Are Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin Secretly French?

Joseph McCarthy was wrong because, inter alia, he thought that American democracy and capitalism might fall at any moment to an internal Communist rebellion. In reality, almost all Americans like democracy and capitalism. Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin are his Chicken Little intellectual heirs.

“….that Americans are pretty tolerant when it comes to religious differences and they prefer to focus on interfaith cooperation rather than strife between religious traditions.”

I wish I didn’t have to write this, and other readers please point out if I’m wrong. But doesn’t interfaith cooperation require a measure of give and take?

It’s ironic that those who show the least amount of respect for the constitution, and it’s stand against any state church, are the first to wrap themselves in the flag and proclaim their love of country above all others. Gingrich and Palin make me sick with their display of ignorance toward the constitution, while at the same time they try to use it to demonize those who have forgotten more about the constitution than those two will ever know.

As an atheist, my observation is that the most religiously intolerant people are the religious ones.
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The European reaction is not religious, it is a matter of civil order. We haven’t had the muslim riots that they have seen. In the USA, after 9/11, I saw many women who had worn veils stop. I don’t know if it was fear or not. All I know is that there were no riots and fewer veils.

It seems that this is precisely the sort of situation the founders were thinking of when they wrote the 1st Amendment in the first place, Adherents of the majority religions aren’t the ones the need protection. The freedom to worship as you see fit or refrain altogether belongs to everyone

They probably also think that America was founded as a “Christian nation”. Not. True.

“After all, writes Gingrich, “[M]ore than 100 mosques already exist in New York City. Meanwhile, there are no churches or synagogues in all of Saudi Arabia. In fact no Christian or Jew can even enter Mecca.”
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So, let’s pick one of it not the most religiously intolerant countries in the world and see how close we can get to their level of primitive tribalism by following their example in a city with extremely few conservatives and extremely few objectors to the mosque.
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Our crime rate is lower than Mexico’s!
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Our poverty rate is lower than that of Haiti!
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Our freedom of speech is far stronger than China’s!
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One of a number of things Americans should be proud of is our long history of religious tolerance and how that tolerance is still growing and far beyond a large majority of the world.
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Now, this is a time to say that you are proud of an American tradition. That tradition is to let and not discourage the building of the mosque a four minute walk from ground 0.

The rejection of a state church, especially one that imposes taxes, is not only one of the things that sent the pioneers to America, it is the basis of religious freedom. You are free to believe any unproven, metaphysical supposition you want. In fact, it is core to the broader concept of freedom and liberty itself.

Gingrich and Palin are only stating the views of probably 80% of the American public.

Your hateful comments towards them simply shows how you feel about most of your fellow American citizens and how far out of touch you are with most Americans.
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9-11 was a very traumatic situation for most Americans. Islamic Terrorist killed over 3,000 of our citizens. According to polls approx 10-15% of American Moslems support Jihad. It seems every week we have another plot to kill American citizen here in America by Moslems. Liberal reporters are heard saying when this happens that they hope it is not a Moslem this time.
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Is it any wonder that feeling of most Americans run so strong on this issue. I do not hold all Moslems responsible for the acts of terror, but I would think that American Moslems would try to understand these feeling and not want to aggravate them by building this Islamic Building so close to the 9-11 site.
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What I have said here are the feelings of most Americans. So now as you Liberals start calling me names as usual and accuse me of being a Racist you are proving my points as to how you view your fellow American citizens.

You’re the one who thinks your fellow Americans are religious bigots, and you think it’s the rest of us who are bad-mouthing our fellow citizens? Get a grip.

Another irony is those of us who lived or worked only blocks away from the WTC on 9/11 are more tolerant of the entire Muslim religion, than people from small towns thousands of miles away. One of the big benefits of living in a large city is you have no choice but to embrace diversity, since you live with it 24 hours a day. Tolerance becomes a way of life, one that broadens the mind.

