Thursday, March 31, 2005
Not to be outdone by Delay or Peroutka, James Dobson is weighing in:
So as Randall Terry said in his Operation Rescue days, if you believe it's murder, then act like it. That means an eye for an eye. That means targeting federal judges. Is that what Dobson is calling for? In effect, yes.
(The full statement was sent to me by Gary Bauer, but I've linked to an article excerpting it.)
“Every Florida and federal judge who failed to act to spare this precious woman from the torment she was forced to endure is guilty not only of judicial malfeasance -- but of the cold-blooded, cold-hearted extermination of an innocent human life. Terri Schiavo has been executed under the guise of law and ‘mercy,’ for being guilty of nothing more than the inability to speak for herself. I grieve for the Schindlers today, and I fear for the future of our nation.”
So as Randall Terry said in his Operation Rescue days, if you believe it's murder, then act like it. That means an eye for an eye. That means targeting federal judges. Is that what Dobson is calling for? In effect, yes.
(The full statement was sent to me by Gary Bauer, but I've linked to an article excerpting it.)
As if Delay wasn't extreme enough, here's Constitutional party 2004 presidential candidate Michael Peroutka:
There is no reason to believe Governor Bush or President Bush when they say that they tried to help Terri Schiavo. In fact, whether or not Terri is still breathing at this moment, they are accomplices to murder.
And - make no mistake - this is murder. Murder most foul! Murder carried out in broad daylight by a judge, a police force, the Governor of Florida, and the President of the United States.
That’s right. George Bush, against whom I ran for President, has murdered Terri Schiavo.
Delay will make them pay -- but not today.
"Mrs. Schiavo's death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo's friends in this time of deep sorrow."
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
My favorite Randall Terry quote:
I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good ...
From one of Washington's best national security/intellingence correspondents, Justin Rood:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not list right-wing domestic terrorists and terrorist groups on a document that appears to be an internal list of threats to the nation’s security.
According to the list — part of a draft planning document obtained by CQ Homeland Security — between now and 2011 DHS expects to contend primarily with adversaries such as al Qaeda and other foreign entities affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement, as well as domestic radical Islamist groups.
It also lists left-wing domestic groups, such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), as terrorist threats, but it does not mention anti-government groups, white supremacists and other radical right-wing movements, which have staged numerous terrorist attacks that have killed scores of Americans.
This poor child will probably grow up to be an interracial porn star.
Monday, March 28, 2005
Makes Me Want To Ralph
From Doug Ireland:
From Doug Ireland:
Nader's intervention in the Schiavo case came in a joint statement with one Wesley J. Smith. And who, you may well ask, is Mr. Smith? A conservative bio-ethicist who contributes to the Weekly Standard and the National Review, Smith is a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute--one of whose co-founders and prime movers is the ultra-conservative economics writer George Gilder, famous for his anti-feminist rants ("This is what sexual liberation chiefly accomplishes-it liberates young women to pursue married men") and anti-homosexual ravings. (Gilder is also noted for such statements as "A successful economy depends on the proliferation of the rich," and "Real poverty is less a state of income than a state of mind.") Gilder's views are endorsed and promoted by Focus on the Family's James Dobson.The Discovery Institute is also a promoter of the so-called "intelligent design" movement, which posits the creation of the universe by an intelligent Supreme Being and opposes teaching evolution. Nader ally Smith's official bio also lists him as a "special consultant" to another right-wing think-tank called the Center for Bioethics and Culture, peopled by Southern Baptists and other Christers, and whose national director, Jennifer Lahl, is an associate of born-again convicted Watergate criminal Charles "Chuck" Colson, (now an evangelical minister), and Lahl is also an adjunct fellow of Colson's Wilberforce Forum.
Now what does Ralph say in his joint statement with the dubious Mr. Smith? Among other things:
"A profound injustice is being inflicted on Terri Schiavo," Nader and Smith asserted today. "Worse, this slow death by dehydration is being imposed upon her under the color of law, in proceedings in which every benefit of the doubt-and there are many doubts in this case-has been given to her death, rather than her continued life."
More hypocrisy:
But, given the vehemence with which he has been fighting to prolong Terri's life, it is a little surprising to learn that Robert decided to turn off the life-support system for his mother. She was 79 at the time, and had been ill with pneumonia for a week, when her kidneys gave out. "I can remember like yesterday the doctors said she had a good life. I asked, 'If you put her on a ventilator does she have a chance of surviving, of coming out of this thing?'" Robert says. "I was very angry with God because I didn't want to make those decisions."
But, given the vehemence with which he has been fighting to prolong Terri's life, it is a little surprising to learn that Robert decided to turn off the life-support system for his mother. She was 79 at the time, and had been ill with pneumonia for a week, when her kidneys gave out. "I can remember like yesterday the doctors said she had a good life. I asked, 'If you put her on a ventilator does she have a chance of surviving, of coming out of this thing?'" Robert says. "I was very angry with God because I didn't want to make those decisions."
Killing Abortion Doctors While Building a Culture of Life
Continuing on the thread of right-wing money fueling the Schiavo charade, the far-right Life Legal Foundation is a group worth watching. As the Sf Chronicle reports:
Let's see, who's on LLF's board? Okay, there are your token arch-conservative legislators, like California's wonderful Ray Haynes, who was
essentially installed in the state Senate by Christian Reconstructionist millionaire Howard Ahmanson. Rep. Henry Hyde is also a member. Hyde is famous in anti-abortion circles for testifying on behalf of Joe Scheidler, the godfather of the militant, direct action wing of anti-abortionism. Scheidler habitually uses aborted fetuses as props for demonstrations.
Then there's Charles Rice, the Notre Dame professor and Catholic right activist who has attempted to justify the killing of abortion doctors. He wrote this in 1994:
(I always think of Rice when I hear wingers call for Ward Churchhill's head. Not only is Rice a tenured professor, he's influencing events, while Chuchhill is and has always been a minor leftist icon.) While he's not on LLF's board, the foundation has been praised by Christian Reconstructionist George Grant, who has at least identified himself with a theological movement advocating the execution of abortion doctors, along with gays, disobedient children and whomever else is found guilty of a gross violation of one the 613 Leviticus case laws that will serve as America's legal code. So much for the courts, a culture of life is on the way!
Continuing on the thread of right-wing money fueling the Schiavo charade, the far-right Life Legal Foundation is a group worth watching. As the Sf Chronicle reports:
In the past four years, the Napa-based Life Legal Defense Foundation has contributed more than $300,000 to help Terri Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, fight a court-ordered removal of their daughter's feeding tube.
"Robert Schindler contacted us because he had exhausted all of his financial options," said LLDF director Dana Cody, who is also an attorney.
Let's see, who's on LLF's board? Okay, there are your token arch-conservative legislators, like California's wonderful Ray Haynes, who was
essentially installed in the state Senate by Christian Reconstructionist millionaire Howard Ahmanson. Rep. Henry Hyde is also a member. Hyde is famous in anti-abortion circles for testifying on behalf of Joe Scheidler, the godfather of the militant, direct action wing of anti-abortionism. Scheidler habitually uses aborted fetuses as props for demonstrations.
Then there's Charles Rice, the Notre Dame professor and Catholic right activist who has attempted to justify the killing of abortion doctors. He wrote this in 1994:
In any civilized society, all human beings have a natural right to be treated as persons entitled to the right to live. Roe v. Wade has corrupted the law by defining the innocent unborn child as a nonperson who therefore has no constitutional rights and who may be executed at the discretion of his mother. The necessity defense, however, is not limited to the protection of legally recognized persons; It authorizes the use of necessary and reasonable force for the protection of all human beings as well as animals and other property. The Supreme Court could not change the reality that the unborn child, whom it defined as a nonperson, is a human being. The result is a conflict of entitlements: the mother is entitled, by court decree, to kill her child; other persons are entitled to protect a human being in danger, which the unborn child is.
(I always think of Rice when I hear wingers call for Ward Churchhill's head. Not only is Rice a tenured professor, he's influencing events, while Chuchhill is and has always been a minor leftist icon.) While he's not on LLF's board, the foundation has been praised by Christian Reconstructionist George Grant, who has at least identified himself with a theological movement advocating the execution of abortion doctors, along with gays, disobedient children and whomever else is found guilty of a gross violation of one the 613 Leviticus case laws that will serve as America's legal code. So much for the courts, a culture of life is on the way!
For the Love of Money...I Mean Terri
It's not much of a stretch to say that the Schiavo charade is all about right-wing money, along with the Christian right elite's need to keep its ever-credulous flock of downwardly mobile meshuganehs out in the streets. Bill Berkowitz has dredged up this revealing excerpt of a 2003 interview Michael Schiavo did with Larry King in 2003, in which he describes how Schiavo's dad offered him $700,000 to walk away from his wife:
Berkowitz also points out that much of the money the Schindlers receive comes from secular conservative foundations that strategically coordinate their giving through the Philanthropy Roundtable. For instance:
Another organization that served as an umbrella for the "Save Schiavo" campaign's funders is the shadowy Council for National Policy, a group Richard DeVos famously described as the place where "the donors meet the doers."
It's not much of a stretch to say that the Schiavo charade is all about right-wing money, along with the Christian right elite's need to keep its ever-credulous flock of downwardly mobile meshuganehs out in the streets. Bill Berkowitz has dredged up this revealing excerpt of a 2003 interview Michael Schiavo did with Larry King in 2003, in which he describes how Schiavo's dad offered him $700,000 to walk away from his wife:
King: They have that kind of money?
Schiavo: They get money from the right-wing activists. The right wing -- the right-to-life groups.
King: The right-to-life group was willing to pay you $700,000 to walk away?
Schiavo: Right.
Berkowitz also points out that much of the money the Schindlers receive comes from secular conservative foundations that strategically coordinate their giving through the Philanthropy Roundtable. For instance:
Philanthropy Roundtable members "also played a role in financing the Bush v. Schiavo litigation":
The Family Research Council (website), which uses its annual $10 million budget to lobby for prayer in public schools and against gay marriage, filed an amicus curiae brief in Bush v. Schiavo supporting Gov. Bush, at the same time its former president, attorney Kenneth Connor, was representing the governor in that litigation...
Another amicus brief backing Bush was filed by a coalition of disability rights organizations that included the National Organization on Disability (website) and the World Institute on Disability (website). The former received $810,000 between 1991 and 2002 from the Scaife Family Foundations, the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, and the JM Foundation; the latter received $20,000 in 1997 from the JM Foundation.
