So what did we learn tonight?
First, the PA-12 race was a must-win for the Republicans, it went for McCain in 2008, the GOP spent a ton of money to grab this seat…and they lost by a touchdown.
Second, all the fears that the Democrats would lag between the GOP in turnout and enthusiasm didn’t pan out. Democrats are energized and pissed off.
Third, the Republican tactics haven’t changed. Goon squads working for Rand Paul in Kentucky were caught repeatedly, buying and selling votes, bullying and intimidating voters, and illegally demanding to look at voting machines. The police had to make arrests and eject these thugs from the polling places; the FBI will probably become involved. And keep in mind, this is the Kentucky police – hardly the Socialist Internationale.
And for the fourth lesson, we must go back to the year 1170.
Eight hundred years ago, the most powerful man in Europe, the leader of the political order of the western world, had a problem. A young upstart was challenging the leader’s political power, by standing on the law. Finally, fed up, the leader, King Henry II, bellowed….
"What miserable cowards have I nourished and brought up in my household, that no one will rid me of this meddlesome priest!"
Four of his buddies took him literally, hopped on their horses, rode off to Canterbury, and killed the upstart, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Afterwards, Henry insisted “I didn’t really mean for those guys to actually, ya know, kill him!! Ya gotta believe me!” But no one believed him. Henry’s name was Mud, and Becket went on to become a beloved saint.
How narrowly has history repeated itself!
The defenders of the established power structure, the GOP apologists for BP and Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers and Enron and Haliburton and Blackwater, have essentially put a price on the head of the upstart, Obama, and his evil minions.
There have already been many efforts by Republican leaders to suggest that it is okay to use violence against Democrats, if Democrats insist on, ya know, actually running the government as they were elected to do. Followed, unsurprisingly, by violent attacks. They particularly pushed that argument after the Democrats passed health reform – the national GOP addressing the terrorist attack on the wife and kids of a Congressman’s brother by implying that it’s all Congressman Perriello’s fault for voting for health care, Fox News arguing that the Democrats should expect the violence and threats because they had the nerve to pass health reform, Boehner implying that the violence was the Democrats’ fault for daring to pass the health bill, and saying a Democratic colleague is a “dead man”. And so forth. And then bricks are thrown at windows, guys how up at Obama events with guns, etc etc.
And today, the day Americans began to exercise their constitutional rights to make their choices for the 2010 midterm races, the Republican fatwas have returned.
Newt Gingrich, one of the viable GOP candidates for the 2012 presidential nomination, has a new book coming out, called “To Save America: Abolishing Obama's Socialist State and Restoring Our Unique American Way”. In the book he repeatedly advances the notion that Obama is one step away from..Hitler. He argues that the evil Obama regime threatens America as much as Nazi Germany or the Russians. “The degree to which the secular-socialist left represents a fundamental replacement of America, a very different world view, a very different outcome, I think is a very serious threat to our way of life…If you can get $757 billion out of the Congress and no elected official has even read the bill, that's the behavior of a Chicago-style machine.”
In other words, Obama not only equals Hitler, he also equals Public Enemy Number One, Al Capone. People we put on Wanted posters decades ago. Dead or alive!
A teacher in Alabama has been teaching his kids geometry with an example that involves assassinating the President: "He was talking about angles and said, 'If you're in this building, you would need to take this angle to shoot the president,' " a student reported.
And a GOP House candidate in California wants to shoot, not just Obama, but all liberals: “If I could issue hunting permits, I would officially declare today opening day for liberals. The season would extend through November 2 and have no limits on how many taken as we desperately need to “thin” the herd.”
So let’s string together all these Republican talking points:
Obama = Hitler + Capone
Kill Obama!
Kill Liberals!
…Hardy har har….we were just kidding, folks! Hey, you four guys in the back with the tinfoil hats and the shotguns…where ya going? We didn’t really mean for you to kill anybody!
Dang. Wonder where they went.
Off to make Obama a martyred saint, if history is any judge.
Showing posts with label health reform and violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health reform and violence. Show all posts
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
another dangerously insane wingnut
Larry North of Texas, hate Big Bad Gummint, plants bombs in mailboxes and other sites, to kill the postal workers and other dastardly representatives from that Big Bad Gummint.
Thirty-six bombs.
Even the rock-ribbed conservatives of Texas call him a terrorist.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gWR6MJRyzqOvEyvar0bjtY4C5SbAD9EV4VQ00
Thirty-six bombs.
Even the rock-ribbed conservatives of Texas call him a terrorist.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gWR6MJRyzqOvEyvar0bjtY4C5SbAD9EV4VQ00
Monday, 12 April 2010
The GOP terrorist campaign is aimed at...you!
Roland Martin of CNN observed that the southern guys who are defending the Virginia Governor’s proclamation regarding Confederate History Month, have been emailing Martin. And they have been using the same arguments to defend the behaviour of the Confederate soldiers, that Muslims use to defend al-Qa’ida and the Taleban. “They invaded our homeland, so we had to defend it, and get revenge for the innocent people killed in the war!” Southerners and the Taleban suffer from many of the same afllictions: their religion and their fanaticism blind them to all contrary argument, and, in their minds, justify any and all atrocities. Martin’s article implied the question: how do we praise the sons of the Confederacy for supporting the same behaviour that we put Taleban members in jail for?
And then Martin went further. He said, of the Confederates, “They were, and forever will be, domestic terrorists.”
So can we take the last step on this logical path, and call today’s Republicans terrorists also? The party leaders have said repeatedly that violent attacks and death threats against Democratic lawmakers are perfectly okay and perfectly justified, because the Democrats had the nerve to pass a law that Republicans don’t like. And the attacks and threats have been incessant: numerous plots to kill policemen, endless death threats against Congressmen and their children, an organized series of vandalism attacks, guys showing up with guns at Obama events…
And now they are coming after me and you. People who have Obama bumper stickers, who express support for Obama and for Democrats, are being attacked and harassed. They are being screamed at and pushed around in town halls. One guy was run off the road in a case of road rage, while his young daughter was in the car.
And that, my friends, is their next goal: not only to make Democratic congressmen afraid to come out of their homes and do their jobs, but also to target you and me, if we praise Obama and Democrats in public. They want to see to it that folks all over your street have “NO OBAMACARE” signs on their lawn, but anybody who dares to leave up their Obama stickers gets a brick through their window.
If the Republican wingnuts can even attack you and me with impunity, then Kristallnacht really has come.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls….
http://us.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/11/martin.confederate.extremist/index.html?hpt=C1
And then Martin went further. He said, of the Confederates, “They were, and forever will be, domestic terrorists.”
So can we take the last step on this logical path, and call today’s Republicans terrorists also? The party leaders have said repeatedly that violent attacks and death threats against Democratic lawmakers are perfectly okay and perfectly justified, because the Democrats had the nerve to pass a law that Republicans don’t like. And the attacks and threats have been incessant: numerous plots to kill policemen, endless death threats against Congressmen and their children, an organized series of vandalism attacks, guys showing up with guns at Obama events…
And now they are coming after me and you. People who have Obama bumper stickers, who express support for Obama and for Democrats, are being attacked and harassed. They are being screamed at and pushed around in town halls. One guy was run off the road in a case of road rage, while his young daughter was in the car.
And that, my friends, is their next goal: not only to make Democratic congressmen afraid to come out of their homes and do their jobs, but also to target you and me, if we praise Obama and Democrats in public. They want to see to it that folks all over your street have “NO OBAMACARE” signs on their lawn, but anybody who dares to leave up their Obama stickers gets a brick through their window.
If the Republican wingnuts can even attack you and me with impunity, then Kristallnacht really has come.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls….
http://us.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/11/martin.confederate.extremist/index.html?hpt=C1
Kristallnacht has come
In Afghanistan the Taliban have a system called “night letters” – they drop a letter at your house, threatening violence unless you do what the Taliban says. So let’s read a few:
“You’re a dead man. We’re coming to your house. We already smashed your window. Now we’re coming back to kill your wife and your kids. We might even run you off the road, and your kids too. We’re in your town every day, with our guns, all reloaded. We’ll kill the local police too. We pray to God for you to die. Because you dared to defy us. And we’re telling all our friends that attacking you is okay. Because you dared to defy us. You can never hide. If I was a boss, I would fire you. If I was a doctor, I would refuse to treat you. The revolution has come.”
Oh wait, that’s the Republicans. Since the passage of health care, the conservatives have gone all Mullah Omar on us.
But think of that last bit. Rightwing whackjobs talking about firing Democrats, or refusing them medical treatment. What if they try to take that national? What if businesses across the country try to figure out your politics, and refuse to serve you if you admit you’re a Democrat? Or refuse to hire you? What would that make us, as a nation?
It would make us 1935 Germany.
“Jews? No groceries for you! Get out of my store! Juden raus!”
Or perhaps the South in the 1950s, when blacks couldn’t use the hotels, the bathrooms, the restaurants…
So what have we got? The violent terrorism of the Taliban and the Klan, and the incipient economic terrorism of the Nazis and Jim Crow. What else do we have? Wow, it’s straight out of Mein Kampf. Using mass communication to drown out facts with lies, semi-irregular groups of thugs to intimidate opponents, shadowy backers from big business, scary rhetoric about Communists, the bombastic militarism, the big rallies, the constant search for new enemies and new scapegoats, the daily incitement of fear and hate, the racism, the eternal appeal to everything that is small-minded and short-sighted and mean-spirited and just plain stupid and ignorant in the human soul….
Kristallnacht has come to America.
While we were worrying about important stuff like Tiger at the Masters, America stopped being America.
It doesn’t matter that the Democrats control the White House and Congress, if the Republicans are allowed to shut down government entirely. Mitch McConnell is promising to shut down the Senate unless Obama picks a fascist Supreme Court justice, other Senators are promising total shut-down in retaliation for the health care bill, and Newt Gingrich is promising to shut down the entire government if they get enough House seats in November. If democracy is meaningless, if elections are meaningless, if the Constitution is meaningless, there’s no America. By the end of the year, America as we know it could be dead.
There was no particular point in the 1930s when the German people suddenly realized that the Nazis had enslaved them.
Hitler won the chancellor’s office and the Germans cheered.
He burned down the Reichstag and suspended the parliament, and they yawned.
He persecuted the Jews, and they shrugged.
He took Czechoslovakia and Austria, and they applauded.
And then it was all too late.
“You’re a dead man. We’re coming to your house. We already smashed your window. Now we’re coming back to kill your wife and your kids. We might even run you off the road, and your kids too. We’re in your town every day, with our guns, all reloaded. We’ll kill the local police too. We pray to God for you to die. Because you dared to defy us. And we’re telling all our friends that attacking you is okay. Because you dared to defy us. You can never hide. If I was a boss, I would fire you. If I was a doctor, I would refuse to treat you. The revolution has come.”
Oh wait, that’s the Republicans. Since the passage of health care, the conservatives have gone all Mullah Omar on us.