I’ve come to believe that most of the complaints about the opening of the mosque two city blocks away from the WTC site are merely an opportunity to bash Muslims. The obvious question, which has been asked many times but not yet answered is: ‘If not there, would 3 blocks away be OK (or 5, or 10, or 10 miles, or in another state, etc.)?’. I believe that for many of the complainers the answer would be ‘nowhere’.

The ‘why there?’ decision has been answered the same way that most church location decisions are made: The location is affordable, and that’s where the people it’s meant to serve are.

I kept hearing hyperbole about how close it is to the WTC site, and how this mosque would somehow become incorporated in the new WTC experience in some way. I decided to see for myself what this mosque location looks like, and how the mere sight of it would somehow affect people’s experience at the WTC.

Since I don’t live in NY and I can’t visit the mosque site (an abandoned Burlington Coat Factory building) myself, I did the next best thing. I looked up the address (51 Park Place) in Google Maps. I then opened Google’s ‘Street View’ to examine the location. It turns out that the proposed site for the mosque is in a relatively run down area, on a narrow street, surrounded by tall buildings. It is not visible from the WTC at all. In fact, standing on the street at that location would not give one the sense that they are anywhere near the WTC at all.

See for yourself – link to Google Maps here. Panning around in the ‘Street View’, you’ll quickly realize that this location can’t even remotely influence what visitors to the WTC will experience.

Let’s see.
Gingrich and Palin are only stating the views of probably 80% of the American public
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Unless you believe in tyranny of the majority, I fail to see how that’s relevant to anything.
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Your hateful comments…
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FInd me one single comment so far that is hateful. Not disagreeing. Not just wrong. Not sarcastic. Hateful.
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According to polls approx 10-15% of American Moslems support Jihad.
1. Find a source to back it up. I can say 100% of short people are mechanics, but that doesn’t make it true
2. The term “jihad” has different meanings to Muslims than it does to western non-muslims. Compare apples to apples here. Find a poll that shows how many support jihad against America, or something a bit more specific.
Here’s how it’s done. Here’s a poll showing that only about 5% of American muslims support Al-Quaida, which is a bit more specific. Certainly disturbing, but not what you claimed.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8P9KKMG0&show_article=1
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It seems every week we have another plot to kill American citizen here in America by Moslems
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Let’s go back to the “Please find something to back up your views”
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Islamic Terrorist killed over 3,000 of our citizens
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And how many people have christian domestic terrorists killed? Start counting the bodies left behind by the KKK, McVeigh and his spuremacist buddies, and the motley lone wolf shootings, and I bet you can get a lot higher than 3000 Once again, let’s compare apples to apples

Well put 3xs. Would be very interesting to conduct a poll among the American people to see how they feel about this mosque. Maybe it’s been done, I don’t know.
Perhaps Amy could run this by her fellow Journolisters and report back to us.
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Thanks again Amy for another “objective” commentary.

Yeah, I’ll call you names…you sir, are an imbecile, a dolt, a moron of infinite moronicity. In the dictionary under cretin, your picture shines like a becon to all things acerebrate. A troglodyte, a simpleton of such extraordinary depth and inanity as to defy all human understanding and comprehension. You have the mental accumen of a crustacean without the charm. Please explain to me how in the FREAKIN” UNITED STATES OF AMERICA we can single out one religion for “special treatment” and your side, which boasts such teary eyed adherence to the Constitution, can a). turn around and ignore the concept of property rights and b) take a dump on the first amendment, which gives these people the right to practice their religion as they please. Idiots. You non-sentient cretins play right into bin-Laden’s hands every time you play to fear, xenophobia, and discrimination. We are in a psychological and ideological battle with radical Islam, and your fearful overreactions are an ongoing source of fodder for their propaganda. He says America hates Muslims, you confirm it and a thousand more followers are born. We stick to our principles, and a thousand followers melt away, or never join. “Osamma, you say America hates us, but they let us build a mosque near the World Trade Center site. Osamma, are you a liar”? We need to make him be the liar. You righties don’t get this. Gingrich is a toad. What kind of an argument is “When Saudi Arabia does it, we’ll do it, blah, blah, blah.” They did we start to think like that despotic little $hit hole is the day that America is finished. You got it? Hope this didn’t offend anybody….