Another organization that served as an umbrella for the "Save Schiavo" campaign's funders is the shadowy Council for National Policy, a group Richard DeVos famously described as the place where "the donors meet the doers."
In the Cloth of Hypocrisy
Who are those guys in the robes hanging out with Terri Schiavo's parents, anyway?
Also, don't friars take a vow of poverty before they enter the order? If so, what are these guys doing raising money for the Schindlers?
Who are those guys in the robes hanging out with Terri Schiavo's parents, anyway?
They have come to Florida, they say, because they are staunch right-to-life supporters, because they can help raise money for the Schindlers, and because of what happened to Brother Michael.
In 1982, Michael Gaworski founded the order.
The fledgling group took over a former convent and the Brothers began collecting food and clothing for the needy, ministering to international survivors of torture, witnessing at a juvenile detention center and conducting sidewalk counseling at abortion clinics.
Gaworski suffered a heart attack in 1991 that left him in a condition similar to that of Terri Schiavo - with severe brain damage and dependent on a feeding tube for nourishment. For the next 12 years, the friars cared for Gaworski in their downtown St. Paul friary.
"Through his condition," Brother John Kaspari said Tuesday from St. Paul, "we came to embrace others in similar states."
Gaworski contracted pneumonia and died in 2003 at age 45.
"He would have required intubation to keep him alive," Kaspari said. "We chose not to go that route. His lungs were full of fluid."
Also, don't friars take a vow of poverty before they enter the order? If so, what are these guys doing raising money for the Schindlers?
Sunday, March 27, 2005
Has there ever been a candidate for statewide office who was known to be the target of a federal probe? Ralph Reed is running for Lt. Gov. of Georgia, and I'm just wondering if his financial records haven't been subpoenaed by a federal grand jury. From the SF Chronicle:
Oh, and was Dobson in on the scheme, too? Just asking.
Between 2001 and 2003, Reed's firm, Century Strategies, was paid $4.2 million, under an arrangement with Abramoff and his partner Michael Scanlon to conduct a campaign to help shut down a casino operated by a Texas tribe. At the time, Abramoff and Scanlon were being paid millions by other tribes with casinos in nearby states that wanted to reduce competition by seeing to it that the Texas casino was shuttered.
Reed, who had previously crusaded against the expansion of casino gambling as part of his work with religious conservatives, recruited evangelical leader James Dobson and Texas ministers in the ultimately successful effort to close the Texas casino.
In the interview, Reed declined to discuss the investigation. In a prepared statement, he has said he had "no direct knowledge" that Abramoff's law firm was representing casino interests at the time. Reed has acknowledged that he was aware that his friend's firm had represented tribal clients.
What impact, if any, the issue might have on Reed's candidacy isn't clear.
Sadie Fields, who heads the Christian Coalition in Georgia, called Reed "very valuable to the agenda" of her organization, which maintains a database of almost a quarter-million "pro-family, pro-life voters" in the state.
"As far as I know," Fields said, Reed "tried to shut down casino gambling" in Texas.
Oh, and was Dobson in on the scheme, too? Just asking.
Friday, March 25, 2005
My latest is up, a piece about black conservative front-man Jesse Lee Peterson. Unfortunately, for now I think it's available to Nation subscribers only, though that should change. But since it's in print, it's worth picking up a copy of the Nation and sleeping with it under your pillow tonight. Here's an excerpt:
In late February, inside a sterile conference hall at Washington's premier conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, a crowd of no more than seventy took off their snow-flecked coats and settled in for an afternoon with a group of speakers billed as "The New Black Vanguard." Perched on a platform above the audience, the speakers promptly launched a barrage of attacks on the civil rights establishment and "the entertainment-industrial complex." At first the audience seemed disengaged, even a bit overwhelmed by the cacophony of blustery rhetoric. Then the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson piped up. "W.E.B. Du Bois was a communist, socialist pig," Peterson crowed. A few of his fellow panelists blanched at his overheated language. But once the shock subsided, laughter rippled through the previously mute crowd, followed by vigorous applause.
It was vintage Peterson. Throughout his fifteen-year career as a right-wing evangelical minister, Peterson has never shied from bombastic assaults on targets ranging from civil rights leaders to liberal Democrats to undocumented immigrants. But while Peterson's strident style may be unique, with his extremist politics he is merely playing the role of front man for a murky, well-funded network of white nationalist activists and right-wing Beltway operatives. By deploying Peterson to gatherings like the Heritage event and into the media, this coterie of conservatives have been able to apply a bold veneer of blackness over the brand of bigotry they find increasingly inconvenient to espouse on their own. Peterson has no professional or political accomplishments to speak of, beyond directing a small inner-city aid ministry and hosting a radio show syndicated on a handful of AM stations across the country. To his sponsors, though, that's irrelevant; it is his immunity from charges of racism that matters.
A former welfare recipient and follower of Louis Farrakhan and Jesse Jackson, Peterson says he experienced a political awakening fifteen years ago, when he simultaneously discovered Jesus and Ronald Reagan. "I was born a Democrat but I had no values; it was anything goes, whatever you want to do, and that came from the black leadership," Peterson told me. "But I finally started to examine it for myself and I realized the Democratic platform was an anti-God, anti-values, anti-American platform...."
One didn't quite make it over the cuckoo's nest:
Ralph Nader, in a news release, calls on the courts to save Schiavo's life. He and Wesley J. Smith wrote: "Benefits of doubts should be given to life, not hastened death. This case is rife with doubt. Justice demands that Terri be permitted to live.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
The Profits of a False Prophet
Well-heeled televangelist Joyce Meyer is in big trouble:
Not that shady profiteering is uncommon in the world of televangelism -- just look at Jan and Paul Crouch's $5 million home with an air-conditioned dog house. But Meyer's trickery and subterfuge extends beyond her profiteering, according to the ADL:
And Meyer's response to scrutiny of her lavish spending sprees at ministry expense?
Here's what she said in tape 2 of 4 of "Mind, Mouth, Moods, and Attitudes:"
Well-heeled televangelist Joyce Meyer is in big trouble:
After receiving criticism for the financial perks charismatic televangelist and bestselling author Joyce Meyer obtains from her $95 million-a-year television ministry, Meyer has announced plans to take a reduced salary in 2004 and personally use more of the income derived from her outside book sales....
Meyer's decision to take a reduced salary could strengthen her position with the federal government if it chooses to respond to a Christian financial watchdog group's request that the Internal Revenue Service investigate Meyer's ministry. Wall Watchers, a Christian non-profit group that monitors the finances of large Christian organizations, is asking the IRS to investigate Meyer's successful television ministry, Life in the Word. Wall Watchers founder Rusty Leonard believes Meyer may have been compensating herself at such a high level that her ministry is violating its status as a private, tax-exempt organization. "There seems to be evidence of private inurement here," Leonard said.
Federal law prohibits religious groups such as Meyer's from giving excessively to anyone who heads a ministry. Wall Watchers is asking the IRS to investigate several other charismatic televangelists as well.
While Meyer's previous salary is unknown, a recent series of investigative articles in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch revealed Meyer's ministry purchased for Joyce and Dave a $2 million home, a $10 million private jet, and houses worth another $2 million for the couple's children, who also work for the ministry. The articles also outlined Meyer's recent personal purchases, including a $500,000 vacation home. Meyer, 60, lives in Fenton, Missouri, near St. Louis.
Leonard also is concerned about the configuration of Meyer's board of directors, which includes Meyer's children and close friends....
Not that shady profiteering is uncommon in the world of televangelism -- just look at Jan and Paul Crouch's $5 million home with an air-conditioned dog house. But Meyer's trickery and subterfuge extends beyond her profiteering, according to the ADL:
The Christian evangelical church Joyce Meyer Ministries uses subterfuge and deception to get its youth ministry program into public schools across the United States. Rage Against Destruction, the traveling musical extravaganza that puts on public school assemblies with a focus on anti-violence messages, is actually the "nationwide youth ministry" of the Missouri-based Joyce Meyer Ministries.
This year, the group has staged assemblies in public high schools in New York City and New Jersey, although several events were cancelled after education officials in both states warned their principals of the group's tactics. In addition, schools in St. Louis, Missouri, have canceled "Rage" assemblies. Although the in-schools assemblies carry an anti-violence theme, the group uses the assembles to invite students to an off-school event called "Firefest," an unabashed Christian evangelical festival with a high-pressure pitch aimed at vulnerable teens...
And Meyer's response to scrutiny of her lavish spending sprees at ministry expense?
Here's what she said in tape 2 of 4 of "Mind, Mouth, Moods, and Attitudes:"
It's amazing to me how many people are jealous of the car I drive or the house I live in or the size of my ministry...Don't be jealous of the fact that I fly my own airplane...But you know what I've noticed? I've never had anybody who drives a car like mine be jealous of my car. I've never had any other minister who has an airplane be jealous of my airplane. So you know we're really not mad at what other people have, we're mad because we don't have it!
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
The anti-abortion movement turns a plastic water bottle into its own Holy Grail:
Jan Frel is wondering if some activists will go even further.
Former Lee County Sheriff John McDougall, an outspoken right-to-life activist, was arrested Saturday after trying to bring Terri Schiavo water and then ignoring police orders to leave the Pinellas Park facility where the brain-damaged woman is staying, authorities said.
McDougall was handcuffed by Pinellas Park police and taken to Pinellas County Jail, police Capt. Sanfield Forseth said.
Jan Frel is wondering if some activists will go even further.
Hey, what the hell happened to the "values voters" of November? Did they retreat into their caves or could it be, perhaps, that they exert a level of influence disproportionate to their numbers? From CBS:
Americans have strong feelings about the Terri Schiavo case, and a majority says the feeding tube should not now be re-inserted. This view is shared by Americans of all political persuasions. Most think the feeding tube should have been removed, and most also do not think the U.S. Supreme Court should hear the case.
An overwhelming 82 percent of the public believes the Congress and President should stay out of the matter. There is widespread cynicism about Congress' motives for getting involved: 7 percent say Congress intervened to advance a political agenda, not because they cared what happened to Terri Schiavo. Public approval of Congress has suffered as a result; at 34 percent, it is the lowest it has been since 1997, dropping from 41 percent last month. Now at 43 percent, President Bush’s approval rating is also lower than it was a month ago.
Fan mail:
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 15:31:13 -0700
From: "Don Waldren"
To: max@maxblumenthal.com
You’re an obvious idiot. Do you type this stuff yourself or does someone else type whatever manages to leak out of that suck hole you call a mouth?