But think of that last bit. Rightwing whackjobs talking about firing Democrats, or refusing them medical treatment. What if they try to take that national? What if businesses across the country try to figure out your politics, and refuse to serve you if you admit you’re a Democrat? Or refuse to hire you? What would that make us, as a nation?
It would make us 1935 Germany.
“Jews? No groceries for you! Get out of my store! Juden raus!”
Or perhaps the South in the 1950s, when blacks couldn’t use the hotels, the bathrooms, the restaurants…
So what have we got? The violent terrorism of the Taliban and the Klan, and the incipient economic terrorism of the Nazis and Jim Crow. What else do we have? Wow, it’s straight out of Mein Kampf. Using mass communication to drown out facts with lies, semi-irregular groups of thugs to intimidate opponents, shadowy backers from big business, scary rhetoric about Communists, the bombastic militarism, the big rallies, the constant search for new enemies and new scapegoats, the daily incitement of fear and hate, the racism, the eternal appeal to everything that is small-minded and short-sighted and mean-spirited and just plain stupid and ignorant in the human soul….
Kristallnacht has come to America.
While we were worrying about important stuff like Tiger at the Masters, America stopped being America.
It doesn’t matter that the Democrats control the White House and Congress, if the Republicans are allowed to shut down government entirely. Mitch McConnell is promising to shut down the Senate unless Obama picks a fascist Supreme Court justice, other Senators are promising total shut-down in retaliation for the health care bill, and Newt Gingrich is promising to shut down the entire government if they get enough House seats in November. If democracy is meaningless, if elections are meaningless, if the Constitution is meaningless, there’s no America. By the end of the year, America as we know it could be dead.
There was no particular point in the 1930s when the German people suddenly realized that the Nazis had enslaved them.
Hitler won the chancellor’s office and the Germans cheered.
He burned down the Reichstag and suspended the parliament, and they yawned.
He persecuted the Jews, and they shrugged.
He took Czechoslovakia and Austria, and they applauded.
And then it was all too late.
GOP issues fatwas to attack Democrats
The word we’re looking at today is "fatwa".
That's one of those funny Islamic things, in which an imam or ayatollah says "it is permissible and desireable, under Islamic law, for good Muslims to go attack Americans, Israelis, and Jews anywhere." And then the cuckoobirds go and do just that. The Ayatollah Khomeini put a fatwa on Salman Rushdie, and Usama bin Laden put one on all Americans.
Issuing a fatwa, if it goes beyond a certain point, is a crime. Let’s look back at Umar ‘Abdul-Rahman, the blind Islamic shaikh from New York. He often spoke out against America, and issued a fatwa saying it was allowable to attack Jews and rob banks, called for jihad, and called on Muslims to attack the West, to include transportation targets, economic targets, companies, ships, planes, people. He hung out with the 1993 WTC bombers. When he issued a fatwa calling for attacks on targets in New York and New Jersey, he was thrown in prison.
The Republican party has put out their fatwas, saying it’s okay, even patriotic, to attack Democrats.
Steele wants to put Pelosi on the “firing line”
The GOP website shows Pelosi perishing in flames.
The National Republican Congressional Committee addresses the terrorist attack on the wife and kids of Perriellos’ brother by saying, effectively, that it’s all Congressman Perriello’s fault for voting for health care. The attacks are okay!
Fox argues on their morning show that the Democrats should expect the violence and threats because they had the nerve to pass health reform.
Boehner implies that the violence was the Democrats’ fault for daring to pass the health bill, and says a Democratic colleague is a “dead man”.
McCain thinks it's okay to scream "RELOAD!"
Palin, their most likely presidential candidate, wants to put Democrats in the cross-hairs and talks of firing salvos and “reload!” Then she throws gasoline on the fire by urging people to “stop” cars with Obama stickers, right after one wingnut “stopped” such a car by ramming it in a fit of road rage, even though there was a little girl in the car.
Several Republican politicians joke about killing Democrats.
A GOP Congressman is calling Obama an enemy of humanity.
Beck calls for “revolution”.
Lou Dobbs blames the arrival of anti-Obama goon squads on…Obama.
These are just the latest examples – it’s been going on for months. The Republican imams are issuing fatwas against Democrats.
The fatwa against Obama has worked like gangbusters, spurring attacks, threats, and more fatwas:
Skyrocketing Obama threats.
Sending armed thugs to Obama events.
Steven Anderson, pastor, tells his flock to pray for Obama to die and go to hell – another fatwa; parishioner shows up at Obama event the next day, with a gun.
Another fatwa: John Gimbel calls for Michelle Obama and the daughters to be killed right in front of Obama.
The wingnuts have a new slogan: pray for Obama, Psalm 109, “let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”
The wingnuts have set up an online “overthrow Obama” game.
Another wingnut runs an internet poll on whether Obama should be murdered.
A rightwing website runs a piece calling on the military to overthrow Obama.
A gubernatorial candidate jokes about buying a license to hunt Obama.
To me, the really scary fatwa is the effort to terrorize members of Congress, so that they either change their policies, or can’t do their jobs at all – threatening not just a politician but democracy itself:
A guy arrested for another death threat against Pelosi.
Another guy arrested for death threat against Patty Murray for voting in favour of health reform.
Wingnut congressional candidate tells audience to make a Democratic congressman afraid to come out of his house. Get over there and scare the hell out of them!
They tried to blow up four children who are relatives of one Congressman.
Threats to assassinate the children of Congress members.
The teabaggers have promised to go “protest” at the home of a Democratic Congressman and his wife and children – his kids can’t walk down the street anymore.
Painting swastikas on the doors of black Congressmen.
Screaming slurs at Congressmen on Capitol Hill, to intimidate them.
Michelle Bachmann directs her storm-trooper mob to run amok in the halls of Congress, to “scare” Pelosi and Congress members into stopping the health reform bill.
The Colorado Democratic headquarters is trashed, thousands of dollars in damage.
Windows smashed at Democratic headquarters in Alaska.
An organized effort to smash windows with bricks.
Committing other acts of vandalism.
Wingnuts planning two armed riots in DC before and during the anniversary of the wingnut attack that killed more than one hundred people in Oklahoma.
Norman Leboon, threatens to kill both Republican and Democratic politicians.
The fatwa to stop all government activity:
The Hutaree, arrested for plotting to kill police and resist the U.S. government.
Joe Stack, flies plane into IRS building, hated the U.S. government.
Richard Poplawski, kills three police after saying he fears Obama would take his guns and fulfil Glenn Beck’s warning about putting people in concentration camps.
John Bedell, shoots two police, hated the U.S. government.
Joshua Cartwright, kills two police, hated Obama and the U.S. government.
Greg Girard, arrested for stockpiling guns and bombs, fears martial law, loves Palin.
The second wingnut shooting in Pennsylvania.
An anti-government group joins in, calling for the “removal” of 30 governors if they don’t leave office voluntarily; the FBI and police prepare for ensuing violence against officials. More fatwas!
A wingnut spokesman is telling folks to get more guns and take back America so as to prevent Nazism.
The fatwa covers blacks: Daniel Cowart pleads guilty for planning a killing spree aimed against blacks. James von Brunn, kills a black guard at the Holocaust museum; a neo-Nazi who loved Palin and birthers.
The fatwa covers abortion: Roeder assassinating the abortion doctor. Another loon arrested for threatening violence at an abortion clinic. A Fox contributor puts addresses of abortion doctors online.
And my favourite fatwa: eleven-year-old girl asks Obama a question at a town hall; wingnuts put their family details online so other wingnuts can hunt them down.
This is a gigantic wave of terrorist attacks openly encouraged by the leaders of a political party, with the specific aim of preventing Democrats from actually governing. A fatwa against America and against American democracy….by a major political party.
If we use the Blind Shaikh rule, the Republican leaders who egged these people on should all be in jail, right?
(Some of this information was unearthed by Talking Points Memo)
That's one of those funny Islamic things, in which an imam or ayatollah says "it is permissible and desireable, under Islamic law, for good Muslims to go attack Americans, Israelis, and Jews anywhere." And then the cuckoobirds go and do just that. The Ayatollah Khomeini put a fatwa on Salman Rushdie, and Usama bin Laden put one on all Americans.
Issuing a fatwa, if it goes beyond a certain point, is a crime. Let’s look back at Umar ‘Abdul-Rahman, the blind Islamic shaikh from New York. He often spoke out against America, and issued a fatwa saying it was allowable to attack Jews and rob banks, called for jihad, and called on Muslims to attack the West, to include transportation targets, economic targets, companies, ships, planes, people. He hung out with the 1993 WTC bombers. When he issued a fatwa calling for attacks on targets in New York and New Jersey, he was thrown in prison.
The Republican party has put out their fatwas, saying it’s okay, even patriotic, to attack Democrats.
Steele wants to put Pelosi on the “firing line”
The GOP website shows Pelosi perishing in flames.
The National Republican Congressional Committee addresses the terrorist attack on the wife and kids of Perriellos’ brother by saying, effectively, that it’s all Congressman Perriello’s fault for voting for health care. The attacks are okay!
Fox argues on their morning show that the Democrats should expect the violence and threats because they had the nerve to pass health reform.
Boehner implies that the violence was the Democrats’ fault for daring to pass the health bill, and says a Democratic colleague is a “dead man”.
McCain thinks it's okay to scream "RELOAD!"
Palin, their most likely presidential candidate, wants to put Democrats in the cross-hairs and talks of firing salvos and “reload!” Then she throws gasoline on the fire by urging people to “stop” cars with Obama stickers, right after one wingnut “stopped” such a car by ramming it in a fit of road rage, even though there was a little girl in the car.
Several Republican politicians joke about killing Democrats.
A GOP Congressman is calling Obama an enemy of humanity.
Beck calls for “revolution”.
Lou Dobbs blames the arrival of anti-Obama goon squads on…Obama.
These are just the latest examples – it’s been going on for months. The Republican imams are issuing fatwas against Democrats.
The fatwa against Obama has worked like gangbusters, spurring attacks, threats, and more fatwas:
Skyrocketing Obama threats.
Sending armed thugs to Obama events.
Steven Anderson, pastor, tells his flock to pray for Obama to die and go to hell – another fatwa; parishioner shows up at Obama event the next day, with a gun.
Another fatwa: John Gimbel calls for Michelle Obama and the daughters to be killed right in front of Obama.
The wingnuts have a new slogan: pray for Obama, Psalm 109, “let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”
The wingnuts have set up an online “overthrow Obama” game.
Another wingnut runs an internet poll on whether Obama should be murdered.
A rightwing website runs a piece calling on the military to overthrow Obama.
A gubernatorial candidate jokes about buying a license to hunt Obama.
To me, the really scary fatwa is the effort to terrorize members of Congress, so that they either change their policies, or can’t do their jobs at all – threatening not just a politician but democracy itself:
A guy arrested for another death threat against Pelosi.