I wonder if American opposition to anti-veil laws doesn’t have as much to do with our belief that the law shouldn’t tell you what you can and can’t wear as much as it does religious tolerance.

“…the religious diversity and tolerance in the U.S. is something that Americans are rightly proud of, not something they usually pout about.”
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Point very well made, Amy. One quibble: “[near or next to] the World Trade Center site”, would have been more accurate.

80% ?? More accurately, most Americans don’t even know of this startling “controversy”. And 99.9% of Americans couldn’t care less. Same for views of Gingrich and Palin. I enjoy reading on the Swamp, but really, we are just a tiny, tiny speck in America who doesn’t even read the news and votes for the first name on the ballot.

This discussion comparing views of religion in the USA and that of Europe is an apples and orange one. No comparison is possible. We pat ourselves on the back for religious diversity, but in Europe, the very issue of religion is irrelevant and senseless. They are tied to religion culturally only. America is tied to religion viscerally. Ironic, I know, since our country got most of the religion from the old countries. But it is a fact. America is religious crazed and Europe only looks on in confusion. Yet, the veil issue would not likely go far here. Nor other expressions of allegiance to the various religious cults.

…and no, they’re not French. They’re Republicans attempting to pander to their racist, nativist, jingoistic, pathologically partisan base. Carry on…

gloriousglo2,
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Brilliant! Thanks.

Open the Google Maps link in my post above (#11) and see for yourself just how NOT ‘at the World Trade Center site’ the proposed mosque really is.

If Gingrich or Palin could point out the proposed location of the mosque on a map without the help of Google or GPS, I’d be amazed. (Does Palin even know what a map is?)
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I guess conservatives believe in states’ rights and local rule only so far as it conforms to their religious preferences. So let these non-residents weigh in on our local zoning regulations, so long as we NYers can decide city planning in Wasilla (That lake her house abuts would be better drained and turned into a strip mall!) and place a Walmart next to Newt’s gaudy McMansion in whatever burg he calls home. We love zoning in places we never visited!

3X,
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Look up a list the names of the dead and you will find Brendan McCabe.
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He was one of my distant relatives.
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Long after the fact, I worked within half a mile of ground 0.
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New Yorkers want to defend the first amendment against tyrant on the right, want to defuse Islamic extremism and to respect, among others, the Muslims who were killed in the World Trade Center by being true Americans and allowing freedom of religion.
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For your Jihad information, I have been acquainted with Muslims for more than 20 years now and the word “jihad” translates to “righteous struggle” which could mean anything from putting yourself through medical school to a war of defense against a power wishing to forbid the practice of the Islamic Religion.
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So, your percentages sound completely outrageous to say the least.
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Then again, 98% of the Tea Party wants to repeat Timothy McVeigh’s attack against the government while making up their own statistics.
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Don’t rent any rider trucks 3X.

If those “probably 80%”* don’t live in NYC, they really don’t get a say.
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*How did you get that 80% number anyway? Polling 5 of your family members and the dog disagreed with you?

2thirds,
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I agree. It is truly amazing how far out of touch these Libs are with the vast majority of Americans. A rational American reading my post would not necessarily agree with everything I wrote but would try to understand where I was coming from in a rational manner.
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Not the Libs on this site. They go crazy. It only shows what an Insane group they really are. They don’t like our citizens or our country very much. What they really want is a Dictatorship led by their elitist members.
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November can not come soon enough. Then back to the desert for them for another 40 years. I really thought our ancestors had left the likes of them back in the old countries when they came to America..

Not that it matters — free exercise of religion means you don’t have to put building a house of worship up for a vote — but Manhattan residents do support the building of the mosque:
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The Quinnipiac University poll, released Thursday morning, found that 46 percent of Manhattanites support the 13-story mosque and community center, called Cordoba House. Thirty-six percent of Manhattan voters oppose the proposal and 18 percent are undecided.