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 15:31:13 -0700
From: "Don Waldren"
To: max@maxblumenthal.com
You’re an obvious idiot. Do you type this stuff yourself or does someone else type whatever manages to leak out of that suck hole you call a mouth?
So this is what the Schiavo charade is all about.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
The ruling on Schiavo is in. Now it might be time to remove Tom Delay's feeding tube.
These comments are already posted on this blog inside a post about Chris Ruleman, the right-wing Christian radio host accused of possessing child porn. I wanted to display them prominently:
I will say that if I write about Ruleman in the future, I will make sure to state that he is only accused of possessing child porn. But just because Ruleman is an "upstanding" citizen who assumes the mantle of moral piety doesn't mean he can't have a problem. Nobody's perfect, and isn't that why tolerance, the concept the Christian conservatives rail against so routinely, is important? Perhaps they could learn to tolerate homosexuals, for instance, instead of equating them with pedophiles. That would be a step forward.
Your comments about Chris are coldhearted and unfair. I realize that the accusations against him are horrific, revolting and disgusting. However I have known Chris for many years now, as have many well-respected people in the Nashville area, and I am one of many who are in total and complete disbelief. Chris is the last person I would EVER ever think to commit this hideous crime. This whole situation is so incredulous that I have been having a hard time concentrating on anything else since hearing of the charges. Please do not rush to conclusions and unfairly label Chris as guilty before he is convicted. There is much more to this story, and if you waited to get all of the facts before you posted this blog, then you would have done everyone a favor. Chris is an upstanding citizen and an incredible person whose name will be forever tarnished by this- guilty or not. Please have mercy on he and his family until you know the full truth.
# posted by CL - Nashville
I will say that if I write about Ruleman in the future, I will make sure to state that he is only accused of possessing child porn. But just because Ruleman is an "upstanding" citizen who assumes the mantle of moral piety doesn't mean he can't have a problem. Nobody's perfect, and isn't that why tolerance, the concept the Christian conservatives rail against so routinely, is important? Perhaps they could learn to tolerate homosexuals, for instance, instead of equating them with pedophiles. That would be a step forward.
Since I bought a new laptop, I've been having trouble posting photos to this blog. But Steve Clemons at The Note has posted a photo I took while passing through a UN-free zone in the Milches Valley, New Mexico, the possible vacation spot of John Bolton and his family.
Brooks's Ulterior Motive
David Brooks's take-down of the Tom Delay gang has generated quite a favorable response from his usual critics. Brooks is especially harsh on Grover Norquist, and Norquist definitely deserves it. But consider what a friend who interviewed Norquist a few months ago told me. Norquist works down the hall from Brooks' neocon buddy Frank Gaffney, and the two of them absolutely despise each other. As my friend told me, Gaffney routinely seeks out reporters interested in doing smear pieces on Norquist. Norquist even told my friend Gaffney had broken into his office and rifled through his files looking for incriminating info on his ties to terror groups (remember the Sami Al-Arian scandal). If this is all to be believed, then Brooks is simply carrying Gaffney and the neocons' water.
David Brooks's take-down of the Tom Delay gang has generated quite a favorable response from his usual critics. Brooks is especially harsh on Grover Norquist, and Norquist definitely deserves it. But consider what a friend who interviewed Norquist a few months ago told me. Norquist works down the hall from Brooks' neocon buddy Frank Gaffney, and the two of them absolutely despise each other. As my friend told me, Gaffney routinely seeks out reporters interested in doing smear pieces on Norquist. Norquist even told my friend Gaffney had broken into his office and rifled through his files looking for incriminating info on his ties to terror groups (remember the Sami Al-Arian scandal). If this is all to be believed, then Brooks is simply carrying Gaffney and the neocons' water.
On The Schiavo Charade
I have just located a wireless connection in the tacky Louisiana casino town I've wound up in tonight and I don't have much energy to write. But I have a lot to say about the Terri Schiavo case. I'll deal with the political implications of the case now, since they are very simple. ABC News' poll is the key to the equation:
Politically, Bush's involvement can't hurt him. After all, his approval has never plummeted below 50% and never will since about 50% of voters are simply more braindead than Terri Schiavo and can't be reached by anything except conservative/evangelical Dominionist disinformation. But endorsing federal action to save Schiavo can't help Bush either, contrary to the Santorum memo. After all, almost half of evangelicals polled are uncomfortable with the Schiavo charade. Perhaps congress's intervention in a family's private affairs, and its siding with one faction of that family over another doesn't square with their notion of family values.
As far as Bush is concerned, this isn't about improving his popularity at all. It's about his awkward post-election dance with Washington-based Christian right interest groups. Bush seems to have little interest in, or political need for, another push for a Constitutional ban on gay marriage, which is a priority on the Christian right's agenda. So endorsing the battle to save Schiavo is an opportunity for Bush to mollify the Christian right, and it seems to have worked. Just read Gary Bauer's breathless account of Bush and congressional GOP's heroism, which he emailed to thousands of supporters yesterday:
It's rare when Bauer quotes Bush in a favorable light and it is not uncommon for him to criticize him harshly. So Bush's dutiful endorsement seems to have accomplished its goal.
Most of all, the Shiavo charade is an effort to drive RINO's from the Republican party once and for all by forcing a vote that could be used against them in 2006. It's no wonder so many socially liberal Republicans and even a few Democrats in the House voted for the amendment. They needed to stave off right-wing primary challengers capable of mobilizing sheep-like values voters by saying, "My opponent voted to kill Terri Schiavo."
It's also important to note that many of those who donated to the campaign to preserve Schiavo's vegetative state are reliable donors to conservative Christian pressure campaigns, including to Republican candidates during election cycles (see my post below on Robert Herring Jr). According to Response Unlimited, a mailing list service for evangelical campaigns, over 10,000 people donated from $150 to $500 each to Robert Schindler's (Schiavo's dad) legal battle to keep her feeding tube attached. Much of this was funnelled through two major anti-abortion
groups, and may have been done so illegally:
So with the Schiavo Foundation under investigation by the state of Florida, it couldn't be more ironic that Tom Delay, who is under investigation by the state of Texas, should join its morally deluded battle.
I have just located a wireless connection in the tacky Louisiana casino town I've wound up in tonight and I don't have much energy to write. But I have a lot to say about the Terri Schiavo case. I'll deal with the political implications of the case now, since they are very simple. ABC News' poll is the key to the equation:
...the intensity of public sentiment is also on the side of Schiavo's husband, who has fought successfully in the Florida courts to remove her feeding tube. And intensity runs especially strongly against congressional involvement.
Included among the 63 percent who support removing the feeding tube are 42 percent who "strongly" support it — twice as many as strongly oppose it. And among the 70 percent who call congressional intervention inappropriate are 58 percent who hold that view strongly — an especially high level of strong opinion.
GOP Groups
Views on this issue are informed more by ideological and religious views than by political partisanship. Republicans overall look much like Democrats and independents in their opinions.
But two core Republican groups — conservatives and evangelical Protestants — are more divided: Fifty-four percent of conservatives support removal of Schiavo's feeding tube, compared with seven in 10 moderates and liberals. And evangelical Protestants divide about evenly — 46 percent are in favor of removing the tube, 44 percent opposed. Among non-evangelical Protestants, 77 percent are in favor — a huge division between evangelical and mainline Protestants.
Conservatives and evangelicals also are more likely to support federal intervention in the case, although it doesn't reach a majority in either group. Indeed, conservative Republicans oppose involving the federal courts, by 57 percent-41 percent...
Politically, Bush's involvement can't hurt him. After all, his approval has never plummeted below 50% and never will since about 50% of voters are simply more braindead than Terri Schiavo and can't be reached by anything except conservative/evangelical Dominionist disinformation. But endorsing federal action to save Schiavo can't help Bush either, contrary to the Santorum memo. After all, almost half of evangelicals polled are uncomfortable with the Schiavo charade. Perhaps congress's intervention in a family's private affairs, and its siding with one faction of that family over another doesn't square with their notion of family values.
As far as Bush is concerned, this isn't about improving his popularity at all. It's about his awkward post-election dance with Washington-based Christian right interest groups. Bush seems to have little interest in, or political need for, another push for a Constitutional ban on gay marriage, which is a priority on the Christian right's agenda. So endorsing the battle to save Schiavo is an opportunity for Bush to mollify the Christian right, and it seems to have worked. Just read Gary Bauer's breathless account of Bush and congressional GOP's heroism, which he emailed to thousands of supporters yesterday:
The media-driven notion that Congress has done something inappropriate is ignorant at best and dishonest at worst. But it is also an unfortunate sign of just how ingrained the acceptance of judicial supremacy has
become. When the courts err and overreach, who should stand up and object, if
not the people’s elected representatives?
After signing the Schiavo bill at 1:11 am, President Bush released the
following statement: “In cases like this one, where there are serious
questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts
should have a presumption in favor of life. This presumption is
especially critical for those like Terri Schiavo who live at the mercy of others.
…I will continue to stand on the side of those defending life for all
Americans, including those with disabilities.”
It's rare when Bauer quotes Bush in a favorable light and it is not uncommon for him to criticize him harshly. So Bush's dutiful endorsement seems to have accomplished its goal.
Most of all, the Shiavo charade is an effort to drive RINO's from the Republican party once and for all by forcing a vote that could be used against them in 2006. It's no wonder so many socially liberal Republicans and even a few Democrats in the House voted for the amendment. They needed to stave off right-wing primary challengers capable of mobilizing sheep-like values voters by saying, "My opponent voted to kill Terri Schiavo."
It's also important to note that many of those who donated to the campaign to preserve Schiavo's vegetative state are reliable donors to conservative Christian pressure campaigns, including to Republican candidates during election cycles (see my post below on Robert Herring Jr). According to Response Unlimited, a mailing list service for evangelical campaigns, over 10,000 people donated from $150 to $500 each to Robert Schindler's (Schiavo's dad) legal battle to keep her feeding tube attached. Much of this was funnelled through two major anti-abortion
groups, and may have been done so illegally:
The Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation filed with the state Department of Corporations as a Florida nonprofit on Feb. 8, 2002, but according to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs, has never registered to solicit contributions.
State records show that the Schindlers' attorney, Cristin Conley of Tampa, told Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs officials the foundation would be registered by Dec. 4. According to state records, that paperwork was never filed, and the Schindlers now face a $1,000 fine and could be ordered to stop collecting donations on the Web site.
