached on 9/12/2009 right?
Arnoll: let’s not risk them recruiting more people to join their side, keep in mind people in prison most likely hate our gov’t also.
Dom: a suitcase nuke? Boy you’re doing the media and the gov’t a big favor in saving them from having to do the fearmongering themselves. They should just have you volunteer rather than having to pay their group of liars.
Dan: wishing reckoning on Israeli’s because of our government’s policy? That sounds demonic.
Nikos: good post, agree mostly, what was it you were a professor in?
from Environment Forum:
Endangered yellow taxi? US climate bill could turn them green
The sweeping legislation unveiled in the U.S. Senate today aims to curb climate change, arguably one of the biggest tasks ever undertaken on this planet. But it's a bill that runs to more than 800 pages, and hidden in its folds is a provision that could turn a noted symbol of New York City -- the yellow taxicab -- green.
And it wouldn't just be in New York. Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and other major U.S. cities would be able to create taxi fleets made up entirely of hybrid vehicles under the proposed Green Taxis Act of 2009.
Offered by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who now fills Hillary Clinton's former seat in the Senate, the measure aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 296,000 tons in New York City alone, which its sponsors say would be like taking some 35,000 cars off the road and save drivers $4,500 annually in gas costs.
“By creating an all hybrid taxi fleet, we can improve air quality and lower carbon emissions," Gillibrand said in a statement. "As a mother with an asthmatic child, I believe this is a win-win for our children and our efforts to combat climate change.”
That has to be a good thing, and it's not exactly unheard of. A quick search for "green taxi" turns up nearly 70,000 hits. But will New Yorkers say "Fuhgeddaboutit"? Will the Taxi and Limousine Commission oppose it? WIll preservationists balk at changing what has become a durable talisman of life in the Big Apple? Or will New York residents (and other residents of other cities where this law could apply) embrace their inner environmentalists?
Let the debate begin!
It shows why it took “gun-slingging” mama-grizzly long to finish college. Just slow is realizing when you’re making a fool of yourselves. But wait a minute, “people like us”…”the real americans”….They do understand this new bard in the western hemisphire. They wouldn’t pay so much money for dinner if she were that baaaaad!..or would they? yah! they would, some level of interlectual consciousness.