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Don’t live there? Don’t like it? Get bent.

3X,
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This is the constitution!
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This is the First amendment.
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This a decision within a city which has no possible consequences outside of our borders other than, by being ourselves as New Yorkers and not segregating ourselves we will give less ammunition to the people who killed my cousin, Brendan McCabe.
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You are supporting using the constitution as toilet paper, 3X, but you wouldn’t know the constitution if it were written on your forehead.

The veil thing always makes me think if most nuns still wore habits would they be told to cease.
Europe is not very religous but there still is that touch of intolerance that raises its head occassionally that has caused them so much trouble in the past.
My grandmother was from central europe. She always warned us to beware of the gypsys. They kidnapped children. I bet there are some in her home country that still believe that.

They don’t like our citizens or our country very much.
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The people who want to build this mosque? They’re American citizens.
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Their right to free exercise of their religion? It’s guaranteed in the Constitution of this country.
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You don’t like your fellow citizens who are Muslim. And you want stand in the way of their rights as guaranteed to all in this country.
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You think you’re a patriot? No, you’re an insult to everything great about this country, and as noted above, your actions and your insults only help America’s enemies recruit more fanatics to their cause.

What makes this country great isn’t the dirt. It isn’t even the people that occupy it — although, for the most part, we’re not bad .
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What makes this country great is its principles. When we abandon American principles (embodied in the Bill of Rights) we diminish ourselves.

Newt Gingrich realizes that adultery in Saudi Arabia is punishable by beheading, firing squad, or stoning doesn’t he?
If he wants to put his neck on the chopping block, I guess it isn’t my place to stop him.

I’ve only been in downtown New York City twice in my life. The last time I was there I stood on the roof of the south tower of the World Trade Center. It made the shock of them falling that much greater because I could picture what it might look and feel like from seeing that roof and view of the north tower across the way. I also wondered if the roof restaurant employees and express elevator operator I saw were there when the planes hit. That was 1997.
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The other thing I remember is seeing a different culture walk past me every second in the street. Sikhs, orthodox Jews, Black Panthers (maybe), gays, even French (really!) tourists all walking around going about their business. I’m sure there is a reason to hate ever single one of them but in the grand scheme it made no sense to anyone to care to hate that much.
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Most of the popular wisdom of the media vanilla news line was that New York City was traumatized and everyone would end up in counseling. New Yorkers would lock their doors so the planes wouldn’t fly in. I only spent a long afternoon in New York and I could tell that wasn’t going to happen. They’d mostly say f-you to the terrorists and would continue just as they had with the same goofy cultures surrounding them. See, that way the terrorists don’t win.

Are Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin Secretly French?
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No they are obviously American you should stop covering.

formerlyjames, I may be off on this, but a big difference between us and Europe is that we’re armed to the teeth. People in Europe have strict gun laws. We have armed militias that see threats behind every tree.
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There’s a small muslim community near us and I noticed less veils after 9/11 too. I thought at the time it might be a self preservation move. We’ve got lots of bubbas that would like nothing better than to have an open season on Arabs. We’ve got Greek Festivals. Italian Festivals and other ethnic groups that have big weekends around here with lots of food and celebrating. If the Muslims have any kind of gathering, I’ve never heard about it. I go to all the festivals because I like trying out different foods. I’d go to theirs too if they had one.

They are both a tribute to the diversity and the idea that America is the land of opportunity. If they can get elected, anyone can.

After the neighborhood residents and business owners weighed in, the community board that decides local zoning issues voted 29-1 in favor of the mosque/community center. Votes that lopsided never happen here.
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The building right now is an empty unproductive husk. The planned mosque would be a welcome addition.