Another guy arrested for death threat against Patty Murray for voting in favour of health reform.
Wingnut congressional candidate tells audience to make a Democratic congressman afraid to come out of his house. Get over there and scare the hell out of them!
They tried to blow up four children who are relatives of one Congressman.
Threats to assassinate the children of Congress members.
The teabaggers have promised to go “protest” at the home of a Democratic Congressman and his wife and children – his kids can’t walk down the street anymore.
Painting swastikas on the doors of black Congressmen.
Screaming slurs at Congressmen on Capitol Hill, to intimidate them.
Michelle Bachmann directs her storm-trooper mob to run amok in the halls of Congress, to “scare” Pelosi and Congress members into stopping the health reform bill.
The Colorado Democratic headquarters is trashed, thousands of dollars in damage.
Windows smashed at Democratic headquarters in Alaska.
An organized effort to smash windows with bricks.
Committing other acts of vandalism.
Wingnuts planning two armed riots in DC before and during the anniversary of the wingnut attack that killed more than one hundred people in Oklahoma.
Norman Leboon, threatens to kill both Republican and Democratic politicians.
The fatwa to stop all government activity:
The Hutaree, arrested for plotting to kill police and resist the U.S. government.
Joe Stack, flies plane into IRS building, hated the U.S. government.
Richard Poplawski, kills three police after saying he fears Obama would take his guns and fulfil Glenn Beck’s warning about putting people in concentration camps.
John Bedell, shoots two police, hated the U.S. government.
Joshua Cartwright, kills two police, hated Obama and the U.S. government.
Greg Girard, arrested for stockpiling guns and bombs, fears martial law, loves Palin.
The second wingnut shooting in Pennsylvania.
An anti-government group joins in, calling for the “removal” of 30 governors if they don’t leave office voluntarily; the FBI and police prepare for ensuing violence against officials. More fatwas!
A wingnut spokesman is telling folks to get more guns and take back America so as to prevent Nazism.
The fatwa covers blacks: Daniel Cowart pleads guilty for planning a killing spree aimed against blacks. James von Brunn, kills a black guard at the Holocaust museum; a neo-Nazi who loved Palin and birthers.
The fatwa covers abortion: Roeder assassinating the abortion doctor. Another loon arrested for threatening violence at an abortion clinic. A Fox contributor puts addresses of abortion doctors online.
And my favourite fatwa: eleven-year-old girl asks Obama a question at a town hall; wingnuts put their family details online so other wingnuts can hunt them down.
This is a gigantic wave of terrorist attacks openly encouraged by the leaders of a political party, with the specific aim of preventing Democrats from actually governing. A fatwa against America and against American democracy….by a major political party.
If we use the Blind Shaikh rule, the Republican leaders who egged these people on should all be in jail, right?
(Some of this information was unearthed by Talking Points Memo)
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Can we call the wingnuts terrorists yet?
Here's the news, just from today:
1. Rightwing congressional candidate Allen West tells the people of Florida to use terror tactics against the incumbent congressman, just for being a Democrat.
"Let me tell you what you've got to do! You've got to make the fellow scared to come out of his house! That's the only way that you're going to win!"
So not only are they admitting that terrorism is their weapon of choice, they're also admitting that it's all they have.
2. The police have arrested one guy for making death threats against Pelosi, and another guy for making death threats against Patty Murray, for the terrible crime of voting for health reform.
So the openly-admitted credo of conservatives is that it's okay to kill Democrats if they dare to do what they were elected to do, pass legislation. Democrats pursue democracy, the wingnuts respond by pursuing terrorism.
And just wait! A whole armed mob of them is heading toward Washington to confront Congress on the anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing.
ADDENDUM -- the guy who threatened Pelosi? Yep. Gets goverment help with his housing.
And Allen West? Tossed out of the army because he and his troops were caught beating and threatening a police officer.
Our hero.
1. Rightwing congressional candidate Allen West tells the people of Florida to use terror tactics against the incumbent congressman, just for being a Democrat.
"Let me tell you what you've got to do! You've got to make the fellow scared to come out of his house! That's the only way that you're going to win!"
So not only are they admitting that terrorism is their weapon of choice, they're also admitting that it's all they have.
2. The police have arrested one guy for making death threats against Pelosi, and another guy for making death threats against Patty Murray, for the terrible crime of voting for health reform.
So the openly-admitted credo of conservatives is that it's okay to kill Democrats if they dare to do what they were elected to do, pass legislation. Democrats pursue democracy, the wingnuts respond by pursuing terrorism.
And just wait! A whole armed mob of them is heading toward Washington to confront Congress on the anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing.
ADDENDUM -- the guy who threatened Pelosi? Yep. Gets goverment help with his housing.
And Allen West? Tossed out of the army because he and his troops were caught beating and threatening a police officer.
Our hero.
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
How to tell Republicans from Democrats
...and here's an old piece published just before health reform was passed.
On the last day, the left and the right…
The last full day of conflict and strategy on the health reform bill.
Here’s the left, negotiating with the various factions on serious issues such as abortion, Roe, the Hyde Amendment, budget concerns, CBO projections, reconciliation, parliamentary process. You know, doing their jobs, serving the people who sent them to Washington.
Here’s the right, showing their giggling-down-the-hall-chased-by-asylum-nurses insanity and wild-eyed desperation. They’re out on the Hill calling Frank a faggot and civil rights campaigner John Lewis a nigger, shrieking that the health reform “proves” that Obama’s too stupid to be president, and circulating a fake memo trying to scare stupid people on the Medicare issue, trying to stop the government from working entirely by stalking the halls of Congress and demanding that the Democrats surmount one needless hurdle after another (“We demand that all representatives bring their birth certificate to the vote!”), screeching that the legislative tools which are okay when used by Republicans are treason when used by Democrats, making ugly noises about their Brownings and their other guns, threatening doomed lawsuits and doomed violent uprisings, and screaming lies about gay HIV patients, tax hikes, rationing, death panels, killing grandma, freebies for gays and blacks and illegals, and abortions.
One of these lunatics hopes to be “Speaker Boehner” so he can have that tanning bed right there in his office, for himself and for any subteen girl with body image problems who happens to stop by.
One of them hopes to be “Majority Leader McConnell” so he can stop the government from functioning entirely.
And one of these deranged doppelgangers will be Obama’s 2012 opponent. Let’s keep that in mind. The first time since William Jennings Bryan and Horace Greeley that we face the prospect of having a major national party nominate someone who is clinically insane (although we also had a close call with Curtis LeMay and Pat Robertson).
On the last day, the left and the right…
The last full day of conflict and strategy on the health reform bill.
Here’s the left, negotiating with the various factions on serious issues such as abortion, Roe, the Hyde Amendment, budget concerns, CBO projections, reconciliation, parliamentary process. You know, doing their jobs, serving the people who sent them to Washington.
Here’s the right, showing their giggling-down-the-hall-chased-by-asylum-nurses insanity and wild-eyed desperation. They’re out on the Hill calling Frank a faggot and civil rights campaigner John Lewis a nigger, shrieking that the health reform “proves” that Obama’s too stupid to be president, and circulating a fake memo trying to scare stupid people on the Medicare issue, trying to stop the government from working entirely by stalking the halls of Congress and demanding that the Democrats surmount one needless hurdle after another (“We demand that all representatives bring their birth certificate to the vote!”), screeching that the legislative tools which are okay when used by Republicans are treason when used by Democrats, making ugly noises about their Brownings and their other guns, threatening doomed lawsuits and doomed violent uprisings, and screaming lies about gay HIV patients, tax hikes, rationing, death panels, killing grandma, freebies for gays and blacks and illegals, and abortions.
One of these lunatics hopes to be “Speaker Boehner” so he can have that tanning bed right there in his office, for himself and for any subteen girl with body image problems who happens to stop by.
One of them hopes to be “Majority Leader McConnell” so he can stop the government from functioning entirely.
And one of these deranged doppelgangers will be Obama’s 2012 opponent. Let’s keep that in mind. The first time since William Jennings Bryan and Horace Greeley that we face the prospect of having a major national party nominate someone who is clinically insane (although we also had a close call with Curtis LeMay and Pat Robertson).
The Republicans as terrorists
This was originally posted elsewhere a couple of weeks ago.
It is the day after health reform became law…and how have the Republicans behaved?
All I can say is…Wow.
How long do we put up with this, before we declare the conservative movement a domestic terrorist group, with the Republican party acting as their Sinn-Fein-like front men? They tried to blow up four children who are relatives of one Congressman, smashed windows, made endless gun threats, and threatened to assassinate the children of Congress members. The teabaggers have promised to go “protest” at the home of a Democratic Congressman and his wife and children – his kids can’t walk down the street anymore. While their front-line troops were trying to intimidate members of Congress by spitting on them and calling them “nigger” and “faggot”, their most likely presidential candidate posted a “hit list” using gun-target imagery to intimidate health reform supporters. Boehner calls a Democratic colleague “a dead man”. Steele wants to “get Nancy read for the firing line”, and the official GOP website shows Pelosi on fire. Beck, like Michelle Bachmann before him, calls for guns and “revolution”. Security is being beefed up for members of Congress, in light of this wave of terrorist threats.
Their intimidation tactics run right into the halls of Congress itself. In addition to screaming “baby killer” on the floor of the House, they are trying to frighten the Democrats by…
…threatening to lie about the Nelson language (trying to prevent it from being removed from the bill, and then claiming it was the Democrats who wanted it),
…threatening to embarrass the Democrats with poison-pill amendments (imagine the ad: “Those damn Democrats WANT to give Viagra to child molesters!!”),
…threatening to block all legislation and nominations in the Senate,
…threatening to slow down reform by challenging every punctuation mark in the health bill,
…threatening to smear the Senate parliamentarian as a tool of the Democrats (he was appointed by Trent Lott because his predecessor didn’t show a sufficiently pro-Republican bias),
…and now threatening to slow down all processes in the Senate, even committee hearings.
As a result of this, a bunch of generals and admirals who travelled halfway around the world to testify before the Senate were bounced out; another hearing on security in Afghanistan was blown away too, and another on helping homeless veterans – so much for protecting our troops.
Lies: in addition to the endless stream of lies they’ve spewed about health reform – the government takeover plan that will decide when you get to live and die, and take care away from white folks and give it to blacks and gays and illegals etc etc – they are now screeching that Obama bought the vote of a Congressman by giving his brother a judgeship. The problem? The Congressman was a “no” vote. And they are still caterwauling that the Democrats will pay for ramming through this “unpopular” bill – while polls show that America likes the bill, and polls also show that many who don’t like it wish it was even more liberal, and Democratic fundraising is skyrocketing, and a new NDN poll shows that when voters who lean either Democratic or Republican are added up, the Democrats are ahead by a whopping 13 points, 47-34.