While the Web site says the donations help offset legal expenses, the majority of the Schindlers' representation during the protracted legal struggle with their daughter's husband, Michael Schiavo, has been paid for by two anti-abortion groups — the Life Legal Defense Foundation and the Alliance Defense Fund — according to the Schindlers' current attorney, Barbara Weller.
So with the Schiavo Foundation under investigation by the state of Florida, it couldn't be more ironic that Tom Delay, who is under investigation by the state of Texas, should join its morally deluded battle.
Saturday, March 19, 2005
From Newsweek:
Read the whole thing. The poll is terrible for Bush's completely ad hoc domestic agenda.
Neutering the filibuster would be unpopular with Americans, nearly six in ten (57 percent) of whom would disapprove. Even one-third (33 percent) of Republicans say they would object to such a move.
Read the whole thing. The poll is terrible for Bush's completely ad hoc domestic agenda.
Hypocrisy, Not Safe For the Whole Family
Chris Ruleman had it all. He had a great family, he was a rising star in Christian Broadcasting and...well, let's just go to his bio:
Ruleman was a star on Fish TV, a subsidiary of right-wing Christian broadcasting powerhouse Salem Communications, which bills itself as "safe for the whole family." But now his bio is in dire need of updating. See, Ruleman has a problem. A getting-off-on-pictures-of-little-kids-forced-by-depraved-adults-into-compromising-positions kind of problem. Yeah, Ruleman might have to exchange those unique ties and cuff links for some county blues very shortly:
No word on whether Joe Jackson or Bubbles will be at Ruleman's trial.
Chris Ruleman had it all. He had a great family, he was a rising star in Christian Broadcasting and...well, let's just go to his bio:
Chris Ruleman is quickly becoming known as America’s top Christian adult contemporary radio voice. He's personable and friendly, and perhaps one of the silliest people you'll ever meet. Chris joined Today's Christian Music in 1994 after spending 12 years in mainstream radio. A Memphis native, Chris was a long-time fixture in Afternoon Drive slots in Nashville radio and is a widely recognized voice talent throughout the mid-south region. (We're tired of calling folks on their mobile phones and hearing Chris's voice come on to tell us "the customer you're trying to reach is not currentlyavailable"). Chris is a smart dresser who enjoys collecting unique ties, colognes, pens and cuff links. He and wife Kay were married in 1996 and enjoy spending time with their son, Wilson, and their daughter, Merryl.
Ruleman was a star on Fish TV, a subsidiary of right-wing Christian broadcasting powerhouse Salem Communications, which bills itself as "safe for the whole family." But now his bio is in dire need of updating. See, Ruleman has a problem. A getting-off-on-pictures-of-little-kids-forced-by-depraved-adults-into-compromising-positions kind of problem. Yeah, Ruleman might have to exchange those unique ties and cuff links for some county blues very shortly:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Agents with the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force arrested a Christian radio station personality as part of a child pornography investigation.
Bureau agents began investigating Chris Ruleman, 40, a midday host for WFFI, 94FM The Fish, earlier this week after receiving information that he possessed child pornography.
No word on whether Joe Jackson or Bubbles will be at Ruleman's trial.
The International Republican Institute: Churning Out Taxpayer-Funded Republican Propaganda
So I pick up a copy of yesterday's USA Today at a roadside diner somewhere in the vast wasteland that is East Texas and I see the following headline blaring on its cover: "Most Iraqis Say The Future Looks Brighter."
Oh really? I thought. With chronic electrical shortages, a flagging economy, the bloody occupation and even bloodier insurgency still raging on and no indication that anything will change, "the Iraqis" have suddenly struck an optimistic tone?
Then I read the article by Barbara Slavin and found the source of all the optimism to be a poll conducted by the International Republican Institute, a GOP-linked outfit that parades around as a "non-partisan group that promotes democracy abroad." As Slavin writes,
A quick glimpse at IRI's board of directors will dispel any notion of its non-partisanship. Besides various industry chieftains who donate massive sums to the GOP each electoral cycle, IRI's board includes former death squad doyenne Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Brent Scowcroft and Republican Rep. David Dreier. IRI's staff, meanhwile, consists entirely of GOP Hill staffers looking to burnish their credentials before vying for public office and posts on the International Relations Committee.
IRI was founded in 1985, immediately after Congress imposed a series of restrictions on the CIA's covert activity in other countries. With the CIA's ability to manipulate internal politics in other countries constrained, IRI (along with the National Endowment for Democracy and its Democratic counterpart, the National Democratic Institute), were deployed to do overtly what the CIA used to do covertly. The overt-covert nature of IRI allows it to do the US's dirty work behind a veneer of "promoting democracy." (Check out my piece on how IRI fomented the recent coup in Haiti for a look at its role as an instrument of soft power).
IRI's Iraqi opinion poll represents its new role as a GOP instrument for propagandizing the American public. With the USA Today's Slavin acting either as a useful idiot or an active collaborator, IRI is able to cultivate favorable American opinion toward the Bush administration's Iraq policy by convincing them the Iraqis -- whomever they are -- actually want us to be there. A closer look at the poll's methodology and findings show how deceptive it is -- and is meant to be.
Okay, so only 33% of Sunnis think Iraq is headed in the right direction, but IRI neglects to poll the two provinces containing most of Iraq's Sunnis. How convenient! The poll is so heavily weighted toward Iraq's Shiites, who, through regime change, have gained unprecedented power, that it can't be taken seriously. Sadly, Slavin and USA Today's editors decided to plug it just like all the credulous local news programs that aired the White House's fake news videos. The American public is literally paying for its own brainwashing.
Slavin's shilling for pro-GOP groups (she also habitually quotes American Enterprise Institute sources) has an especially strong impact on opinion in rural America where USA Today is the only source of print news on world events. Indeed, I would have never read Slavin's story were I not passing through East Texas.
So I pick up a copy of yesterday's USA Today at a roadside diner somewhere in the vast wasteland that is East Texas and I see the following headline blaring on its cover: "Most Iraqis Say The Future Looks Brighter."
Oh really? I thought. With chronic electrical shortages, a flagging economy, the bloody occupation and even bloodier insurgency still raging on and no indication that anything will change, "the Iraqis" have suddenly struck an optimistic tone?
Then I read the article by Barbara Slavin and found the source of all the optimism to be a poll conducted by the International Republican Institute, a GOP-linked outfit that parades around as a "non-partisan group that promotes democracy abroad." As Slavin writes,
More Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction and fewer think it's going wrong than at any time since the U.S. invasion two years ago, according to a new poll.
The poll, by the International Republican Institute (IRI), due to be made public Wednesday, also found that nearly half of Iraqis believe that religion has a special role to play in government.... The IRI is a non-partisan, U.S. taxpayer-funded group that promotes democracy abroad.
A quick glimpse at IRI's board of directors will dispel any notion of its non-partisanship. Besides various industry chieftains who donate massive sums to the GOP each electoral cycle, IRI's board includes former death squad doyenne Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Brent Scowcroft and Republican Rep. David Dreier. IRI's staff, meanhwile, consists entirely of GOP Hill staffers looking to burnish their credentials before vying for public office and posts on the International Relations Committee.
IRI was founded in 1985, immediately after Congress imposed a series of restrictions on the CIA's covert activity in other countries. With the CIA's ability to manipulate internal politics in other countries constrained, IRI (along with the National Endowment for Democracy and its Democratic counterpart, the National Democratic Institute), were deployed to do overtly what the CIA used to do covertly. The overt-covert nature of IRI allows it to do the US's dirty work behind a veneer of "promoting democracy." (Check out my piece on how IRI fomented the recent coup in Haiti for a look at its role as an instrument of soft power).
IRI's Iraqi opinion poll represents its new role as a GOP instrument for propagandizing the American public. With the USA Today's Slavin acting either as a useful idiot or an active collaborator, IRI is able to cultivate favorable American opinion toward the Bush administration's Iraq policy by convincing them the Iraqis -- whomever they are -- actually want us to be there. A closer look at the poll's methodology and findings show how deceptive it is -- and is meant to be.
Pollsters did not survey three of Iraq's 18 provinces because of security and logistical concerns. Two of those omitted, Anbar and Ninevah, are predominantly Sunni Muslim. A third, Dahuk, is mostly Kurdish...
The poll showed continuing sharp differences among Iraq's ethnic and religious groups, with 33% in Arab Sunni areas believing the country is headed in the right direction, compared with 71% of Kurds and 66% in the Shiite south.
Okay, so only 33% of Sunnis think Iraq is headed in the right direction, but IRI neglects to poll the two provinces containing most of Iraq's Sunnis. How convenient! The poll is so heavily weighted toward Iraq's Shiites, who, through regime change, have gained unprecedented power, that it can't be taken seriously. Sadly, Slavin and USA Today's editors decided to plug it just like all the credulous local news programs that aired the White House's fake news videos. The American public is literally paying for its own brainwashing.
Slavin's shilling for pro-GOP groups (she also habitually quotes American Enterprise Institute sources) has an especially strong impact on opinion in rural America where USA Today is the only source of print news on world events. Indeed, I would have never read Slavin's story were I not passing through East Texas.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
...and another abominable nomination.
Too bad I couldn't see Wolfie at the Tucson Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. He cancelled. "The war on terror calls," his office told the Southeast Arizona Republicans Club.
Too bad I couldn't see Wolfie at the Tucson Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. He cancelled. "The war on terror calls," his office told the Southeast Arizona Republicans Club.
I'm stranded in Silver City, New Mexico after a meeting with the International Relations Council, which publishes Right-Web, fell through. Nestled in a valley below the Gila National Forest, Silver City's major tourist attraction seems to be the jail that Billy the Kid escaped from. There is also a library with internet access in this one horse town, so I'm satisfied for now.
I suppose tomorrow morning I'll get to meet Tom Barry, Right-Web's director and a veteran researcher who recently released an authoritative dossier on John R. Bolton. It's worth a read if you want a throrough run-down on Bolton's career, from his role as a UN-bashing Jesse Helms disciple, to his membership on the anti-China "Blue Team," to his history of shady campaign fundraising practices.
And speaking of Bolton, the San Francisco Chronicle has run a really interesting article on how Bolton spearheaded the Bush administration's effort to keep the US out of the UN Bioweapons Treaty. What's so interesting is the author seems to suggest that China had originally created SARS as a biological weapon.
