MAX BLUMENTHAL

Looking Forward
I haven't been blogging heavily for a while partly because I want to switch my pitch up a little bit. I've been blogging a lot for the Huffington Post and cross-posting everything here. I'm also going to start writing for a new group blog dedicated solely to examining (and somehow countering) the Christian right, Talk2Action. Joining me there will be the site's founder, longtime Christian right watcher Fred Clarkson; veteran right-wing researcher Chip Berlet; Michelle Goldberg of Salon.com; Joan Bokaer of Theocracywatch.org, and "With God On Their Side" author Esther Kaplan, to name a few. I'll be cross-posting everything here, but definitely pay a visit to Talk2Action to see what others are writing.

As usual, I'm working on new pieces for the Nation and researching for Media Matters, so my hands are pretty full. In the future, I envision longer, less frequent entries here, which I think will be more rewarding to read since while you can usually find a constant stream of news and opinion on most of the major blogs, in-depth analysis is scarce. I also might start featuring some photos I've taken around town every once in a while. (It couldn't be worse than "cat blogging," could it?) If you have any suggestions for this blog, let me know.

Who Is Mean Jean's Marine? And Why Does He Think Murtha's A Coward?

On Friday, freshman Republican Rep. "Mean Jean" Schmidt mounted one of the fiercest, most personal assaults Congress has witnessed since Preston Brooks caned Charles Sumner to a bloody pulp in 1856. The target of Schmidt's attack was Rep. John Murtha, a Vietnam vet who had just introduced a resolution calling for a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq within 6 months (which included several measures designed to ensure regional stability upon pullout).

"A few minutes ago I received a call from Colonel Danny Bubp, Ohio Representative from the 88th district in the House of Representatives. He asked me to send Congress a message: Stay the course," Schmidt declared from her lectern. "He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do."

By employing Bubp, a Marine reservist, as her surrogate attack dog, Schmidt sought to give the impression that the military rank-and-file overwhelmingly deplored Murtha's resolution. Murtha may have been a Marine a long, long time ago, but he doesn't understand the harsh realities of the post-9/11 world. But that tough-talking paragon of the modern warrior, Colonel Danny Bubp, whoever he is, sure as hell does. Or so Schmidt would have us believe.

A quick glance at Bubp's background reveals him to be a low-level right-wing operative who has spent more time in the past ten years engaged in symbolic Christian right crusades than he has battling terrorist evil-doers. And throughout his career, Bubp's destiny has been inextricably linked with Schmidt's. Bubp may be a Marine, but his view of Murtha as a "coward" is colored by naked political ambition. He is nothing more than cheap camouflage cover for the GOP's latest Swift-Boat campaign.

March 1999 marked the beginning of a brilliant career. It was then that Bubp became pro-bono legal counsel for Adams County for the Ten Commandments, an ad-hoc Ohio group formed to keep 10 Commandments monuments displayed in local public schools after the ACLU filed a lawsuit demanding their removal. Bubp was assisted by a Who's Who of Christian right leaders, including James Dobson, Don Wildmon, Judge Roy Moore and Jay Sekulow. The campaign was organized primarily by Rev. Rob Schenck, a former leader of the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, who was once detained for threating Bill Clinton's afterlife at the National Cathedral. (Read my profile of Schenck for the Washington Monthly for the full story on this, and many more bizarre stunts).

When the monuments' removal seemed imminent by 2003, Bubp nevertheless declared, "We've already won." Thanks to Schenck, he was able to help distribute 600 yard signs reading "We Stand For The Ten Commandments" throughout Adams County. And the devoted network of activists formed during the 8-year-long struggle would toil on his behalf when he ran for the Ohio legislature in 2004.

Bubp was elected despite a successful legal maneuver by his former primary challenger to unseal his divorce file. Bubp fought tooth-and-nail to keep these records in the dark because, according to the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, "the file does contain sensitive tax and personal information he'd just as soon keep private." Whatever information emerged was overlooked by a local press focused on national races.

During the campaign, Bubp still found time to help his friend, Schmidt, who was struggling to counter the momentum of her Democratic challenger, Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett. At a Schmidt rally falsely billed as an event to honor war veterans, Bubp appeared in full Marine battle dress uniform to attack Hackett for criticizing his "Commander in Chief." " "I served for eight years under a president who loathed the military," Bubp said, referring to Clinton. "But we never said a word about it."

Now in the Ohio legislature, and back in his usual three-piece suit, Bubp has teamed up once again with Schmidt, this time to save the Pledge of Allegiance from "liberal activist judges." Bubp is the author of the Pledge Protection Act, which would ensure that public schoolchildren include the phrase "under God" in their daily recitation of the pledge, no matter what the comsymp one-worlders at the ACLU do. This month, at Bubp's behest, Schmidt introduced the bill in Congress.

"I am firmly convinced that our forefathers would believe it evil for anyone to try to strike the name of God from all things public," Bubp declared in an editorial promoting the bill. Not only does Bubp understand the psychology of cowards, he has special insight into the religious beliefs of "our forefathers."

Bubp and Schmidt were honored this month by the Rev. Rob Schenck with the "Ten Commandments Leadership Award." Presented with personalized 10 Commandments plaques by a man who once attempted to hand an aborted fetus to Bill Clinton, they became decorated veterans of the right's culture war.

But in assailing the character of John Murtha, who was honored for actual combat experience with the Purple Heart, Bubp and Schmidt were unfaithful to the words inscribed on the monuments they so revere. So for them, here is a reminder: Thou shalt not bear false witness.