Once they wash out in the Senate, their options become more desperate – but desperate measures are all they have left. In addition to attempting constitutional challenges and state-level nullification, all of which will be shot down in flames in court, and promising a Congressional repeal which is wildly improbable, they are gearing up for…
The Hypocrisy Olympics!
Chuck Grassley, who did as much as anyone to slow-roll the health reform bill practically to extinction, is now bragging about the bill, as though it was all his idea; this is quite similar to the Republicans who bragged about getting stimulus money for their states after fighting to kill the stimulus package. Mitt Romney is claiming that the health plan he enacted in Massachusetts is very very good while the Obama plan is very very bad, neatly ignoring the rather astounding similarities between the two (they are also similar to the health plan proposed by the Gingrich gang as a counter-proposal to Hillarycare, and the plan advocated by that known socialist, Richard Nixon). The Republicans are also trying to figure out how to campaign on a platform of repealing the health bill, while also campaigning in favor of the provisions that people like. John Cornyn has flipflopped on the health bill so much, so fast, that even ultra-conservative RedState is ridiculing him, and one of the rightwing Attorneys General threatening to sue because of scary provisions like the insurance mandate…previously supported insurance mandates. Senate Republicans have changed their sheet music from “repeal” to “repeal and replace” – they figured out pretty quickly that the American people actually want health reform.
Terror attacks, threatening children, attempted intimidation, bringing all of Congress to a screeching halt in a fit of pique, spewing endless lies, threatening doomed legal challenges, trying to take credit for reform right after trying to kill it….These are the people who demand the right to lead this country, because it’s the Democrats who are unfit to lead…? And this nonsense includes their two most likely standard-bearers for 2012, Romney and Palin.
The only thing standing between these maniacs and the levers of power, which they flagrantly abused during the Bush era as they destroyed our army, our economy, our reputation, our Constitution…The only thing preventing the Nazis from returning to power is the Democratic party.
In a few weeks the teabag wingnuts have promised a “Second Amendment march” on Washington. On the anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing.
It is the day after health reform became law…and how have the Republicans behaved?
All I can say is…Wow.
How long do we put up with this, before we declare the conservative movement a domestic terrorist group, with the Republican party acting as their Sinn-Fein-like front men? They tried to blow up four children who are relatives of one Congressman, smashed windows, made endless gun threats, and threatened to assassinate the children of Congress members. The teabaggers have promised to go “protest” at the home of a Democratic Congressman and his wife and children – his kids can’t walk down the street anymore. While their front-line troops were trying to intimidate members of Congress by spitting on them and calling them “nigger” and “faggot”, their most likely presidential candidate posted a “hit list” using gun-target imagery to intimidate health reform supporters. Boehner calls a Democratic colleague “a dead man”. Steele wants to “get Nancy read for the firing line”, and the official GOP website shows Pelosi on fire. Beck, like Michelle Bachmann before him, calls for guns and “revolution”. Security is being beefed up for members of Congress, in light of this wave of terrorist threats.
Their intimidation tactics run right into the halls of Congress itself. In addition to screaming “baby killer” on the floor of the House, they are trying to frighten the Democrats by…
…threatening to lie about the Nelson language (trying to prevent it from being removed from the bill, and then claiming it was the Democrats who wanted it),
…threatening to embarrass the Democrats with poison-pill amendments (imagine the ad: “Those damn Democrats WANT to give Viagra to child molesters!!”),
…threatening to block all legislation and nominations in the Senate,
…threatening to slow down reform by challenging every punctuation mark in the health bill,
…threatening to smear the Senate parliamentarian as a tool of the Democrats (he was appointed by Trent Lott because his predecessor didn’t show a sufficiently pro-Republican bias),
…and now threatening to slow down all processes in the Senate, even committee hearings.
As a result of this, a bunch of generals and admirals who travelled halfway around the world to testify before the Senate were bounced out; another hearing on security in Afghanistan was blown away too, and another on helping homeless veterans – so much for protecting our troops.
Lies: in addition to the endless stream of lies they’ve spewed about health reform – the government takeover plan that will decide when you get to live and die, and take care away from white folks and give it to blacks and gays and illegals etc etc – they are now screeching that Obama bought the vote of a Congressman by giving his brother a judgeship. The problem? The Congressman was a “no” vote. And they are still caterwauling that the Democrats will pay for ramming through this “unpopular” bill – while polls show that America likes the bill, and polls also show that many who don’t like it wish it was even more liberal, and Democratic fundraising is skyrocketing, and a new NDN poll shows that when voters who lean either Democratic or Republican are added up, the Democrats are ahead by a whopping 13 points, 47-34.
Once they wash out in the Senate, their options become more desperate – but desperate measures are all they have left. In addition to attempting constitutional challenges and state-level nullification, all of which will be shot down in flames in court, and promising a Congressional repeal which is wildly improbable, they are gearing up for…
The Hypocrisy Olympics!
Chuck Grassley, who did as much as anyone to slow-roll the health reform bill practically to extinction, is now bragging about the bill, as though it was all his idea; this is quite similar to the Republicans who bragged about getting stimulus money for their states after fighting to kill the stimulus package. Mitt Romney is claiming that the health plan he enacted in Massachusetts is very very good while the Obama plan is very very bad, neatly ignoring the rather astounding similarities between the two (they are also similar to the health plan proposed by the Gingrich gang as a counter-proposal to Hillarycare, and the plan advocated by that known socialist, Richard Nixon). The Republicans are also trying to figure out how to campaign on a platform of repealing the health bill, while also campaigning in favor of the provisions that people like. John Cornyn has flipflopped on the health bill so much, so fast, that even ultra-conservative RedState is ridiculing him, and one of the rightwing Attorneys General threatening to sue because of scary provisions like the insurance mandate…previously supported insurance mandates. Senate Republicans have changed their sheet music from “repeal” to “repeal and replace” – they figured out pretty quickly that the American people actually want health reform.
Terror attacks, threatening children, attempted intimidation, bringing all of Congress to a screeching halt in a fit of pique, spewing endless lies, threatening doomed legal challenges, trying to take credit for reform right after trying to kill it….These are the people who demand the right to lead this country, because it’s the Democrats who are unfit to lead…? And this nonsense includes their two most likely standard-bearers for 2012, Romney and Palin.
The only thing standing between these maniacs and the levers of power, which they flagrantly abused during the Bush era as they destroyed our army, our economy, our reputation, our Constitution…The only thing preventing the Nazis from returning to power is the Democratic party.
In a few weeks the teabag wingnuts have promised a “Second Amendment march” on Washington. On the anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing.
The Democrats passed a law -- kill them!
The Republican party is sinking to a new low that even I wouldn’t have expected. Their new argument is that the latest wave of Republican-inspired violence and threats is…all the Democrats’ fault.
This, of course, is not the first time the Republicans have tried to blame Democrats for the consequences of Republican disasters that the Democrats actually opposed – the entire GOP economic policy for the last 30 years has been to blame Democrats for the cataract of deficit spending that was launched by Reagan and the Bushes.
But this is really a new low.
The argument that the Republicans are making, is that the Democrats deserve to be attacked with physical violence, because the Democrats had the nerve to do what we elected them to do: legislate. Pass health reform. As far as the Republicans are concerned, the U.S. government belongs by rights to them, because the Democrats are a bunch of traitors who can’t be trusted, so if the Democrats manage to grab to the reins of power, it must have been illegitimate (“where’s his birth certificate??”), and if the Democrats actually try to use the reins of power and pass their evil socialist legislation, then any violent opposition is justified. And even when Democrats use the same legislative tools that Republicans use – “They’re using sleazy tactics to ram this through!! Kill ‘em all!!”
This isn’t just the teabaggers in the street, either: it’s the party leadership. Boehner offered a feeble condemnation of the violence, but even then he implied that it was the Democrats’ fault for daring to pass the health bill. And the other party leaders made it plain that they think it’s perfectly justified to physically threaten Democrats if they dare to exercise their constitutional responsibilities. Boehner himself said a Democratic colleague is a “dead man”. McCain says the “reload your guns” rhetoric is just fine, happens all the time. Steele wants to put Pelosi on the “firing line”; Palin wants to put Democrats in the cross-hairs and talks of firing salvos and “reload!”; Beck calls for “revolution”; the GOP website shows Pelosi perishing in flames. The National Republican Congressional Committee addressed the terrorist attack on the wife and kids of Perriellos’ brother by saying, effectively, that it’s all Perriello’s fault for voting for health care. Fox, essentially an organ of the Republican party, made the same argument: they asserted on their morning show that the Democrats should expect the violence and threats because they had the nerve to pass health reform.
The Democrats gave the Republicans a chance to walk this back a bit, but the GOP refused. Hoyer offered the Republicans a chance to make a joint public statement condemning the violence, but the Republicans blew him off; they don’t want to stop the violence, they want to exploit it and expand it.
Eric Cantor now claims that someone shot out his window because the Democrats, by complaining about the violence and threats, are really the ones who are at fault for fanning the flames of violence. As it turned out, the “attack” itself was exaggerated: a bullet had been fired up into the air from a long way away, and eventually came down near the building in which the office was located, meaning nobody was aiming at the office. And in any case, after the conservatives spent several months fanning the flames of anger, teabagger-style, it is absurd to blame it all on the Democrats now.
Sorry, buddy, but when we put up our hands and say “hey, teabaggers, would you kindly stop throwing bricks and making death threats?” that is not fanning the flames. That’s like blaming the Pearl Harbor attack on the people of Hawaii – “please, pretty please, would you Japanese stop dropping bombs on our islands?” Or the Poles in 1939, who obviously were the guilty provocateurs for complaining “Please, Herr Hitler, could you get your tanks out of our front yard?”
Equating a complaint about aggression, with aggression itself, is asinine. Seriously, now: throwing bricks at us, trying to blow up our children, and then blaming us when we complain about it? Go pound sand, Sparky. You’ve got more brass than John Phillip Sousa.
And if the Republicans can’t shut down Congress with violence, they will do it through obstruction – frivolous lawsuits (which they usually condemn), state-level nullification, blocking votes, blocking committee meetings, even blocking bilateral policy talks (all while condemning the Democrats for insufficient efforts at bipartisanship). Lindsey Graham has now joined McCain in refusing even to talk policy with Senate Democrats because they had the nerve to pass health reform. “If we can’t run the ship, nobody can! Screw the voters – what the hell do they know! Only we know best!”
Speaking of obstruction, the Republicans are now planning to block unemployment benefits AGAIN – “If you can’t find a job in a recession, too bad, screw you, it’s more important to throw sand in the engine in the Senate. We don’t care about your kids – let them eat cake!”
The Republicans have gone beyond anything like normal political opposition. They are pushing the meme that everything the Democrats are trying to do is not only bad policy, but illegitimate: Obama’s election to the presidency, Democratic control of Congress and their exercise of that control, the right of the majority to legislate, the functioning of our government, the functioning of democracy itself, even the right to protest when people are throwing bricks at you and threatening your family. It all must be destroyed, rather than let the Democrats do their jobs. “We lost the election, so let’s destroy democracy itself!”