I suppose tomorrow morning I'll get to meet Tom Barry, Right-Web's director and a veteran researcher who recently released an authoritative dossier on John R. Bolton. It's worth a read if you want a throrough run-down on Bolton's career, from his role as a UN-bashing Jesse Helms disciple, to his membership on the anti-China "Blue Team," to his history of shady campaign fundraising practices.
And speaking of Bolton, the San Francisco Chronicle has run a really interesting article on how Bolton spearheaded the Bush administration's effort to keep the US out of the UN Bioweapons Treaty. What's so interesting is the author seems to suggest that China had originally created SARS as a biological weapon.
At the opening of the review conference, Bolton proposed that the protocol be, simply, dumped. In its place, he proposed bilateral treaties between the United States and every other country in the world, treaties that the United States would have the power to enforce, including the right to extradite and try in U.S. courts those suspected of engaging in bioweapons research.
In short, nothing would disturb the United States when it crossed the line into research for offensive bio weapons, but the United States was seeking for itself a system answerable to nobody that would empower it to bring its full force (including military, of course) to bear on any country attempting to compete with it in bio arms research.
The academic experts and nongovernmental organizations monitoring the drafting process and bioweapons research throughout the world were horrified and predicted that this would give rise to a frenzied arms race in biological weapons, probably with China in the lead.
A year later, China discovered SARS and tried to hide it. Three months later, terrified of the possibilities of its spreading throughout China and the world, it notified the World Health Organization, which immediately organized an emergency response on a scale unprecedented for any new illness. The WHO, too, was obviously terrified.
SARS was brought under control, but within the WHO, suppressed by pressure from a certain superpower, was an analysis of the SARS virus showing it to be an artificial creation designed to kill fast and furiously.
The conclusion was that it had somehow escaped from a military lab, which explained why, for three months, the Chinese authorities had hoped to counter the threat, ultimately in vain.
In the end, the Chinese were only too happy to have the analysis suppressed, and the superpower in question averted a major worldwide debate on the need for a bioweapons treaty with an enforcement mechanism.
Now, the bioweapons treaty is essentially a dead letter, the bio arms race is on, and many are quietly asking what the real origin of the bird flu might be.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Robert Herring: Saving the Brain Dead, Brain-Washing the Living
Some people spend their money on bizarre things. And they're not all nouveau riche celebrity cheeseballs like Bruce Willis or Demi Moore, who used to insist on only bathing in pure spring water. Frivolously spending weirdos range from the guys who buy $6,000 sex dolls (somebody's keeping this company in business, but who?) to San Diego "businessman" Robert Herring, who just tried -- and failed -- to bribe Terri Schiavo's husband with $1 million to drop his campaign to put her out of her misery. Speaking of Demi Moore, I'm wondering if Herring's $1 million bribe included an proposition for one night with the brain-dead woman, a la Robert Redford in "Indecent Proposal."
What's ironic about Herring's failed bribe is that he is the president of a cable TV channel that is "devoted to taking viewers on a journey of how wealth is achieved, used and enjoyed." It's called Wealth TV, a vehicle for deifying the rich in the eyes of the swelling ranks of disguntled working poor -- so they won't be disgruntled anymore. This week, viewers can view programs like "WOW! Palm Springs" (but won't get to sip pink wine with Drudge and pop pills with Rush) and "Private Jets: Buying the Life." It's nothing less than a lurid borgeouise designer drug-induced fantasy packeaged for realization on super-sized digital flat screens across America. So why is Terri Schiavo's image prominently displayed on Wealth TV's home page? Does she have anything to do with corporate dominionism? And what the hell is a feminist like Gloria Allred doing representing a sleazebag like Herring?
The answer is, I don't know. But if I'm to rely on Occam's Razor, then Herring is some kind of evangelical or conservative Catholic pro-lifer who is compelled by religious fervor to spend just as much energy saving the brain-dead as he does brainwashing the living. And Allred is only in it for the money. The simplest explanation is usually the best one.
Some people spend their money on bizarre things. And they're not all nouveau riche celebrity cheeseballs like Bruce Willis or Demi Moore, who used to insist on only bathing in pure spring water. Frivolously spending weirdos range from the guys who buy $6,000 sex dolls (somebody's keeping this company in business, but who?) to San Diego "businessman" Robert Herring, who just tried -- and failed -- to bribe Terri Schiavo's husband with $1 million to drop his campaign to put her out of her misery. Speaking of Demi Moore, I'm wondering if Herring's $1 million bribe included an proposition for one night with the brain-dead woman, a la Robert Redford in "Indecent Proposal."
San Diego businessman Robert Herring, who founded an electronics company and later a cable and satellite channel, said he felt “compelled” to try to have the husband transfer the legal right to decide his wife’s medical treatment to the parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.
“I believe very strongly that there are medical advances happening around the globe that very shortly could have a positive impact on Terri’s condition,” Herring said.
Herring’s offer is valid until Monday, according to a statement from his attorney, Gloria Allred. The money has been deposited into a trust account at Allred’s Los Angeles law firm, the statement said.
Felos said his client would not consider any such proposals.
What's ironic about Herring's failed bribe is that he is the president of a cable TV channel that is "devoted to taking viewers on a journey of how wealth is achieved, used and enjoyed." It's called Wealth TV, a vehicle for deifying the rich in the eyes of the swelling ranks of disguntled working poor -- so they won't be disgruntled anymore. This week, viewers can view programs like "WOW! Palm Springs" (but won't get to sip pink wine with Drudge and pop pills with Rush) and "Private Jets: Buying the Life." It's nothing less than a lurid borgeouise designer drug-induced fantasy packeaged for realization on super-sized digital flat screens across America. So why is Terri Schiavo's image prominently displayed on Wealth TV's home page? Does she have anything to do with corporate dominionism? And what the hell is a feminist like Gloria Allred doing representing a sleazebag like Herring?
The answer is, I don't know. But if I'm to rely on Occam's Razor, then Herring is some kind of evangelical or conservative Catholic pro-lifer who is compelled by religious fervor to spend just as much energy saving the brain-dead as he does brainwashing the living. And Allred is only in it for the money. The simplest explanation is usually the best one.
Monday, March 14, 2005
Hillary may have done her darndest to earn the relative respect of social conservatives in Washington, but it looks likely that the same old red meat character based attacks will be recycled for 2008:
I doubt 2006 will be a proving ground for these attacks since the Christian right is weak in New York. But this strategy could have an effect in states like Arkansas, Virginia and Nevada which Hillary ostensibly hopes to take.
A new report from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) suggests that Senator Hillary Clinton can expect a fresh onslaught of sexuality- and gender-based attacks if she does indeed run for president in 2008.
The commission's report, entitled "Written Out: How Sexuality is Used to Attack Women's Organizing," says that Clinton "continues to be baited as a public leader both because she is seen as strong, smart and opinionated, and therefore 'not a good traditional woman,' and also because of the controversy surrounding her husband's sexual 'transgressions.'"
I doubt 2006 will be a proving ground for these attacks since the Christian right is weak in New York. But this strategy could have an effect in states like Arkansas, Virginia and Nevada which Hillary ostensibly hopes to take.
Blackwell, Running to the Hard Right
Kathryn Harris impersonator and Clarence Thomas stunt double Kenneth Blackwell is giving every indication that he plans to run for Ohio governor to the right of unpopular Republican moderate Bob Taft. Last week, he was with the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins as part of a campaign to further politicize Ohio's already archconservative clergy. This is from an email I got from Perkins, so there's no link:
Kathryn Harris impersonator and Clarence Thomas stunt double Kenneth Blackwell is giving every indication that he plans to run for Ohio governor to the right of unpopular Republican moderate Bob Taft. Last week, he was with the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins as part of a campaign to further politicize Ohio's already archconservative clergy. This is from an email I got from Perkins, so there's no link:
I have spent the last couple of days in Ohio where I spoke to over 2,800 people at Fairfield Christian Church outside Columbus. Today I joined Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and former Ohio Congressman Bob McEwen as we spoke to about 70 key members of the clergy. We reflected back upon America's godly heritage and the key role that pastors played in this nation. The meeting, which was hosted by Pastor Rod Parsley at World Harvest Church, was organized by Pastor Russell Johnson of Lancaster.
Many of these pastors were instrumental in working with the president of Ohio's Citizens for Community Values, Phil Burress, in passing Ohio's marriage amendment over tremendous obstacles foes of marriage placed in their way. This was the first of a series of meetings designed to enlist hundreds of members of the clergy as "Patriot Pastors" to further organize the Church in Ohio for social engagement. What I see happening across the country with pastors is unprecedented - pastors and their flocks are not going back to life as usual after the election. Christians are committed to the battle not only for the heart and souls of people but for the heart and soul of this nation.
One more thought about the Lefkow murders: I wonder to what extent conservative demagoguery about "activist judges" and "a litigous society" resonated with -- and encouraged -- Bart Ross, who actually kept a hit list of judges and lawyers.
Summing up the Lefkow Murders
I've been waiting for a spare moment to address the apparent resolution of the manhunt for the killers of the Lefkow family and have finally found it. Actually, the Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page has taken the keystrokes from my fingertips, flipping Matthew Hale's predictable call for an apology since one of his followers is not culpable.
And if anyone doubts the anti-democratic and violent intentions of Hale's followers, consider what the leader of the World Church of the Creator did recently:
I've been waiting for a spare moment to address the apparent resolution of the manhunt for the killers of the Lefkow family and have finally found it. Actually, the Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page has taken the keystrokes from my fingertips, flipping Matthew Hale's predictable call for an apology since one of his followers is not culpable.
What a relief to Hale, who said earlier, with his usual level of understatement, that "only an idiot" would think he had anything to do with the killings.
Of course, being called an "idiot" by Hale is like being called ugly by a monkfish. Even locked away in his dungeon with limited outside contacts, Hale's history should have made him a "person of interest," as federal investigators put it so delicately. Only an idiot would have ruled him out.
No, instead of receiving apologies from the civilized world, Hale should be apologizing to us.
- He should apologize to all Americans for adding fuel to the fires of domestic terrorism.
- He should apologize to white people for being a discredit to his race.
- He should apologize to the racial and religious minorities he has exploited in building an organization of people who have so little to live up to that they feel they must put others down.
- He should apologize to organized religion for desecrating the word "church."
At best, we owe Hale a particle of gratitude for reminding us of how easy it is to presume the guilt of some people even when there's no hard evidence. That's something to which a lot of non-white men could respond, "Welcome to my world!"