Actually, 3x, you seem the one going crazy because we’re building a mosque. (Even though you live so far away, it has nothing to do with you.) It seems you are the one who wants a dictatorship, as long as the dictator is Sarah Palin and she can stop a mosque 5000 miles from where she lives, in a city she claims to hate. (She likes the shopping here, though.)
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No one is asking you to look at the mosque, visit it, pay for it or even think about it. It has NOTHING to do with you.
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I think you have control issues. Be careful: your frustrated impotence in this matter is not good for your blood pressure.

One of the reasons we haven’t seen the riots France has seen is we haven’t marginalized our immigrants like they have. Our allowing of religious freedoms is one of the reason we don’t have the same level of internal strife with Muslims. Sure they get discriminated against but not at the same level.

I happen to live in the Detroit area, which is home to a very large Middle Eastern population. They haven’t rioted because compared to similar places in Europe, they’re free to live their lives in peace. The same level of resentment doesn’t exist. It’s not because they decided to ditch their veils or are afraid of being shot. Both those conclusions are condescending to these folks and their neighbors.

“I really thought our ancestors had left the likes of them back in the old countries when they came to America..”
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LOL. Hate to break this to you, 3x, but people who came to America were a bunch of dirty shaggy-haired libruls! William Penn. Roger Williams. Escaping religious persecution. The likes of you, who favored state religion, were called Loyalists and most of them moved back to England when they got their butts kicked.
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Your feeble grasp on the history of our country’s founding doesn’t surprise me too much. Good for a chuckle.

Indeed. As many others have pointed out, liberalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. Liberalism says we have to be tolerant to those who aren’t at all tolerant and who will work to destroy liberalism.
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But, wait, it gets worse: not only does liberalism support that, but as currently practiced it supports smearing anyone who points out what liberalism does.
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– Click here for my topics page, which is on a related but different issue.

If the USA was the KSA then Sarah Palin would have been stoned to death with no TV syndication rights and Newt Gingrich would be learning how to write with his teeth.

Get on your knees and thank God for religious tolerance.

covering = reporting on, right?
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I was thinking “we should stop covering our heads” but if either is elected I for one indeed would be…in shame.

Amy: you write that the mosque is to be built on the WTC site. Is that an accurate statement? I have read elsewhere that the proposed mosque is NOT on the WTC site.

Palin and Gingrich: two of the usual claque of self-promoters who are allowed to peddle bunk by the MSM. Nothing else of import happening?

apr, it is interesting to me too. Nuns used to wear really odious outfits. When I was young I was fascinated by the getup. The veils over starched things and wool looking heavy black cloaks, etc. When I was about 6 I used to wonder why nuns didn’t have breasts. I didn’t know that they were just bound, but I thought of nuns as some gender neutral entity. I guess some nuns still wear the thing, like Mother Angelica and her flock on the catholic teevee.

Per Newt Gingrich, let’s remember:
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“The Office of Special Plans (OSP), which worked alongside the Near East and South Asia (NESA) bureau… was originally created by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to review raw information collected by the official U.S. intelligence agencies for connections between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
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Retired intelligence officials from the State Department, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have long charged that the two offices exaggerated and manipulated intelligence about Iraq before passing it along to the White House.
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”They would draw up ‘talking points’ they would use and distribute to their friends”, said (Lt Col) Kwiatkowski. ”But the talking points would be changed continually, not because of new intel, but because the press was poking holes in what was in the memos”.
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They rarely communicated directly with the CIA, leaving that to political heavyweights, including (Newt) Gingrich, who is reported to have made several trips to the CIA headquarters..
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According to recent published reports, CIA analysts felt these visits were designed to put pressure on them to tailor their analyses more to the liking of administration hawks.”
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It is easy to be PC and tolerant when you are not experiencing any threat to yourself personally. If you read about France these days, it is not all peace and love and tolerant Muslims.

And if you think it won’t start up here, you are fooling yourselves. It already has.

Tea party-violent
Radical Muslims-misunderstood

In the pursuit of your ‘tolerance’ ideology, you refuse to see the truth.