This is nothing less than an attempt by one political faction to use violence to hijack the government. And there’s a name for that kind of behavior.
Treason.
PS – the guy who helped inspire this recent wave of violence, militia-man Mike Vanderboegh, hates Obama, hates Democrats, hates big government? He lives off of your tax dollars. Social Security Disability benefits. Set your Irony Meter on “STUN”. This guy is now promising “a thousand little Waco’s”.
Another PS: one Republican, Bush speechwriter David Frum, recently pointed out the obvious, that the Republicans have suffered a serious defeat on health care. Within days, he was fired from his job at a conservative think tank, where he had worked for years – just for speaking the inconvenient truth. Then, after going public, Frum denied he’d been fired – they just weren’t going to pay him any money. Yo, buddy, when your boss says he’s not going to give you money to do your job anymore….
And another – Frumin!
How many times in one week are we going to look at the behavior of the Republicans and just say…”Wow”…?
The latest insanity involves the Senate parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, a mild-mannered lawyer who referees disputes on Senate rules.
Frumin was appointed to the parliamentarian’s job by arch-Republican Trent Lott. Lott fired the previous parliamentarian because that guy, irritatingly, interpreted the rules impartially, which inconvenienced the Republicans as they – what’s the word again? – rammed their bills through the Senate. Lott wanted a guy with a pro-Republican bias, and screw the rules! So this guy Frumin was appointed in the hope that he would do the GOP’s dirty work for them, by giving the Republicans all the close calls in procedural disputes.
So fast-forward to the health care debate. The Democrats were hoping that Frumin would simply rubber-stamp the health care bill and let it sail through the Senate without any changes – that way, the bill wouldn’t need to go back to the House for another vote.
Instead, Frumin did what the Republicans hoped he would: he stopped the bill, pointed out language in the bill that violated Senate rules in his opinion, and advised the Democrats that they would have to send the bill back to Pelosi to risk another House vote after all. Just as Lott would have hoped.
So you would assume the Republicans like this guy, right?
Wrong.
Because Frumin didn’t slow down the health bill enough, the hard-core conservatives are screaming for his blood. Word leaked out that the teabagger nuts are planning to go to his house to “protest” and to do God only knows what else – perhaps try to blow up the house like they tried to do with that Congressman’s brother. Senate officials and the police are now leaping into action to protect this innocent Republican-appointed bureaucrat from domestic terrorists. Because he isn’t goggle-eyed-crazy enough to suit the wingnuts, his life is in danger.
This is akin to Peyton Manning rounding up the Colts to kill the referee, just because they lost the Super Bowl. Because the referee was giving them all the close calls, but wasn’t willing to throw the game for them.
Oh, and by the way, Vice President Biden, in his capacity as presiding officer of the Senate, could have simply overruled Frumin’s objections to the health bill and passed it as is, eliminating the need to go back to the House. The Vice President does have that power. But Biden, like Frumin, played by the rules: unlike the Republicans, Biden respects the institutions. Can you imagine, if the positions were reversed? If Dick Cheney was in the presiding chair, do you think he would have hesitated for a nanosecond to overrule the parliamentarian and “ram” a Republican bill through the Senate?
This, of course, is not the first time the Republicans have tried to blame Democrats for the consequences of Republican disasters that the Democrats actually opposed – the entire GOP economic policy for the last 30 years has been to blame Democrats for the cataract of deficit spending that was launched by Reagan and the Bushes.
But this is really a new low.
The argument that the Republicans are making, is that the Democrats deserve to be attacked with physical violence, because the Democrats had the nerve to do what we elected them to do: legislate. Pass health reform. As far as the Republicans are concerned, the U.S. government belongs by rights to them, because the Democrats are a bunch of traitors who can’t be trusted, so if the Democrats manage to grab to the reins of power, it must have been illegitimate (“where’s his birth certificate??”), and if the Democrats actually try to use the reins of power and pass their evil socialist legislation, then any violent opposition is justified. And even when Democrats use the same legislative tools that Republicans use – “They’re using sleazy tactics to ram this through!! Kill ‘em all!!”
This isn’t just the teabaggers in the street, either: it’s the party leadership. Boehner offered a feeble condemnation of the violence, but even then he implied that it was the Democrats’ fault for daring to pass the health bill. And the other party leaders made it plain that they think it’s perfectly justified to physically threaten Democrats if they dare to exercise their constitutional responsibilities. Boehner himself said a Democratic colleague is a “dead man”. McCain says the “reload your guns” rhetoric is just fine, happens all the time. Steele wants to put Pelosi on the “firing line”; Palin wants to put Democrats in the cross-hairs and talks of firing salvos and “reload!”; Beck calls for “revolution”; the GOP website shows Pelosi perishing in flames. The National Republican Congressional Committee addressed the terrorist attack on the wife and kids of Perriellos’ brother by saying, effectively, that it’s all Perriello’s fault for voting for health care. Fox, essentially an organ of the Republican party, made the same argument: they asserted on their morning show that the Democrats should expect the violence and threats because they had the nerve to pass health reform.
The Democrats gave the Republicans a chance to walk this back a bit, but the GOP refused. Hoyer offered the Republicans a chance to make a joint public statement condemning the violence, but the Republicans blew him off; they don’t want to stop the violence, they want to exploit it and expand it.
Eric Cantor now claims that someone shot out his window because the Democrats, by complaining about the violence and threats, are really the ones who are at fault for fanning the flames of violence. As it turned out, the “attack” itself was exaggerated: a bullet had been fired up into the air from a long way away, and eventually came down near the building in which the office was located, meaning nobody was aiming at the office. And in any case, after the conservatives spent several months fanning the flames of anger, teabagger-style, it is absurd to blame it all on the Democrats now.
Sorry, buddy, but when we put up our hands and say “hey, teabaggers, would you kindly stop throwing bricks and making death threats?” that is not fanning the flames. That’s like blaming the Pearl Harbor attack on the people of Hawaii – “please, pretty please, would you Japanese stop dropping bombs on our islands?” Or the Poles in 1939, who obviously were the guilty provocateurs for complaining “Please, Herr Hitler, could you get your tanks out of our front yard?”
Equating a complaint about aggression, with aggression itself, is asinine. Seriously, now: throwing bricks at us, trying to blow up our children, and then blaming us when we complain about it? Go pound sand, Sparky. You’ve got more brass than John Phillip Sousa.
And if the Republicans can’t shut down Congress with violence, they will do it through obstruction – frivolous lawsuits (which they usually condemn), state-level nullification, blocking votes, blocking committee meetings, even blocking bilateral policy talks (all while condemning the Democrats for insufficient efforts at bipartisanship). Lindsey Graham has now joined McCain in refusing even to talk policy with Senate Democrats because they had the nerve to pass health reform. “If we can’t run the ship, nobody can! Screw the voters – what the hell do they know! Only we know best!”
Speaking of obstruction, the Republicans are now planning to block unemployment benefits AGAIN – “If you can’t find a job in a recession, too bad, screw you, it’s more important to throw sand in the engine in the Senate. We don’t care about your kids – let them eat cake!”
The Republicans have gone beyond anything like normal political opposition. They are pushing the meme that everything the Democrats are trying to do is not only bad policy, but illegitimate: Obama’s election to the presidency, Democratic control of Congress and their exercise of that control, the right of the majority to legislate, the functioning of our government, the functioning of democracy itself, even the right to protest when people are throwing bricks at you and threatening your family. It all must be destroyed, rather than let the Democrats do their jobs. “We lost the election, so let’s destroy democracy itself!”
This is nothing less than an attempt by one political faction to use violence to hijack the government. And there’s a name for that kind of behavior.
Treason.
PS – the guy who helped inspire this recent wave of violence, militia-man Mike Vanderboegh, hates Obama, hates Democrats, hates big government? He lives off of your tax dollars. Social Security Disability benefits. Set your Irony Meter on “STUN”. This guy is now promising “a thousand little Waco’s”.
Another PS: one Republican, Bush speechwriter David Frum, recently pointed out the obvious, that the Republicans have suffered a serious defeat on health care. Within days, he was fired from his job at a conservative think tank, where he had worked for years – just for speaking the inconvenient truth. Then, after going public, Frum denied he’d been fired – they just weren’t going to pay him any money. Yo, buddy, when your boss says he’s not going to give you money to do your job anymore….
And another – Frumin!
How many times in one week are we going to look at the behavior of the Republicans and just say…”Wow”…?
The latest insanity involves the Senate parliamentarian, Alan Frumin, a mild-mannered lawyer who referees disputes on Senate rules.
Frumin was appointed to the parliamentarian’s job by arch-Republican Trent Lott. Lott fired the previous parliamentarian because that guy, irritatingly, interpreted the rules impartially, which inconvenienced the Republicans as they – what’s the word again? – rammed their bills through the Senate. Lott wanted a guy with a pro-Republican bias, and screw the rules! So this guy Frumin was appointed in the hope that he would do the GOP’s dirty work for them, by giving the Republicans all the close calls in procedural disputes.
So fast-forward to the health care debate. The Democrats were hoping that Frumin would simply rubber-stamp the health care bill and let it sail through the Senate without any changes – that way, the bill wouldn’t need to go back to the House for another vote.
Instead, Frumin did what the Republicans hoped he would: he stopped the bill, pointed out language in the bill that violated Senate rules in his opinion, and advised the Democrats that they would have to send the bill back to Pelosi to risk another House vote after all. Just as Lott would have hoped.
So you would assume the Republicans like this guy, right?
Wrong.
Because Frumin didn’t slow down the health bill enough, the hard-core conservatives are screaming for his blood. Word leaked out that the teabagger nuts are planning to go to his house to “protest” and to do God only knows what else – perhaps try to blow up the house like they tried to do with that Congressman’s brother. Senate officials and the police are now leaping into action to protect this innocent Republican-appointed bureaucrat from domestic terrorists. Because he isn’t goggle-eyed-crazy enough to suit the wingnuts, his life is in danger.
This is akin to Peyton Manning rounding up the Colts to kill the referee, just because they lost the Super Bowl. Because the referee was giving them all the close calls, but wasn’t willing to throw the game for them.
Oh, and by the way, Vice President Biden, in his capacity as presiding officer of the Senate, could have simply overruled Frumin’s objections to the health bill and passed it as is, eliminating the need to go back to the House. The Vice President does have that power. But Biden, like Frumin, played by the rules: unlike the Republicans, Biden respects the institutions. Can you imagine, if the positions were reversed? If Dick Cheney was in the presiding chair, do you think he would have hesitated for a nanosecond to overrule the parliamentarian and “ram” a Republican bill through the Senate?
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Wingnut merchandising campaign: pray for Obama's death
The wingnuts have a new slogan: Pray for Obama, Psalm 109.
“Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”
It’s on bumper stickers, T-shirts, everything, even toys.
