LA TIMES: You know how Sarah Palin said Paul Revere warned the British? ...

[Lucinda]

You know how Sarah Palin said Paul Revere warned the British? Well, he did. Now, who looks stupid?
ANDREW MALCOLM
June 6, 2011 | 3:04 am

"You may have heard recently something about that Sarah Palin telling a reporter that Paul Revere warned the British on his famous rousing revolutionary ride.

Now, that so many Americans have wallowed in their smug confirmation that Palin is an idiot unqualified for anything but repeating sixth-grade history, how far, wide and fast do you think the contradictory news will spread that the former governor of Alaska was indeed correct?

That the Republican non-candidate, in fact, knew more about the actual facts of Revere's midnight ride than all those idiots unknowingly revealing their own ignorance by laughing at her faux faux pas? How secretly embarrassing this must be, to be forced to face that you're dumber than the reputed dummy.

As it happens, though, such phenomena are regular occurrences in American politics, reminding consumers of news to be wary when some fresh story seems to fit contemporary assumptions so absolutely perfectly.

The well-known fable is Revere's late-night ride to warn fellow revolutionaries that....

...the British were coming. Less known, obviously, is the rest of the evening's events in which Revere was captured by said redcoats and did indeed defiantly warn them of the awakened militia awaiting their arrival ahead and of the American Revolution's inevitable victory.
Palin knew this. The on-scene reporters did not and ran off like Revere to alert the world to Palin's latest mis-speak, which wasn't..."

:) Interesting tango he's doing there...

He talks about other famous misspeaks in the article also...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/06/sarah-palin-says-paul-revere-warned-the-british.html">MORE

[kick-ass-bob]

1. Who looks stupid now?

Andrew Malcolm. That's who. :eyes:

[Lucinda]

4. I did a little research. I think he used to work for Laura Bush.

He talked about Quayle & the "potatoe" in the article too.

[kick-ass-bob]

14. It IS the LA Times, too, after all.

I am not surprised at this guy's background. (And I will not click a link to the LAT) :)

[Lucinda]

16. I've been a gone a long time - Clearly the LA Times has changed

since I lived in Cali. :)

[JuniperLea]

35. It's not the Chandler's paper anymore...

Sadly, it's just another tool rag.

[Rex]

2. Oh Lord! The apologists are disgusting creatures.

No road is to low, so long as Failin appears correct in her on air flub. She said he was warning the British not to mess with our 2nd amendment rights! How fucking sad and pathetic that someone took the time to lie for Palin in a failed attempt to make her seem secretly smarter then the average mama grizzly.

GOPers, you are the most pathetic political party in American history.

Someone wiki that!

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

8. Our second amendment

rights which I don't think existed at this time, did they?

[Rex]

13. I know...it is hard to believe but that is what she meant.

Even a Whirling Dervish can't spin this one right.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. Some info about the author, Andrew Malcolm:

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/11/22/hack_list_28

Seems he's a reliable Palin apologist.

[Lucinda]

6. Thanks for that. I had read that he had worked for Laura Bush

but I hadn't seen the rest of this!

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. Stop!

Revere's mission wasn't to alert the British. It was to alert the colonials.

Is McCain remembered for his service or is he remembered for succumbing to the Cong? Or is he remembered for crashing every plane he flew?

[Lucinda]

10. Corrrect...but the "spin" is that she was also talking about what Revere said

to the British when he was arrested.

[Mojeoux]

21. So why would Revere "warn" the British? Of anything?

He's arrested and surely roughed up by the British, and he was peeved. So he tells the Red Coats, "Just wait till my big army get's here and kicks your ass!!!"

That makes Paul Revere, one of America's greats, sound like a wimpy little kid.
He would have told them NOTHING!!!!

Sorry Sarah, they tried to give it a spin, but the twirl is weak.

[Rex]

12. 'Or is he remembered for crashing every plane he flew?'

And for that matter...what is Poppy Bush and Little Baby Bush remembered for in their time in service? Certainly NOT Poppy bailing on his crew OR Junior snorting coke off the bar counter!

Failin's apologists are as sad as any fuckwad that should know better, but commits acts of evil anyway. It is evil to make Americans believe a lie told by someone that wants to RULE over them!

[Obamanaut]

27. Actually, he did not crash every plane he flew. I suspect bad

stuff can be found about any living human without making shit up.

