In her appearance at Ralph Reed’s version of a Taliban revival meeting (aka the Faith and Freedom conference), Sarah Palin gave us a glimpse of American foreign policy if it were developed by a lobotomized ferret.
Most of her address sounded like a loser on Last Comic Standing. She made jokes about protesters driving Chevy Volts, Obama voters being “knuckleheads,” and “pot-smoking deadbeat Bostonian” terrorists,” She even attempted an impression of Amy Poehler’s SNL Weekend Update anchor. Her punch lines included hilarious references to victims of terror in Boston and Ft. Hood. What could be funnier? Plus, she reprised her classic material about health care death panels and thousands of armed IRS agents (both of those issues have been definitively debunked and relegated to the fringiest conspiracy kooks).
Eventually she reached the portion of her address that dealt with foreign policy, and she did not disappoint – so long as you expected cartoonish, bumper sticker analysis that insults leaders and offends allies. Here is Palin’s approach to the crisis in Syria:
“I say, until we know what we’re doing, until we have a commander and chief who knows what he’s doing, well, in these radical Islamic countries, who aren’t even respecting basic human rights, where both sides are slaughtering each other as they scream over an arbitrary red line, ‘Allah Akbar,’ I say until we have someone who knows what they’re doing, I say let Allah sort it out.”
The tragic events in Syria are not material for a comedy routine. More than 90,000 people have been killed, and a million more are refugees who have been driven from their homes and country. To cavalierly suggest that the killing should continue and that the U.S. should be content to sit on the sidelines and ignore our national interests in peace and democracy for the region, is irresponsible in the extreme. Neither the brutal dictatorship of Assad, nor the ascension of radical Islamists, would advance the interests of the U.S. But that is what Palin is advocating. Contrary to her idiotic and dangerous indifference, America needs to be engaged with allies who share our objectives. Syria is a critical player in the region and is presently aligned with provocateurs like Iran and Hezbollah. To miss this opportunity to forge a new alignment that inures to our benefit would be foolish. Yet that is Palin’s approach – an approach that sometimes doesn’t sound all that different the one proffered by Al Qaeda’s fundamentalists:
“We’d do well to re-dedicate ourselves to our one true heavenly father. Because we’re not gonna come up in our own simple minds with the solutions. The challenges are too big.”
That’s the prefect summation for the Palin Doctrine. She admits that she has a simple mind that is incapable of solving complex problems. And she defers any action to a supreme being who, if you believe people like Palin, has already demonstrated that he isn’t averse to snuffing out the lives of the innocent in Syria, Iraq, or the World Trade Center.
If you think you can stand twenty-four minutes of Palin’s ear-piercing, high-pitched squeal, here is the whole video. I assume no responsibility for your aural health, broken vases, or the holes you may punch in the wall.
You still have to wonder just how desperate both parties must have been to renew their vows (ironically on the same day that Rupert Murdoch announced that he and his third wife are 
Confirming what everyone with a pulse already knows, Roger Ailes, the CEO of Fox News, is a revered figure in the realm of wealthy, right-wing, evangelical, political manipulators. The latest evidence is the tribute to Ailes from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, an organization that rivals the Koch brothers for their advocacy of extremist conservative issues. 