Gotta get all that cool stuff in the stores for Christmas!
Even a former evangelical leader was appalled: “Really, this is trawling for assassins….It only takes one…This bumper sticker simply says to them “It’s open season”….This is the American version of the Taliban….And what surprises me is that responsible, if you can put it that way, Republican leadership and the editors of some of these Christian magazines, etc. etc., do not stand up in holy horror and denounce this.”
They are publicly expressing their hope that God, or some armed wingnut, will cut Obama down.
And teaching their kids to pray for the same thing.
They are praying for the death of the man who brought ethics back into government. He ordered all federal agencies to find spending cuts and promote transparency, he reduced the secrecy in executive records, he restored full adherence to the Freedom of Information Act, he increased press conferences and town halls, he blocked lobbyists from accessing the White House or hiring its staffers, and he limited White House salaries.
They are praying for the death of the man who saved our economy in the nick of time. He saved or created a million direct or indirect jobs with the stimulus program, he saved the auto industry, the financial industry and the housing market, he got banks to pay back big buckets of bailout money, he got the markets up 50 percent in a matter of months, he turned the corner on monthly unemployment rates, he stopped the slide in GDP, and he trimmed the budget deficit by 200 billion a year.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who helped the man on the street to survive the recession. He gave food and support and health coverage to the unemployed, he helped people to save their mortgages, he expanded student loans and loan refinancing, he expanded loans to small businesses, he established the homeowners credit, and regardless of all the lies spewed by his enemies, he cut our taxes. Along the way he fixed up neglected roads, bridges and power plants, and funded school construction and internet access.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who helped round up the crooks who got us into all this economic trouble. He ended tax breaks for firms that outsource our jobs; he prevented tax cheats from hiding their money overseas and finally persuaded Swiss bankers to expose crooked depositors; he reformed the credit card industry, he ended protection of predatory credit card firms, and he signed the anti-fraud bill.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who made America Number One again. He won a Nobel Prize for getting the world back on track, on arms proliferation, the Middle East peace process, relations with the Muslim world, climate change, war crimes, torture, and diplomacy. He reengaged with world leaders and the international community, he improved America’s image internationally, he repaired bilateral relations with dozens of countries, he persuaded Pakistan to go after the Taliban, he improved our Cuba policy, and he freed prisoners in North Korea and Myanmar.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who showed his balls by putting more troops in Afghanistan and improving Afghanistan policy; he killed the Somali pirates, freed the American captain, and put the Navy in Somali waters.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who, unlike his predecessor, actually supported the troops. He pulled troops out of Iraq and stopped the stop-loss system, he got body armor for our troops, he increased pay, benefits, medical care and housing for troops and veterans, he hired more military spouses; he improved conditions at military hospitals, he stopped the media blackout on war casualties and on the arrival of the coffins at Dover AFB, and he paid to bring families of soldiers to Dover when the coffins arrived.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who made our troops proud to wear the uniform again: he stopped the torture, and he directed the closure of Guantanamo and the secret prisons in Europe.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who cleaned up his predecessor’s blank-check defense spending: he overhauled military procurement, he blocked no-bid defense contracts, and he phased out unnecessary military programs like the F22 and missile defense.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who, even with all the partisan obstruction, still made progress on health care. He expanded health care for 4 million children, expanded vaccination programs, cut drug costs for seniors, saved hundreds of millions by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, led the fight against the swine flu, and stopped pharmacists from cutting women off from birth control.
Surely, the Republican leadership will denounce such puritanical thuggery, right?
“Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.”
It’s on bumper stickers, T-shirts, everything, even toys.
Gotta get all that cool stuff in the stores for Christmas!
Even a former evangelical leader was appalled: “Really, this is trawling for assassins….It only takes one…This bumper sticker simply says to them “It’s open season”….This is the American version of the Taliban….And what surprises me is that responsible, if you can put it that way, Republican leadership and the editors of some of these Christian magazines, etc. etc., do not stand up in holy horror and denounce this.”
They are publicly expressing their hope that God, or some armed wingnut, will cut Obama down.
And teaching their kids to pray for the same thing.
They are praying for the death of the man who brought ethics back into government. He ordered all federal agencies to find spending cuts and promote transparency, he reduced the secrecy in executive records, he restored full adherence to the Freedom of Information Act, he increased press conferences and town halls, he blocked lobbyists from accessing the White House or hiring its staffers, and he limited White House salaries.
They are praying for the death of the man who saved our economy in the nick of time. He saved or created a million direct or indirect jobs with the stimulus program, he saved the auto industry, the financial industry and the housing market, he got banks to pay back big buckets of bailout money, he got the markets up 50 percent in a matter of months, he turned the corner on monthly unemployment rates, he stopped the slide in GDP, and he trimmed the budget deficit by 200 billion a year.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who helped the man on the street to survive the recession. He gave food and support and health coverage to the unemployed, he helped people to save their mortgages, he expanded student loans and loan refinancing, he expanded loans to small businesses, he established the homeowners credit, and regardless of all the lies spewed by his enemies, he cut our taxes. Along the way he fixed up neglected roads, bridges and power plants, and funded school construction and internet access.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who helped round up the crooks who got us into all this economic trouble. He ended tax breaks for firms that outsource our jobs; he prevented tax cheats from hiding their money overseas and finally persuaded Swiss bankers to expose crooked depositors; he reformed the credit card industry, he ended protection of predatory credit card firms, and he signed the anti-fraud bill.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who made America Number One again. He won a Nobel Prize for getting the world back on track, on arms proliferation, the Middle East peace process, relations with the Muslim world, climate change, war crimes, torture, and diplomacy. He reengaged with world leaders and the international community, he improved America’s image internationally, he repaired bilateral relations with dozens of countries, he persuaded Pakistan to go after the Taliban, he improved our Cuba policy, and he freed prisoners in North Korea and Myanmar.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who showed his balls by putting more troops in Afghanistan and improving Afghanistan policy; he killed the Somali pirates, freed the American captain, and put the Navy in Somali waters.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who, unlike his predecessor, actually supported the troops. He pulled troops out of Iraq and stopped the stop-loss system, he got body armor for our troops, he increased pay, benefits, medical care and housing for troops and veterans, he hired more military spouses; he improved conditions at military hospitals, he stopped the media blackout on war casualties and on the arrival of the coffins at Dover AFB, and he paid to bring families of soldiers to Dover when the coffins arrived.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who made our troops proud to wear the uniform again: he stopped the torture, and he directed the closure of Guantanamo and the secret prisons in Europe.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who cleaned up his predecessor’s blank-check defense spending: he overhauled military procurement, he blocked no-bid defense contracts, and he phased out unnecessary military programs like the F22 and missile defense.
They are begging for a “patriot” to murder the man who, even with all the partisan obstruction, still made progress on health care. He expanded health care for 4 million children, expanded vaccination programs, cut drug costs for seniors, saved hundreds of millions by allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, led the fight against the swine flu, and stopped pharmacists from cutting women off from birth control.
Surely, the Republican leadership will denounce such puritanical thuggery, right?
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Crazy rightwing cop intimidating his political opponents
Down in the southwest, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the anti-immigration nut, is facing an FBI investigation for abusing his power by arresting and intimidating people who dare to question his actions, using his power and the guns of his deputies to settle political scores. He is taking aim at a mayor, a police chief, a state attorney general, the county board of supervisors, a county manager, and a superior court judge. One U.S. attorney said he’d never seen anything like it. The sheriff and his deputies are demanding the mayor’s email and calendars, raiding city hall, and harassing and smearing politicians with “investigations” that never lead to convictions. A county supervisor who called for an audit of the sheriff’s budget was charged with 200 counts of nonsense which are being dismissed in gigantic numbers.
Another reactionary wingnut with a gun.
Another reactionary wingnut with a gun.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Use the Patriot Act to shut down the Republican Party
In praise of the Secret Service --
A GOP Congressman is calling Obama an enemy of humanity.
A wingnut spokesman is telling folks to get more guns and take back America so as to prevent Nazism.
Another wingnut runs an internet poll on whether Obama should be murdered.
A rightwing website runs a piece calling on the military to overthrow Obama.
That’s, what, in a week?
Remember that this is a country that had three presidents murdered within 36 years. And none of the three, not even Lincoln, was subjected to the hate and vitriol aimed at Obama.
Time for a pay bump for the Secret Service. Better yet, pay them in accordance with how many threats the President gets – Obama is getting five times as many as Bush did. Because if Obama does down, at least one of them probably goes down too.
I’m thinking we should use the Patriot Act to destroy the Republican Party.
The purpose of the Patriot Act is to find and destroy groups which have a proven track record of working to terrorize Americans and destroy America.
Under that standard, the one group which should be shut and down and destroyed, its leaders put in cages, its followers put on watch lists like ex-cons and sex offenders, is....the Republican party.
Just in the last few years, they killed thousands of innocent people in the Middle East,
Allowed other terrorists to destroy the World Trade Center without holding them accountable,
Turned a blind eye as Iran and Korea built the nuclear weapons which could destroy our cities,
Threatened to endanger U.S. troops for political purposes,
And tortured innocent people and lied about it,
Set up secret sites to hold innocent people hostage and lied about it,
Spied on innocent people and lied about it,
Inflicted so much damage on our military that PTSD and suicide are skyrocketing,
And made America hated around the world,
Endangered a CIA employee by exposing her identity,
Conspired to destroy the lives of innocent public officials,
Undermined the authority of our Congress and the courts,
And destroyed evidence of their crimes illegally,
Put thousands at risk of disease and death after Katrina,
Made it easier for aliens to enter the country across the Mexican border and through our ports,
Risked innocent lives by impeding our government’s efforts to keep our kids safe from poison and pollution and unsafe products,
And allowed babies to be poisoned with bad baby formula,
Caused the U.S. financial system to collapse,
Sent thugs to disrupt the counting of votes in a presidential election,
And deliberately tried to create a climate of terror in the US regarding its new president.
And openly condoned and encouraged party members to commit or threaten assassination and other violent attacks against the President and members of Congress,
Sent armed goons to Presidential events;
Caused riots at events for members of Congress, so the Congressmen couldn’t do their jobs,
And denied the authority of the President on the grounds that he was illegally elected, encouraging the troops to disobey lawful orders,
And insisted the President’s policies are killing our troops;
Insisted that perfectly legal legislative tactics are unconstitutional;
Prevented Congress from functioning with endless obstructive tactics;
And accepted millions in bribes to block needed national reform.
Political activity and dissent, in itself, are protected by the Constitution. But what the GOP has done goes way beyond that.
Their actions have shown the Republicans to be traitors to the Constitution and destructive to the nation. The U.S. Code states that "whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States." By that standard, the GOP’s eight-year effort to destroy the nation and give aid and comfort to our enemies, warrants treason charges for the whole party. Let’s open the prison doors, free all the people who were thrown in jail under the rubric of the other great Republican success, the War On Drugs, and give the empty cells to all the loons who are screaming for an armed revolt against the legally-elected president.