That seems so, well, elementary school.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. Well, yes. But the purpose of this article and all the other emanations

from the fans of Lady Blah Blah is to backfill her ridiculous, tendentious, and totally wrong description of Revere's actions to make it look like she wasn't wrong and that she actually knew something about the incident. Revere's mission (along with a couple of others, Dawes and Prescott) was to warn Hancock and Adams that British forces were approaching, and they were to do this as clandestinely as possible - Their mission was NOT to warn the British that the "Americans" weren't going to let them take their guns away, which was Palin's bizarre interpretation. Reliable Palin leg-humper Andrew Malcom is spinning her made-up story to look true by noting the fact that when Revere was briefly captured by the British he gave them a big load of disinformation about the colonists' troop strength so as to divert them from the location of Adams and Hancock. But Revere never fired rifles or rang bells, and his mission was never to warn the British.

[rfranklin]

7. Revere was detained and provided them with disinformation...she is still wrong...

There was no plan to warn the British about the Second Amendment.

[LLStarks]

9. That would imply that Palin knew Revere was arrested. nt

[Lucinda]

11. Yup. n/t

[Distant Observer]

15. Shows the effects of peculiar propaganda environments on perception of reality -- NRA + Palin

= a whole different take on history.

[Mugweed]

17. Wasn't the year 1775?

If the Constitution wasn't ratified until 1787, and the Bill of Rights ratified in 1791, that would make Revere some kind of seer into the future. According to the right-wing, he was running around warning the British of the American right to bear arms, which wasn't an actual right for another 16 years? Whatever, maybe he was also telling them to buy gold.

[kick-ass-bob]

18. He was a time traveler.

I saw him here 3 years ago, actually. He warned me that some nutjob lady would fuck up the meaning of his ride. Little did I know this was it.
:crazy:

[Lucian]

34. December of 1791 was when the Second Amendment came into effect.

Paul Revere must have been some kind of Miss Cleo to know that.

Or, she was wrong, which is always the case.

[montanto]

20. So, Paul Revere and Palin are traitors?

[gratuitous]

22. So there, you libruls!

Next, you're going to start questioning whether the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor. I heard a highly-respected U.S. Senator explain that one.

[Lucinda]

25. LOL

Clearly we need to go and relearn the "correct" versions of things from the conservative wiki!

[RebelOne]

23. Even Neal Boortz disagrees with Palin about Paul Revere

and he calls her a "twit." I hate that man, but I do have to agree with him about Palin being a "twit."

[frazzled]

24. What about those "bells"?

How they gonna 'splain that one away? His horse had bells on its reins?

[Lucinda]

26. Musta been. He was on a stealth mission, With bells.

I think that's it?

[Johonny]

30. Bells colonial slang for telling them face to face

like today bullshit is slang for something a conservative writes to cover up a totally stupid thing another conservative says.

[Morning Dew]

33. He was traveling with Santa

who had delivered arms to the Colonials for Easter on the 16th.

Santa's return to the North Pole was delayed by negotiations with the Bunny over the Easter contract in future years.

[Arkansas Granny]

37. No, no, it was a camel named Clyde, not a horse. And the bells were worn

by Fatima along with rings on her fingers and a bone in her nose, ho ho.

[madrchsod]

28. today`s teaparty has`t a clue about the real tea party...

[Lucinda]

31. So true...

:)

[Erose999]

29. What everybody who has angled the "Revere" story has neglected to mention so far is that EVERYBODY

was "British". The colonists were subjects of the crown and therefore would have thought of themselves as "British". If Revere would have gone around yelling "the British are coming" he would have been met with shouts of "aren't we already here?".

Colonists referred to themselves as "Colonials" or they referred to what colony they were from (Virginians, etc). They called the British army "regulars" or "redcoats".

Furthermore, there were British patrols in the area as evidenced by Revere's capture. He was trying to avoid them, and running around shooting and ringing bells and yelling about how "we're gonna be armed" is almost certainly NOT what happened. That would have been suicide. The bit about the militia was certainly a bluff as he would not have known any numbers about who gathered in his wake or where they were assembled.

Not to mention Revere was one of perhaps as many as 40 other riders.

Palin is, as always, full of shit.

[kick-ass-bob]

36. Paul Revere House website:

http://www.paulreverehouse.org/ride/real.html

This is the story printed there:

-snip-
On the way to Lexington, Revere "alarmed" the country-side, stopping at each house, and arrived in Lexington about midnight. As he approached the house where Adams and Hancock were staying, a sentry asked that he not make so much noise. "Noise!" cried Revere, "You'll have noise enough before long. The regulars are coming out!"
-snip-

[brooklynite]

32. ...and what do these revisionists say about the "bells"?

[moondust]

38. The Paul Revere story has never been about warning the British.

And every American with a brain and an elementary education knows that.

Palin twisted it into a story about "taking away our guns" to fit her agenda as the NRA's pinup girl.

[DearAbby]

39. They waterboarded Revere and forced him to talk

defiantly said "If you're lookin fer a fight, you've got one!!" He was captured because of the ruckus he created ringin those damned bells, curses foiled again!