And if anyone doubts the anti-democratic and violent intentions of Hale's followers, consider what the leader of the World Church of the Creator did recently:
Police on Friday arrested a man authorities believe is a white supremacist who allegedly beat a fellow extremist-group member for about 11 hours.
Adam Daniel Jacobs believed that member had helped federal authorities in their investigation of the murders of a Chicago judge's relatives, court documents show....
Jacobs struck Williams with a kitchen chair until the legs broke, kicked Williams with steel-toe boots, and held a machete to Williams' throat and told him he was going to behead him, according to Haefling's affidavit.
During the beating, Jacobs was drinking alcoholic beverages and communicating with other church members by telephone, e-mail and Internet instant messaging, Haefling wrote.
Speaking of nostalgia, here's a case of nostalgia for a mythical Aryan past conceived by the 19th century anti-Semitic composer Richard Wagner, one which Dick Cheney's office seems to have offered mild support for:
In the late 19th century, a handful of German families settled in a remote jungle of Paraguay, where they intended to create a racially pure utopian settlement called Nueva Germania.
The experiment was a colossal failure.
The settlers were unprepared for the devastating diseases and other hardships of jungle life, and their descendants -- some of whom intermarried with the darker-skinned locals -- are among the poorest people in one of the poorest countries in South America.
But now they have an unlikely champion: a Wagner-loving San Francisco composer who is mounting a determined crusade to rebuild the Aryan dream and has sought assistance from Vice President Dick Cheney, two U.S. philanthropic groups, a Southern California town council, Bay Area artists, and a U.S. filmmaker best known for the underground movie "Scorpio Rising" and the book "Hollywood Babylon."
"As an artist who is fed up with much of the pretentious nonsense that has come to define Western culture, I am drawn to the idea of an Aryan vacuum in the middle of the jungle," says David Woodard, who lives on Mount Davidson and studied musical composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.....
Reichel said the council was dismayed to later find a link to Nueva Germania and the mention of a sister city alliance on the community's Web site, www.juniperhills.net, which Woodard developed.
The link includes a recording of "Our Jungle Holy Land," which "celebrates our sister city project with Nueva Germania," as well as a written response from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. "The Vice President was pleased to learn of your community's interest in establishing sister city status with Nueva Germania" reads the letter....
I've been relegated to working from my car after deciding I couldn't stand another minute in this dingy, dungeon-like cafe in the outer suburbs of Tucson surrounded by slacker stereotypes riding the fence between full immersion in some bohemian version of America's hellish service economy and the prosperous spriritual void their middle-class parents inhabit. Nor could I stand the 80's music blaring through the speakers. Besides the fact that everything about the 80's sucks -- the clothes, the Reaganite consipicuous consumptionism, the saccharine, disposable soundtrack -- I fully agree with Frank Zappa, who said that "Nostalgia will be the death of America." So I can't decide what's worse, the 50's kitsch of anti-modern, conservative evangelical culture or the 80's kitsch of post-modern, slacker culture.
But all complaints aside, Tucson is one of my favorite cities. There's as much to do here as any of America's major cities but far less traffic. And the romantic, desert setting has made Tucson a magnet for those connosieurs of romance, the French. This place is crawling with French people! At some bizarre party the other night, I met some French bikers apparently filming an MTV reality show. When I told them, "Je suis contre les Republicains," they wouldn't stop hugging me. So different from those American bikers with the POW-MIA flags on their bikes. From a political point of view, Texas should be more interesting. Stay tuned.
But all complaints aside, Tucson is one of my favorite cities. There's as much to do here as any of America's major cities but far less traffic. And the romantic, desert setting has made Tucson a magnet for those connosieurs of romance, the French. This place is crawling with French people! At some bizarre party the other night, I met some French bikers apparently filming an MTV reality show. When I told them, "Je suis contre les Republicains," they wouldn't stop hugging me. So different from those American bikers with the POW-MIA flags on their bikes. From a political point of view, Texas should be more interesting. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
The L.A. Mayoral Primary: The Election Nobody Cared About
Until about a month ago, I had practically forgotten that Los Angeles had a mayor. Then, as the campaign began heating up, I remembered my dismay in 2002 (if I remember correctly) when Jim Hahn was elected. He had run a demagogic campaign that relied on racist commercials financed by casino Indians that depicted the face of his leading rival, Antonio Villaraigosa, superimposed over a smoking crack pipe. Villaraigosa had written a letter of support for a former cocaine dealer who Bill Clinton eventually pardoned; Hahn used this to stoke fears among white San Fernando Valley residents that Mexican drug cartels would be running city hall unless they voted for him. Meanwhile, Hahn unrelentingly invoked the memory of his deceased dad, Kenneth, who was a popular city council member in South L.A., to win the black vote.
This time around, Hahn has little hope of ressurecting the coalition he won on in 2002. He has launched a toned-down version of his racist anti-Villaraigosa ad campaign but to little effect, and after firing LA's first black police chief, Bernard Parks -- a hapless bungler who deserved to be torpedoed -- he has little hope of winning the black vote. And throughout his tenure, he has been virtually invisible, displaying not even the slightest iota of the charisma that made his father a hero of working class LA. Hahn's fluke victory the first time around virtually secured his defeat this time.
Having said that, I have witnessed a gradual improvement in the city I have lived in for the past five years. Traffic is less congested, public works projects are being completed everywhere and crime is down sharply. And despite a much ballyhooed mock scandal over construction contracts, Hahn has clearly run city hall well. He's basically a good administrator and a boring guy.
As one of my last significant acts in LA, I voted for Villaraigosa. He is the most progressive candidate in the race, having garnered a 100% rating from the Greeen Party, and he's a charismatic figure who will promote LA as the majority Latino city it is and as the new face of American cities. I also expect Villaraigosa to ensure more citizen control over the MTA so that poor people have better access to public transportation. For years, for instance, he has been calling for a law mandating that buses arrriving more than 15 minutes past their scheduled time allow passengers to ride free. And finally, as a rising star with national potential, Villaraigosa is a huge asset for the progressive wing of the Democratic party. I basically voted for a change in mood more than a drastic shift in policy.
When I went to vote, I couldn't help but notice how sparse the turnout was. I caught a glimpse inside the voter rolls and it looked like less than 30% of registered voters in my neighborhood bothered to show up. Where I live, a poor/working-class Latino area, people were probably too simultaneously harried by work and disengaged from the increasingly insider-oriented world of politics to care about some mayoral primary. As for the surly hag who lives four houses down from me, she was too busy screaming at her kids for not being able to find "the motherfucking washtowel." Meanwhile, during my rare -- and reluctant -- forays to West LA, I haven't heard a single person discuss the election as anything but a sideshow to the real political goings on: Hillary's chances, that hooker posing in his briefs who made it into the White House briefing room, etc. I guess Kabbalah lessons and botox injections do not necessarily promote community activism.
If someone stole the mayoral election and bragged about it, LA would not witness anything like what we've seen in Kiev or Beirut this year. If Angelenos are ever so overcome by injustice that they feel compelled to act, they'll burn things, turn over a few cop cars, run around in circles screaming incoherently and fire handguns in the air. But they are not going to pour into the streets with banners and songs naively demanding a better way. They know better.
LA is basically what it seems like when it's viewed from the mountains that surround it and which slow its quest to subsume everything around it. It's a vast, bright-burning blob of diffuse, disconnected mysteries; a low, hungry roar hovering below a firmament of vaporized disappointment. It is so gigantic, so transitory and so unique, it's hard to even call it a city. And yet, without any discernible center, LA has managed to cohere around something. While I'm not sure what that is, I don't think it's city hall.
Until about a month ago, I had practically forgotten that Los Angeles had a mayor. Then, as the campaign began heating up, I remembered my dismay in 2002 (if I remember correctly) when Jim Hahn was elected. He had run a demagogic campaign that relied on racist commercials financed by casino Indians that depicted the face of his leading rival, Antonio Villaraigosa, superimposed over a smoking crack pipe. Villaraigosa had written a letter of support for a former cocaine dealer who Bill Clinton eventually pardoned; Hahn used this to stoke fears among white San Fernando Valley residents that Mexican drug cartels would be running city hall unless they voted for him. Meanwhile, Hahn unrelentingly invoked the memory of his deceased dad, Kenneth, who was a popular city council member in South L.A., to win the black vote.
This time around, Hahn has little hope of ressurecting the coalition he won on in 2002. He has launched a toned-down version of his racist anti-Villaraigosa ad campaign but to little effect, and after firing LA's first black police chief, Bernard Parks -- a hapless bungler who deserved to be torpedoed -- he has little hope of winning the black vote. And throughout his tenure, he has been virtually invisible, displaying not even the slightest iota of the charisma that made his father a hero of working class LA. Hahn's fluke victory the first time around virtually secured his defeat this time.
Having said that, I have witnessed a gradual improvement in the city I have lived in for the past five years. Traffic is less congested, public works projects are being completed everywhere and crime is down sharply. And despite a much ballyhooed mock scandal over construction contracts, Hahn has clearly run city hall well. He's basically a good administrator and a boring guy.
As one of my last significant acts in LA, I voted for Villaraigosa. He is the most progressive candidate in the race, having garnered a 100% rating from the Greeen Party, and he's a charismatic figure who will promote LA as the majority Latino city it is and as the new face of American cities. I also expect Villaraigosa to ensure more citizen control over the MTA so that poor people have better access to public transportation. For years, for instance, he has been calling for a law mandating that buses arrriving more than 15 minutes past their scheduled time allow passengers to ride free. And finally, as a rising star with national potential, Villaraigosa is a huge asset for the progressive wing of the Democratic party. I basically voted for a change in mood more than a drastic shift in policy.
When I went to vote, I couldn't help but notice how sparse the turnout was. I caught a glimpse inside the voter rolls and it looked like less than 30% of registered voters in my neighborhood bothered to show up. Where I live, a poor/working-class Latino area, people were probably too simultaneously harried by work and disengaged from the increasingly insider-oriented world of politics to care about some mayoral primary. As for the surly hag who lives four houses down from me, she was too busy screaming at her kids for not being able to find "the motherfucking washtowel." Meanwhile, during my rare -- and reluctant -- forays to West LA, I haven't heard a single person discuss the election as anything but a sideshow to the real political goings on: Hillary's chances, that hooker posing in his briefs who made it into the White House briefing room, etc. I guess Kabbalah lessons and botox injections do not necessarily promote community activism.