Some of their leaders, Perry, Huckabee and Palin, have strong ties to advocates of violent secession – the actual dismemberment of the republic. Others advocate nullification – deliberate obstruction of the execution of federal law. So let’s keep Guantanamo open, and put the GOP leaders in there. Or put them in the same cell where we held Jeff Davis after the Civil War.
A GOP Congressman is calling Obama an enemy of humanity.
A wingnut spokesman is telling folks to get more guns and take back America so as to prevent Nazism.
Another wingnut runs an internet poll on whether Obama should be murdered.
A rightwing website runs a piece calling on the military to overthrow Obama.
That’s, what, in a week?
Remember that this is a country that had three presidents murdered within 36 years. And none of the three, not even Lincoln, was subjected to the hate and vitriol aimed at Obama.
Time for a pay bump for the Secret Service. Better yet, pay them in accordance with how many threats the President gets – Obama is getting five times as many as Bush did. Because if Obama does down, at least one of them probably goes down too.
I’m thinking we should use the Patriot Act to destroy the Republican Party.
The purpose of the Patriot Act is to find and destroy groups which have a proven track record of working to terrorize Americans and destroy America.
Under that standard, the one group which should be shut and down and destroyed, its leaders put in cages, its followers put on watch lists like ex-cons and sex offenders, is....the Republican party.
Just in the last few years, they killed thousands of innocent people in the Middle East,
Allowed other terrorists to destroy the World Trade Center without holding them accountable,
Turned a blind eye as Iran and Korea built the nuclear weapons which could destroy our cities,
Threatened to endanger U.S. troops for political purposes,
And tortured innocent people and lied about it,
Set up secret sites to hold innocent people hostage and lied about it,
Spied on innocent people and lied about it,
Inflicted so much damage on our military that PTSD and suicide are skyrocketing,
And made America hated around the world,
Endangered a CIA employee by exposing her identity,
Conspired to destroy the lives of innocent public officials,
Undermined the authority of our Congress and the courts,
And destroyed evidence of their crimes illegally,
Put thousands at risk of disease and death after Katrina,
Made it easier for aliens to enter the country across the Mexican border and through our ports,
Risked innocent lives by impeding our government’s efforts to keep our kids safe from poison and pollution and unsafe products,
And allowed babies to be poisoned with bad baby formula,
Caused the U.S. financial system to collapse,
Sent thugs to disrupt the counting of votes in a presidential election,
And deliberately tried to create a climate of terror in the US regarding its new president.
And openly condoned and encouraged party members to commit or threaten assassination and other violent attacks against the President and members of Congress,
Sent armed goons to Presidential events;
Caused riots at events for members of Congress, so the Congressmen couldn’t do their jobs,
And denied the authority of the President on the grounds that he was illegally elected, encouraging the troops to disobey lawful orders,
And insisted the President’s policies are killing our troops;
Insisted that perfectly legal legislative tactics are unconstitutional;
Prevented Congress from functioning with endless obstructive tactics;
And accepted millions in bribes to block needed national reform.
Political activity and dissent, in itself, are protected by the Constitution. But what the GOP has done goes way beyond that.
Their actions have shown the Republicans to be traitors to the Constitution and destructive to the nation. The U.S. Code states that "whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States." By that standard, the GOP’s eight-year effort to destroy the nation and give aid and comfort to our enemies, warrants treason charges for the whole party. Let’s open the prison doors, free all the people who were thrown in jail under the rubric of the other great Republican success, the War On Drugs, and give the empty cells to all the loons who are screaming for an armed revolt against the legally-elected president.
Some of their leaders, Perry, Huckabee and Palin, have strong ties to advocates of violent secession – the actual dismemberment of the republic. Others advocate nullification – deliberate obstruction of the execution of federal law. So let’s keep Guantanamo open, and put the GOP leaders in there. Or put them in the same cell where we held Jeff Davis after the Civil War.
Monday, 28 September 2009
More wingnuts call for assassination and armed revolution
A poll just popped up on Facebook: "should Obama be killed?" The Secret Service is investigating. Meanwhile a speaker at the “Take Back America” conference lectured on “"How to recognize living under Nazis and Communists," and urged the troops – “So, keep your guns, and buy more guns, and buy ammunition....Take back America. Don't let them take the country into socialism….Don’t you dare give up your guns! Never, never, never!" The speaker has given her speech to teabaggers and is expected to give it to bankers too; Michelle Bachmann supports her. She claims Obama is like Hitler because he likes universal health care and equal rights for women. Another attendee hollered "Give them back one bullet at a time!" Another speaker compared an FCC official to Joseph Goebbels.
So…the media will yawn over these people and move on, just like the thugs who lynched the census worker, or the guy who shot the abortion doctor, or the armed maniacs who showed up at the Obama events…but elderly professor Bill Ayers was a huge story for months because he’s the real terrorist, right?
So…the media will yawn over these people and move on, just like the thugs who lynched the census worker, or the guy who shot the abortion doctor, or the armed maniacs who showed up at the Obama events…but elderly professor Bill Ayers was a huge story for months because he’s the real terrorist, right?
Friday, 25 September 2009
Dead census taker was found naked, gagged and bound
Republicans still say it was a suicide, not a wingnut lynching.
CSI Dogpatch: Who Killed Bill Sparkman?
The scene: eastern Kentucky.
The time: today.
The corpse: Bill Sparkman, a census taker hanged near a Kentucky cemetery, the word “FED” painted on him.
Cue theme music: Squeezebox by the Who (all CSI shows must begin with a Who song, and that’s the only one with a banjo in it. Sorry).
So, who lynched Sparkman?
Let’s do a profile of the killer, beginning in his operating area, Kentucky.
America has known for decades that the people of Appalachia live in appalling conditions: sky-high poverty rates, short life spans, cancer, depression and other serious mental illnesses, and alcoholism all feed off of each other. In this region, one in ten is completely toothless – yep, not a single tooth. A doctor who moved there said that the Appalachians were poorer than the people back where he had come from -- India. Kids in the area are hit particularly hard – heavy alcohol abuse, smoking, mental illness; a toddler with a dozen cavities is not unusual.
Appalachia has higher drug abuse rate than cities like New York and Miami. Oxycontin is a major driver (no wonder they love Oxycontin-poster-boy Rush Limbaugh out there), and job-related injuries in coal country drive up the demand for prescription painkillers. Eastern Kentucky has had a rash of hundreds of drug abuse deaths. The drug epidemic is draining the economy, destabilizing families, hurting education, hurting the economy. And again, kids are leading the way – abuse rates are higher among kids than adults; one doctor who tried to educate the adults about the problems among their kids showed them Oxycontin and found that a lot of the adults were so clueless that they didn’t even recognize it, but the kids knew all about it.
Across the decades, Appalachia has slid a long way down the slippery slope: all of this misery and isolation from the rest of the world paved the way for decades of moonshiners, pot growers and meth lab operators, ultimately evolving into underground economies, corrupted blind-eye local governments, and fear that contact with the federal government can lead not only to trouble with the feds but retribution from the locals. Appalachians despise outsiders connected with authority and the government, and not just the snooping revenooers, either: farm country folks see little point to teachers or book learning, and there is a stigma against seeking help for psychological problems. The federal government is not, of course, giving up: among other things they set up a special task force to fight the epidemic of drug activity and related crime out there.
These people are, of course, the people who need affordable health care the most. And they are the ones who re fighting it the hardest.
So our profile of the killer: young, unemployed adult white male, uneducated and short on teeth, drinks and abuses Oxy, works either farming pot or cooking up meth. Almost certainly a gun owner.
And Republican, obviously. Probably a dittohead, possibly a teabagger. This will be a person who listens to Rush, watches Fox, and clings to an almost religious belief that the 2010 census is part of The Big Plot. He gets a thrill up his leg to hear people like Michelle Bachman screeching that the census will be run by ACORN (read: scary Negroes) and will be the first step to invasions by foreign troops, concentration camps, drone-plane attacks against conservatives, and indoctrinating children, Neal Boortz screaming that the census will be used to take away your house and give it to the “moochers”, Michelle Malkin bellowing that the census is part of a plan to let all aliens vote so that the Democrats have an unfair electoral advantage, and so forth.
So a white male loser dittohead with no teeth. We’ve neatly narrowed down our search to…the whole state of Kentucky. And western West Virginia.
Dang.
Time to call the feds. Because that will definitely settle the situation.
The time: today.
The corpse: Bill Sparkman, a census taker hanged near a Kentucky cemetery, the word “FED” painted on him.
Cue theme music: Squeezebox by the Who (all CSI shows must begin with a Who song, and that’s the only one with a banjo in it. Sorry).
So, who lynched Sparkman?
Let’s do a profile of the killer, beginning in his operating area, Kentucky.
America has known for decades that the people of Appalachia live in appalling conditions: sky-high poverty rates, short life spans, cancer, depression and other serious mental illnesses, and alcoholism all feed off of each other. In this region, one in ten is completely toothless – yep, not a single tooth. A doctor who moved there said that the Appalachians were poorer than the people back where he had come from -- India. Kids in the area are hit particularly hard – heavy alcohol abuse, smoking, mental illness; a toddler with a dozen cavities is not unusual.
Appalachia has higher drug abuse rate than cities like New York and Miami. Oxycontin is a major driver (no wonder they love Oxycontin-poster-boy Rush Limbaugh out there), and job-related injuries in coal country drive up the demand for prescription painkillers. Eastern Kentucky has had a rash of hundreds of drug abuse deaths. The drug epidemic is draining the economy, destabilizing families, hurting education, hurting the economy. And again, kids are leading the way – abuse rates are higher among kids than adults; one doctor who tried to educate the adults about the problems among their kids showed them Oxycontin and found that a lot of the adults were so clueless that they didn’t even recognize it, but the kids knew all about it.
Across the decades, Appalachia has slid a long way down the slippery slope: all of this misery and isolation from the rest of the world paved the way for decades of moonshiners, pot growers and meth lab operators, ultimately evolving into underground economies, corrupted blind-eye local governments, and fear that contact with the federal government can lead not only to trouble with the feds but retribution from the locals. Appalachians despise outsiders connected with authority and the government, and not just the snooping revenooers, either: farm country folks see little point to teachers or book learning, and there is a stigma against seeking help for psychological problems. The federal government is not, of course, giving up: among other things they set up a special task force to fight the epidemic of drug activity and related crime out there.
These people are, of course, the people who need affordable health care the most. And they are the ones who re fighting it the hardest.
So our profile of the killer: young, unemployed adult white male, uneducated and short on teeth, drinks and abuses Oxy, works either farming pot or cooking up meth. Almost certainly a gun owner.
