Sarah Palin took to Twitter Sunday to bash plans for an Islamic cultural center and mosque two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City.

Palin tweeted: “Peaceful New Yorkers, pls refute the Ground Zero mosque plan if you believe catastrophic pain caused @ Twin Towers site is too raw, too real.”

An hour later she added: “Peace-seeking Muslims, pls understand, Ground Zero mosque is UNNECESSARY provocation; it stabs hearts. Pls reject it in interest of healing.”

The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate is attacking the planned Cordoba House, a project that has New York politicians lining up on both sides.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the project. But GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio has attacked the proposal and this month called for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (D) – his opponent in the race for governor – to probe the project’s backing.

Cuomo rebuffed the request, according to press reports, and backs the project.

“This country is about religious freedom. If there is a central premise to the founding for this nation, it is religious freedom and it is that government doesn’t pick religions,” Cuomo said this month.

Here’s how the Cordoba Initiative – a group that says its aim is to improve Muslim-West relations – describes the project:

“This proposed project is about promoting integration, tolerance of difference and community cohesion through arts and culture. Cordoba House will provide a place where individuals, regardless of their backgrounds, will find a center of learning, art and culture; and most importantly, a center guided by Islamic values in their truest form – compassion, generosity, and respect for all.”

Remember those quizzes you had on the state capitals back in junior high? Oh, the pressure! The temptation to write “Pierre, Olympia, Dover, Albany” on the inside of your hand was overwhelming, wasn’t it? But you resisted. Maybe Sarah Palin should have done the same.

The former vice presidential candidate seems to have been caught using curious crib notes during an interview this past weekend at the high-profile Tea Party Convention in Nashville. While speaking about her top political priorities, Ms. Palin gazed at her hand in a rather suspicious manner.

Later, Web researchers zoomed in on her left palm and found the following words scrawled in black ink: “Energy, Budget cuts (with “budget” crossed out), Tax, Lift American Spirits.” In an ironic twist during the speech, Ms. Palin worked in a jab against President Obama’s often-mocked use of TelePrompTers.
Following the flap, the Web went wild. Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC mocked Ms. Palin by relying on her own crib notes to recap highlights from Palin’s appearance. Her keynote speech, it should be noted, had the crowd on its feet. “Run, Sarah, run,” the crowd chanted (as in “please run for president in 2012″).

But palm-gate wasn’t the only bit of news sparked by Palin. Her defense of Rush Limbaugh’s use of the word “retards” raised eyebrows, as well. On Fox News Sunday, the anti “r-word” crusader contended that Limbaugh had used the word in the context of political humor and satire. Earlier in the week, the difference between her angry reaction to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s use of the “slur” and a more restrained response to Limbaugh’s made from some awkward fallout. Web searches on “sarah palin on fox news” and “palin limbaugh” have both surged as the controversy swirled.

Sarah’s husband, Todd Palin, has also been back in the news. The self-proclaimed former “first dude” of Alaska was revealed to be quite active in state business. According to recently uncovered emails, Todd Palin was “involved in a judicial appointment, monitored contract negotiations with public employee unions, received background checks on a corporate CEO, added his approval or disapproval to state board appointments and passed financial information marked ‘confidential’ from his oil company employer to a state attorney.”

Source: Yahoo Buzz

Washington: Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said that she was open to a possible White House run in 2012 but has not made up her mind.

“I think that it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country,” Palin told Fox News Sunday. “I won’t close the door that perhaps could be open for me in the future.”

The Republican former Alaska governor, who was John McCain’s running mate in the 2008 election, said she thought Democratic President Barack Obama would be vulnerable in a re-election fight in 2-1/2 years if he continues to pursue his current agenda.

Palin rallied conservatives on Saturday night at the Nashville, Tennessee convention of the national “Tea Party” movement. The Tea Party group hopes to have an impact on the November congressional races in which Democrats, who hold a majority in both houses of Congress, are at risk of seeing an erosion of their dominance.

In her speech, Palin hammered Obama on the rising U.S. debt and on national security issues.

Palin was recently hired by Fox News as a commentator. She has assembled a group of advisers — some of whom are former aides to the McCain campaign — who email her briefings each morning on domestic and foreign policy issues.

Source: Reuters