If someone stole the mayoral election and bragged about it, LA would not witness anything like what we've seen in Kiev or Beirut this year. If Angelenos are ever so overcome by injustice that they feel compelled to act, they'll burn things, turn over a few cop cars, run around in circles screaming incoherently and fire handguns in the air. But they are not going to pour into the streets with banners and songs naively demanding a better way. They know better.
LA is basically what it seems like when it's viewed from the mountains that surround it and which slow its quest to subsume everything around it. It's a vast, bright-burning blob of diffuse, disconnected mysteries; a low, hungry roar hovering below a firmament of vaporized disappointment. It is so gigantic, so transitory and so unique, it's hard to even call it a city. And yet, without any discernible center, LA has managed to cohere around something. While I'm not sure what that is, I don't think it's city hall.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
My PC may have breathed its final breath last night, so until I clear my computer situation up, posting might be a little lighter than usual. I should be back in later tonight, though, to follow up on new leads in the Lefkow case.
I am also in the midst of a move from LA to DC. Since I'll be driving the whole way, my blog will become sort of a travelogue and forum for any reporting I'm able to do while passing through the Bible Belt, that nebulous region which stretches from Texas to Virginia and just keeps growing like the Blob. I'm hoping I'll be able to get access to everywhere from D. James Kennedy's Knox Theological Seminary to creationist theme parks to the halls of Patrick Henry University, where the Christian right is training its next generation of leaders. I guess you'll see how far I get.
If anyone has any travel tips or story ideas, let me know. Before I get to Dixieland, I'll be spending a few days on the Arizona border, so I'll be hearing all about the Minuteman" project (which should be called the one-minute-man project).
I am also in the midst of a move from LA to DC. Since I'll be driving the whole way, my blog will become sort of a travelogue and forum for any reporting I'm able to do while passing through the Bible Belt, that nebulous region which stretches from Texas to Virginia and just keeps growing like the Blob. I'm hoping I'll be able to get access to everywhere from D. James Kennedy's Knox Theological Seminary to creationist theme parks to the halls of Patrick Henry University, where the Christian right is training its next generation of leaders. I guess you'll see how far I get.
If anyone has any travel tips or story ideas, let me know. Before I get to Dixieland, I'll be spending a few days on the Arizona border, so I'll be hearing all about the Minuteman" project (which should be called the one-minute-man project).
Monday, March 07, 2005
Did Giuliana Sgrena Know Too Much?
Is this the article that made Giuliana Sgrena a target?
This is what Sgrena's friend, Piero Scolari, told the Italian press yesterday, as reported on the Laura Flanders show:
Sgrena's account of napalm and Fallujah dovetails with the following report from the British tabloid, the Sunday Mirror, which created a huge stir when it was published last November:
The reference to "melted" corpses seems to allude to Sgrena's reporting and thus, suggests why she was perceived as a threat by the US and UK. Any investigation into her targeting must include a full and transparent accounting of weapons used during the battle for the Baghdad airport in 2003 and Fallujah in late 2004. Without such an account, we can only assume Sgrena was right: the US is guilty of massive war crimes in Iraq.
Is this the article that made Giuliana Sgrena a target?
«We buried them, but we could not identify them because they were charred from the napalm bombs used by the Americans». People from Saqlawiya village, near Falluja, told al Jazeera television, based in Qatar, that they helped bury 73 bodies of women and children completely charred, all in the same grave. The sad story of common graves, which started at Saddam’s times, is not yet finished. Nobody could confirm if napalm bombs have been used in Falluja, but other bodies found last year after the fierce battle at Baghdad airport were also completely charred and some thought of nuclear bombs. No independent source could verify the facts, since all the news arrived until now are those spread by journalists embedded with the American troops, who would only allow British and American media to enrol with them. But the villagers who fled in the last few days spoke of many bodies which had not been buried: it was too dangerous to collect the corpses during the battle...
This is what Sgrena's friend, Piero Scolari, told the Italian press yesterday, as reported on the Laura Flanders show:
According to Scolari, says Sermonti, Giuliana had been warned by her captives that "the Americans didn't want her to get out of Iraq."
At the time of her abduction, Giuliana was heading to an area of Baghdad where witnesses from Fallujah are staying to interview Fallujah refugees about the US assault on their city last year. Says Sermonti:
"She had some information about the use of illegal weapons by US forces in Fallujah that was very sensitive. A very hot topic. There were rumors of some use of chemicals and a number of weapons that are not legal -- like [napalm] and phosphorus."
Sgrena's account of napalm and Fallujah dovetails with the following report from the British tabloid, the Sunday Mirror, which created a huge stir when it was published last November:
US troops are secretly using outlawed napalm gas to wipe out remaining insurgents in and around Fallujah.
News that President George W. Bush has sanctioned the use of napalm, a deadly cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel banned by the United Nations in 1980, will stun governments around the world.
And last night Tony Blair was dragged into the row as furious Labour MPs demanded he face the Commons over it. Reports claim that innocent civilians have died in napalm attacks, which turn victims into human fireballs as the gel bonds flames to flesh.
Outraged critics have also demanded that Mr Blair threatens to withdraw British troops from Iraq unless the US abandons one of the world's most reviled weapons. Halifax Labour MP Alice Mahon said: "I am calling on Mr Blair to make an emergency statement to the Commons to explain why this is happening. It begs the question: 'Did we know about this hideous weapon's use in Iraq?'"
Since the American assault on Fallujah there have been reports of "melted" corpses, which appeared to have napalm injuries.
Last August the US was forced to admit using the gas in Iraq.
A 1980 UN convention banned the use of napalm against civilians - after pictures of a naked girl victim fleeing in Vietnam shocked the world.
America, which didn't ratify the treaty, is the only country in the world still using the weapon.
The reference to "melted" corpses seems to allude to Sgrena's reporting and thus, suggests why she was perceived as a threat by the US and UK. Any investigation into her targeting must include a full and transparent accounting of weapons used during the battle for the Baghdad airport in 2003 and Fallujah in late 2004. Without such an account, we can only assume Sgrena was right: the US is guilty of massive war crimes in Iraq.
The Third Man, And More
Quick update on the Lefkow killings: I hear from sources the police have clarified (though not publicly, yet) their description of the two suspects' sketches. The character in the first sketch, an older man with a ski cap on, was seen near the Lefkow home -- and not in the red Ford Escort with the other individual, who bears striking resemblance to the character in the white beret pictured below.
Since there were two men sighted in the Escort, there is a third man out there who has not yet been identified. That also means that if the three suspects did indeed kill the Lefkows, the murder were a criminal conspiracy, not the work of a "lone wolf."
Meanwhile, domestic terrorism's cheerleader of the moment, Hal Turner (who may represent the physical manifestation of Pat Robertson's id), is playing his fiddle again:
I was serious about the Pat Robertson thing, by the way:
Quick update on the Lefkow killings: I hear from sources the police have clarified (though not publicly, yet) their description of the two suspects' sketches. The character in the first sketch, an older man with a ski cap on, was seen near the Lefkow home -- and not in the red Ford Escort with the other individual, who bears striking resemblance to the character in the white beret pictured below.
Since there were two men sighted in the Escort, there is a third man out there who has not yet been identified. That also means that if the three suspects did indeed kill the Lefkows, the murder were a criminal conspiracy, not the work of a "lone wolf."
Meanwhile, domestic terrorism's cheerleader of the moment, Hal Turner (who may represent the physical manifestation of Pat Robertson's id), is playing his fiddle again:
Late Saturday, white supremacist Hal Turner posted on his Web site a call for home addresses, photos and other information about three appeals court judges he calls "the real villains" in Matthew Hale's struggles.
While urging readers to break no laws, Turner wrote "the timing is perfect right now to stoke the fire of public opinion against these other judges."
I was serious about the Pat Robertson thing, by the way:
On the January 3 edition of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club, Reverend Pat Robertson, host and Christian Coalition of America founder, made predictions for the New Year based on what he said God told him during a recent prayer retreat. Robertson said that God told him: "I will remove judges from the Supreme Court quickly, and their successors will refuse to sanction the attacks on religious faith."
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Hear Me
If you're in the LA area, I'll be doing a full hour on Ian Masters' "Background Briefing," from 12 to 1 pm on 90.7 FM. I'll be discussing my work on the Christian Right and taking calls for the second half hour.
If you're in the LA area, I'll be doing a full hour on Ian Masters' "Background Briefing," from 12 to 1 pm on 90.7 FM. I'll be discussing my work on the Christian Right and taking calls for the second half hour.
Friday, March 04, 2005
Suspect #1
This is Deerfield student John Schlissman at a Hale speech at Northwestern University in 2000. I hear from sources he is a central target of the investigation and has been known to tote a .22 -- even to World Church of the Creator rallies. Although the murder weapon is a .22, according to white supremacist short-wave radio host, Hal Turner (who was questioned by federal agents yesterday), such small caliber bone-busters are for the multi-culturalist, one-worlder crowd only:
"I'm a guy who, if I have a problem with you, I take it up with you, not with your wife and kids. I personally don't think any pro-white person was involved in these killings. The weapon was a .22, and white supremacists carry assault weapons or .45s. They also tend to handle their difficulties one-on-one."
Suspect #2
Here's "Rev." Scott Gulbranson of Creve Cour, Illinois. I have heard from several sources besides the Chicago Sun-Times that the investigation is zeroing in on him. He's of course, the character in the photo below juxtaposed with a police sketch of two suspects seen at the scene of the crime.
The photo was taken by Jenny Warburg at the arrest of Matt Hale in January, 2003. You can see more at the Center for New Community's website.
It looks like the Chicago PD are questioning the guy standing to the right of Hale in the photo below for the Lefkow murders. The connection was so obvious, I can't imagine cops relying on "liberal bloggers" to catch a terrorist. Can you?
From the Chicago Sun-Times:
From the Chicago Sun-Times:
...Meanwhile, Sneed has been told part of the police investigation's focus is on a New York Times photograph of Matthew Hale being accompanied by several followers, one of whom seems "strikingly similar" to one of the two police sketches released of possible murder suspects.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
It's the guy on the right. Click on the image for a larger view and you'll see what I mean. (Thanks to Mike Tidmus).
Robert Byrd, my hero (for now):
Byrd cited Hitler's 1930s rise to power by, in part, pushing legislation through the German parliament that seemed to legitimize his ascension.
``We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men,'' Byrd said. ``But witness how men with motives and a majority can manipulate law to cruel and unjust ends.''
Byrd then quoted historian Alan Bullock, saying Hitler ``turned the law inside out and made illegality legal.''