And Republican, obviously. Probably a dittohead, possibly a teabagger. This will be a person who listens to Rush, watches Fox, and clings to an almost religious belief that the 2010 census is part of The Big Plot. He gets a thrill up his leg to hear people like Michelle Bachman screeching that the census will be run by ACORN (read: scary Negroes) and will be the first step to invasions by foreign troops, concentration camps, drone-plane attacks against conservatives, and indoctrinating children, Neal Boortz screaming that the census will be used to take away your house and give it to the “moochers”, Michelle Malkin bellowing that the census is part of a plan to let all aliens vote so that the Democrats have an unfair electoral advantage, and so forth.
So a white male loser dittohead with no teeth. We’ve neatly narrowed down our search to…the whole state of Kentucky. And western West Virginia.
Dang.
Time to call the feds. Because that will definitely settle the situation.
Secret Service backs Pelosi on political violence
When Pelosi warned of possible political violence, Republicans immediately ridiculed her and blamed Pelosi herself for the increased temperature of the political rhetoric – Pelosi said it so we must slam her for it etc etc. But the CIA, FBI and Secret Service agree with her. A former Service guy admitted “I’m not a real big fan of Nancy Pelosi’s, but she is correct.”
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Another rightwing terrorist attack
The wingnuts just lynched a census worker in Kentucky and scrawled “Fed” on his chest. This is the fourth fatal rightwing terrorist attack in the last few months. The two murder sprees in Pennsylvania, the killing of Dr. Tiller, and now this. Plus the teabag/townhall attacks, threats, armed loons showing up at Obama events and menacing Democratic members of Congress, preachers are out there leading prayers for the death of Obama, lone wolves, “militia” men, Klansmen, skinheads, neo-Nazis, all fondling their…weapons. The media covers these things in a perfunctory way, and then yawns and moves on (just as the media has categorically failed to shoot down the endless series of GOP lies and attacks). But eventually there will be an attack by a lunatic, which the media finally will not be able to ignore. And finally the American dialogue on politics will openly address the central issue – that the Republican party is not only condoning political lunacy and dangerous behaviour, but allowing the worst wingnuts to control the direction of the party.
So where is Intrade on all this? Where is the Lone Wolf Pool? Where will the big attack be, the one that finally makes America sit up and take notice?
The short odds on when it will happen: 4-1 on next August when the loons come out again.
Short odds on target: 4-1 on Democratic congressman, innocent bystander, abortion doctor or policeman.
Shortest odds for region: even money on the South.
Shortest odds on the claimed motivation: 5-1 on either the birth certificate or illegal aliens (that’s claimed motivation – the real motivation is, of course, having a black President).
Method: even money on gun attack.
Even money on the perpetrator being a dittohead.
Even money on the proposition of more tattoos than teeth.
12 to 1 that that the Republican party will exploit the murder for political purposes, and blame the Democrats for it.
Maybe if we turn this into a stupid fucking game, the media will take notice. Maybe they’ll even make a game show about it. Those guys who made the “Network” movie 30 years ago were laughed at for predicting that TV news would turn into a pathetic game show, but look at stuff like Fox and Inside Edition: maybe they were actually lowballing it.
Or instead of a game show, a reality show, just following around the wingnuts and listening to all their wingnuttery. Since the media won’t make the effort to really hold the mirror up to these folks, maybe some sleazy Jerry Springer wannabe can git er done.
So where is Intrade on all this? Where is the Lone Wolf Pool? Where will the big attack be, the one that finally makes America sit up and take notice?
The short odds on when it will happen: 4-1 on next August when the loons come out again.
Short odds on target: 4-1 on Democratic congressman, innocent bystander, abortion doctor or policeman.
Shortest odds for region: even money on the South.
Shortest odds on the claimed motivation: 5-1 on either the birth certificate or illegal aliens (that’s claimed motivation – the real motivation is, of course, having a black President).
Method: even money on gun attack.
Even money on the perpetrator being a dittohead.
Even money on the proposition of more tattoos than teeth.
12 to 1 that that the Republican party will exploit the murder for political purposes, and blame the Democrats for it.
Maybe if we turn this into a stupid fucking game, the media will take notice. Maybe they’ll even make a game show about it. Those guys who made the “Network” movie 30 years ago were laughed at for predicting that TV news would turn into a pathetic game show, but look at stuff like Fox and Inside Edition: maybe they were actually lowballing it.
Or instead of a game show, a reality show, just following around the wingnuts and listening to all their wingnuttery. Since the media won’t make the effort to really hold the mirror up to these folks, maybe some sleazy Jerry Springer wannabe can git er done.
Monday, 21 September 2009
Fox producer caught stage-managing Beck's 912 riots
Glenn Beck campaigned to get the 912 riot going, to "bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001" when "we were united as Americans, standing together to protect the values and principles of the greatest nation ever created." The implication being that the arrival of the Obama presidency is tantamount to a terrorist attack. Neatly enough he was too gutless to attend his own riot. Fox promoted the 912 riot like gangbusters, and took out a huge ad falsely claiming that the other networks ignored 912 (and Fox got busted for it).
And now we know that at the 912 riots, a Fox News producer was caught on camera raising her hands, giving stage directions and encouraging the crowd to yell and scream while a Fox reporter was doing his live shot. When Fox was caught, they claimed they disciplined the “inexperienced” producer.
America already knew that so much of Fox’s other reporting is just plain made-up; there are entire websites dedicated to exposing their endless lies, and nobody to the left of Mussolini takes their lies seriously anymore. But clearly Fox hasn’t just been promoting the original tea parties, Beck’s 912 wingnut circus and other propaganda and infotainment for wingnuts: they have been actively manufacturing and choreographing their “news”. What else have these scumbags done behind the scenes, that we don't know about?
And Fox is surprised that the White House doesn't take them seriously as a real news organization.
Back in the day, any journalist who was caught fabricating his reports would not only be fired but drummed out of the business forever. But what happens when an entire news organization does it, day after day after day?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/19/fox-news-producer-caught_n_292529.html
And now we know that at the 912 riots, a Fox News producer was caught on camera raising her hands, giving stage directions and encouraging the crowd to yell and scream while a Fox reporter was doing his live shot. When Fox was caught, they claimed they disciplined the “inexperienced” producer.
America already knew that so much of Fox’s other reporting is just plain made-up; there are entire websites dedicated to exposing their endless lies, and nobody to the left of Mussolini takes their lies seriously anymore. But clearly Fox hasn’t just been promoting the original tea parties, Beck’s 912 wingnut circus and other propaganda and infotainment for wingnuts: they have been actively manufacturing and choreographing their “news”. What else have these scumbags done behind the scenes, that we don't know about?
And Fox is surprised that the White House doesn't take them seriously as a real news organization.
Back in the day, any journalist who was caught fabricating his reports would not only be fired but drummed out of the business forever. But what happens when an entire news organization does it, day after day after day?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/19/fox-news-producer-caught_n_292529.html
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Scare tactics in the House chamber?
Things are just going from bad to worse for the GOP today. Their talking point du jour – that it’s Obama who was partisan last night – fell flat. So did Steele’s claim that Obama’s plan is a socialist power grab. Another talking point from last night, those documents that the Republicans were waving, actually referred to the plan the GOP had proposed in the spring, which involved…the exact same exchanges Obama was talking about in his speech, which begged the question of what the hell they were protesting about. By the same token, the guy who delivered the GOP rebuttal last night, insisting that Obama must scrap the whole plan and start from scratch, admitted today that the GOP agreed with 80 percent of his plan, which begs the question – so why start from scratch? If 80 percent is just fine, why did the party tell the whole country that the Obama plan is the greatest threat to democracy since the Soviets? And one of the other astoundingly rude Republican from last night, John Shimkus, who stomped out of the House chamber in the middle of the speech, wussed out today and sent his spokesman out to face the music – Shimkus stomped out because he didn’t like Obama’s “tone”.
And that’s before we get to Joe Wilson, this year’s analog for discredited confrontational bully Joe the Plumber, the friend of teabaggers and insurers and the Confederate flag. Wilson is on the run, possibly because the House may censure him after all; he was an unexplained no-show at a friendly teabagger rally today. His two biggest fans right now: Mark Sanford, because all of South Carolina is staring at Wilson now, and Obama, because Obama’s million-man army is now as energized as they were a year ago today, thanks to Wilson.
And the Dow, arbiter of the sentiments of capitalist, corporate America, didn’t recoil in horror at Obama’s speech. The Dow jumped up 80 points today. So it ain’t the coming of the Communist Internationale, notwithstanding all the screeching from the increasingly desperate GOP. Even Wall Street isn’t listening to the GOP. Wow!
But go back to this Shimkus/Wilson thing, which raises a question: if you look back at the tape, it wasn’t just Wilson acting like a teabagger, it was the whole GOP caucus, booing, shouting, waving signs. Was this whole effort deliberate? The teabaggers have been going to the town halls to intimidate and frighten congressmen – were the Republicans trying to follow the same gameplan, to intimidate and frighten a black President in the House chamber in front of the whole country?
I mean, think through the implications of that.
And that’s before we get to Joe Wilson, this year’s analog for discredited confrontational bully Joe the Plumber, the friend of teabaggers and insurers and the Confederate flag. Wilson is on the run, possibly because the House may censure him after all; he was an unexplained no-show at a friendly teabagger rally today. His two biggest fans right now: Mark Sanford, because all of South Carolina is staring at Wilson now, and Obama, because Obama’s million-man army is now as energized as they were a year ago today, thanks to Wilson.
And the Dow, arbiter of the sentiments of capitalist, corporate America, didn’t recoil in horror at Obama’s speech. The Dow jumped up 80 points today. So it ain’t the coming of the Communist Internationale, notwithstanding all the screeching from the increasingly desperate GOP. Even Wall Street isn’t listening to the GOP. Wow!
But go back to this Shimkus/Wilson thing, which raises a question: if you look back at the tape, it wasn’t just Wilson acting like a teabagger, it was the whole GOP caucus, booing, shouting, waving signs. Was this whole effort deliberate? The teabaggers have been going to the town halls to intimidate and frighten congressmen – were the Republicans trying to follow the same gameplan, to intimidate and frighten a black President in the House chamber in front of the whole country?
I mean, think through the implications of that.
Thursday, 3 September 2009
how the media caved in to the wingnuts
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/if-it-screams-it-leads-by-dday-ive.html
The stringer said he was one of 10 people around the country assigned to watch such encounters. Price said he was told flatly: "Your meeting doesn't get covered unless it blows up." As it happens, the Durham audience was broadly sympathetic to reform efforts. No "news" there.
So...the media cravenly insisted they wanted to see fights, and the wingnuts gave them fights. And that's all they reported for a solid month. That, and the GOP's lies.
The stringer said he was one of 10 people around the country assigned to watch such encounters. Price said he was told flatly: "Your meeting doesn't get covered unless it blows up." As it happens, the Durham audience was broadly sympathetic to reform efforts. No "news" there.
So...the media cravenly insisted they wanted to see fights, and the wingnuts gave them fights. And that's all they reported for a solid month. That, and the GOP's lies.
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