Byrd added, ``That is what the 'nuclear option' seeks to do.'
James Evans, who is pastor of Auburn First Baptist Church, has ten very good reasons why the Ten Commandments should not be displayed on government property. Reason number 5 points out the theological hypocrisy of the displays:
Public displays of the Ten Commandments are a form of idolatry. Anytime we treat as ultimate something we have made with our own hands, we are worshipping idols. Even if the words on the monument are God’s, the monument is ours. That’s why one of those commandments warns against graven images.
Apparently this spaz is running for governor in 2006:
This is the kind of increasingly frequent Republican rhetoric that David Neiwert has correctly identified as eliminationism, a component of fascist ideology which holds that those who disagree with you on a touchstone issue must be eliminated.
"I say we tell those liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals to go make their movies and their music and whine somewhere else," Gibbons said to another burst of applause.
He said if they lived in Iraq or Afghanistan, "Ironically they would be put to death at the hands of Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden."
Gibbons brought the crowd to near feverish pitch when he hit the hot button issue of abortion.
"I want to know how these very people who are against war because of loss of life can possibly be the same people who are for abortion?" Gibbons said. "They are the same people who are for animal rights, but they are not for the rights of the unborn."
He said that they are the same people who wanted to go to Iraq and become human shields for the enemy.
"I say it's just too damn bad we didn't buy them a ticket," Gibbons said.
Laughter rippled through the room, mingled with more applause.
This is the kind of increasingly frequent Republican rhetoric that David Neiwert has correctly identified as eliminationism, a component of fascist ideology which holds that those who disagree with you on a touchstone issue must be eliminated.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
The Lefkow Murders: Propaganda of the Deed?
Kevin Flynn of the Rocky Mountain News is right to suggest the murder of the Lefkow family was the work of a "lone wolf."
It would be difficult if not impossible for Hale to have orchestrated the killings of the family of a judge he's convicted of plotting to kill, but did a sympathizer do it on his own?
Since the days when the neo-Nazi gang that killed Alan Berg in Denver in 1984 was broken up and imprisoned, the racist fringe had begun to speak of what's known as the Lone Wolf phenomenon.
Because investigators had been so successful at cracking organizations - through infiltration or just plain luck - leaders of the racist movement began advocating individual action. It was enough to put out information and let people so motivated act on it. It would give leaders plausible deniability and isolate blame.
Most of the far-far-right (the Republican party has shifted so far to the right, I have to add an extra "far" to identify the right-wing's violent fringe) operates within a leaderless resistance model that relies on ideology disseminated through impersonal channels like pamphlets, short wave radio and the internet as the movement's only bond. This model makes it exceptionally difficult for federal law enforcement officials to pursue criminal conspiracy cases.
If the murders are indeed the work of white supremacists, then it's likely an individual or small cell carried them out under the classic terrorist principle first deployed by the Anarchists, "propaganda of the deed." This explains the tactics of everyone from Leon Czolgosz, who assassinated William McKinley, to Abu Nidal to Abu Musab Zarqawi; the more spectacular and daring their violence, the more publicity they assure themselves, and by extension, their cause. The Lefkow killers clearly went to lengths to make the murders seem as callous as possible:
She declined to discuss the details of the probe, but noted the cruelty of it. Her husband was slowed from Achilles tendon surgery, and her 89-year-old mother used a walker.
Its just so cruel, Lefkow said. He was on crutches after some surgery, and they didnt have a chance. It was just cold-blooded. Who would do this? Im just furious.
In strategic terms, as I noted last month, the white supremacist/white nationalist movement is attempting a resurgence in middle America (in that post, I drew tactical and historical parallels between them and their rightist settler counterparts in Israel). The movement's ranks have steadily dwindled since the Oklahoma Federal Building bombing, but they apparently have concluded the time is ripe to initiate a sophisticated, nationwide recruitment campaign. If white supremacists with any organizational affiliation killed the Lefkows, the murders must be viewed in this context.
The only question, then, is why the killers didn't leave any propaganda at the site of the murders and haven't issued any public statements. Perhaps they are waiting to gauge the mood within the white supremacist community before they surface.
He Can't Write Either
In reviewing David Horowitz's comical screeds against the left, critics too often overlook his horrendous writing. From "Unholy Alliance," Horowitz's attempt to link the left to Islamic terrorism:
In reviewing David Horowitz's comical screeds against the left, critics too often overlook his horrendous writing. From "Unholy Alliance," Horowitz's attempt to link the left to Islamic terrorism:
"Despite the libertine inclinations of some factions of the political
left, Western radicals' efforts to purify their tainted souls of
"racism, sexism and homophobia," reflect parallel inclinations [to
Arab extremists]. In any case, the moralistic fervor of Islamic
fanatics has not proved an obstacle to collaboration. Both movements
are totalitarian in their desire to extend the revolutionary law into
the sphere of private life, and both are exacting in the justice they
administer and the loyalty they demand."
Ask Murdoch
I get alerted to a lot of blog campaigns, but this one looks really interesting:
I get alerted to a lot of blog campaigns, but this one looks really interesting:
NiemanWatchdog.org, a Web site of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism
at Harvard University, wants to know: Do you have any questions for
Rupert Murdoch?
The American Society of Newspaper Editors has selected Murdoch as a
speaker at its annual conference, to be held in Washington April 12-15. To
help make the Q&A part as edifying as possible, NiemanWatchdog.org is
soliciting questions for the controversial mogul who controls the News
Corp, Fox Broadcasting Co., British Sky Broadcasting, more than 20 Fox
TV stations, and newspapers, magazines and book publishing firms on
several continents, among other holdings.
Questions should be posted on the NiemanWatchdog.org Web site at this
URL:
http://niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=0097.
(Or just click here.)
Before the speech, which is on April 13, the editors of
NiemanWatchdog.org will pick what they feel are the dozen or so best questions, and
make sure they get in the hands of editors who will be in the audience.
The Nieman Watchdog Project encourages the press to hold the powerful
accountable by asking incisive questions. For more information, please
visit http://niemanwatchdog.org.
The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, at Hillary's Throat Again
It's prison reform as a Democratic power play, at least, according to the conservative web-rag NewsMax:
This story is obviously an effort to marshal conservative opposition to restoring the voting rights of former prisoners by linking the issue to Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations. Just check out where the NewsMax story was scooped from:
That's right. This story is the product of two neocon pseudo-scholars from the Richard Mellon-Scaife funded AEI. Lott is the guy who cooked up the ingenious theory that more guns equals less crime, which today remains the National Rifle Association's intellectual bread and butter.
As a former Washington Post columnist and right-wing economist, Glassman is a bit more insidious. In a July, 2004 Newsmax article attempting to link Nicholas Baker's book about a plot to assassinate Bush to the Kerry campaign, Glassman is cited as a "syndicated columnist." Apparently bashing Kerry wasn't a wonkish enough endeavor for Glassman to identify himself with AEI. So here he is in his role as the moral-mongering syndicated columnist:
It's prison reform as a Democratic power play, at least, according to the conservative web-rag NewsMax:
This week Hillary's Count Every Vote Act will be introduced in the Senate, co-sponsored by 2004 presidential loser Sen. John Kerry.
Hillary's bill includes a measure to restore voting rights to "felons who have repaid their debt to society" from sea to shining sea - overriding the the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which explicity gives states the right to make that determination.
By Hillary's count, that would add a potential pool of 4.7 million voters to the mix.
A recent study by Jeff Manza and Marcus Britton of Northwestern University and Christopher Uggen of the University of Minnesota found that 30 percent of felons would vote if Hillary's law was passed. That's 1.4 million new voters.
If they vote the same way their formerly incarcerated brethren did in states where ex-cons can vote already, likely 2008 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will pick up an extra 1.2 million votes - enough to put her over the top in an even not-so-close race.
This story is obviously an effort to marshal conservative opposition to restoring the voting rights of former prisoners by linking the issue to Hillary Clinton's presidential aspirations. Just check out where the NewsMax story was scooped from:
If America's convicted felons are allowed to vote, it's almost certain that Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States.
That's the conclusion of the American Enterprise Institute's John R. Lott and James K. Glassman, who note in today's New York Post that in the handful of states where ex-cons are allowed to go to the polls, 93 percent voted for her husband in 1996.
That's right. This story is the product of two neocon pseudo-scholars from the Richard Mellon-Scaife funded AEI. Lott is the guy who cooked up the ingenious theory that more guns equals less crime, which today remains the National Rifle Association's intellectual bread and butter.
As a former Washington Post columnist and right-wing economist, Glassman is a bit more insidious. In a July, 2004 Newsmax article attempting to link Nicholas Baker's book about a plot to assassinate Bush to the Kerry campaign, Glassman is cited as a "syndicated columnist." Apparently bashing Kerry wasn't a wonkish enough endeavor for Glassman to identify himself with AEI. So here he is in his role as the moral-mongering syndicated columnist:
Glassman concludes with this piece of advice for John Kerry. While "he may not be responsible for the rantings of the likes of Moore, Goldberg and Baker," he could at least "strike a blow for decency in America – and, coincidentally, help his own cause – if he would forcefully denounce the murderous hysteria in Hollywood and Manhattan. A candidate who lacks the moral integrity to take a stand against these mounting outrages doesn't deserve to be president."
A Political Assassination?
The American Nazis responsible for most acts of domestic terrorism has been virtually ignored in the so-called "war on terror." The inevitable result is that when a white supremacist terror group solicits the assassination of a judge's family in a deliberate act of intimidation, the public outcry is negligible. Just imagine if, instead of Matthew Hale, Osama bin Laden had ordered the murder of a judge overseeing the trial of one of his henchmen. Without a doubt, hysteria would have ensued. From the Times:
The American Nazis responsible for most acts of domestic terrorism has been virtually ignored in the so-called "war on terror." The inevitable result is that when a white supremacist terror group solicits the assassination of a judge's family in a deliberate act of intimidation, the public outcry is negligible. Just imagine if, instead of Matthew Hale, Osama bin Laden had ordered the murder of a judge overseeing the trial of one of his henchmen. Without a doubt, hysteria would have ensued. From the Times:
For Joan Humphrey Lefkow, the nightmare began shortly after her appointment as a federal judge in 2000, when an Oregon group's lawsuit to block white supremacists from using a name it had trademarked, World Church of the Creator, landed in her lap.
Soon, Judge Lefkow found her home address and family photographs posted along with violent threats on hate-filled Web sites. Last April, one of the Aryan movement's most notorious leaders was convict