The Bush DoJ: A Peculiar Institution
In the good old days, the notion that white men were the true victims of racism was limited to the far shores of the racist right. When GOP politicians invoked this idea, they usually did so by calling for so-called "states' rights" -- a euphemism for beating back minority aspirations encoded in seemingly libertarian terms. Rarely, if ever, has a White House attempted to legitimize the idea of anti-white discrimination in overt terms.

Now, with Bush's approval ratings in the sewer, and a new poll by right-wing direct mail dean Richard Viguerie reflecting conservative discontent with Bush's supposedly "moderate" tilt (apparently Genghis Khan has become the new standard bearer of conservative ideology), the Bush Justice Department is suing Southern Illinois University for "engag[ing] in a pattern or practice of intentional discrimination against whites, non-preferred minorities and males." Yes, that is the actual language from its letter to SIU.

So what is the Bush DoJ's fuss all about? Well, to begin with, SIU is offering scholarships to minorities. Then there's the scholarship money for women. And finally, SIU has set a few thousand dollars aside for poor and "traditionally underrepresented students." Clearly, it's time for Whitey to kick the Mayflower into reverse. (Pam Spaulding at Pandagon has more.)

This transparently Rovian attempt to reinvigorate The Base's fervor for Bush comes on the heels of the Washington Post's report that, "Nearly 20 percent of the [Justice Department civil rights] division's lawyers left in fiscal 2005, in part because of a buyout program that some lawyers believe was aimed at pushing out those who did not share the administration's conservative views on civil rights laws." Ironically, the DoJ's racially-charged purge began in earnest only after the National Council of La Raza-backed Alberto Gonzales replaced John Ashcroft as Attorney General.

Gonzales's actions at the DoJ provide a perfect portrait of the Republican version of minority recruitment. Like Condi Rice, Claude Allen and lesser known but equally underqualified minority members of the Bush White House like Kay Coles James, Gonzales was guaranteed a high-level post on the condition that he work to reverse the policies that enabled his success and that of his peers. Meanwhile, the legacy programs that have ensured people like George W. Bush easy access to elite universities remain intact, thus preserving the future for victims of the new discrimination.

Is Miller Time Up?
This is supposedly an email Bill Keller sent to Times employees today:

To the Staff:

Judy Miller has retired from The New York Times effective today.

In her 28 years at The Times, Judy participated in some great, prize-winning journalism. She displayed fierce determination and personal courage both in pursuit of the news and in resisting assaults on the freedom of news organizations to report. We wish her well in the next phase of her career.

Bill

P.S. Judy asked that I share with you a letter I sent regarding my recent
memo to the staff. It follows, and speaks for itself.

Dear Judy,

I know you've been distressed by the memo I sent to the staff about things I wish I'd done differently in the course of this ordeal. Let me be clear on two points you've raised.

First, you are upset with me that I used the words "entanglement" and "engagement" in reference to your relationship with Scooter Libby. Those words were not intended to suggest an improper relationship. I was referring only to the series of interviews through which you -- and the paper -- became caught up in an epic legal controversy.

Second, you dispute my assertion that "Judy seems to have misled" Phil Taubman when he asked whether you were one of the reporters to whom the White House reached out with the Wilson story. I continue to be troubled by that episode. But you are right that Phil himself does not contend that you misled him; and, of course, I was not a participant in the conversation between you and Phil.

I wish you all the best for the future.

Regards, Bill

The Thief of Baghdad Comes To Town
I almost talked my way into Ahmad Chalabi's lecture at AEI today. Almost. With the event overflowing with reporters and assorted neocon wonks, I was forced into the cold with a small group of protesters. The protest was underwhelming at best, and Chalabi avoided it by slipping through a side door. They guy is the ultimate con artist -- even his entrance was sneaky. Anyway, here are a few shot from outside:

Willie Horton's Swift Boat Crashes in Virginia
Republican Jerry Kilgore's defeat in Virginia is not only a reflection of voter disillusionment with George W. Bush, who swooped in at the eleventh hour for a rally with the gubernatorial hopeful, it marks a stunning repudiation of the GOP's vaunted attack machine. Throughout the campaign, Kilgore avoided the issues Virginians cared about most -- transportation and education -- homing in instead on the character of his opponent, Tim Kaine. This time-tested Republican strategy proved to be a grave miscalculation.

Kilgore hired veteran Republican adman Scott Howell to spearhead his assault on Kaine's character. As a disciple of Lee Atwater, who masterminded the notorious Willie Horton ads that destroyed Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign, and as the former political director for Karl Rove and Company, Howell learned the dark arts from two of its masters.

He applied his lessons in Georgia in 2002 with a spot that superimposed Vietnam veteran Sen. Max Cleland's image with those of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, helping deliver the race to the draft-dodging Republican, Saxby Chambliss. Two years later, Howell crafted a commercial for the Bush/Cheney campaign depicting firefighters carrying a flag-draped coffin from the wreckage of Ground Zero while Bush delivered a typically triumphalist address. Though the firefighters were played by actors and the ad was condemned by the International Association of Firefighters and bereaved 9/11 family members, it was instrumental in reinforcing Bush's "war president" image.

When Howell's handiwork surfaced in Virginia, it did so midway through the campaign in the form of an elderly man named Stanley Rosenbluth. Rosenbluth spoke directly to the camera, plaintively describing his son's murder and denounced Tim Kaine for representing the assailant pro bono. With an ominous piano score playing in the background, Rosenbluth declared the most memorable line of the campaign: "Tim Kaine says that Adolf Hitler doesn't qualify for the death penalty. This was the worst mass murderer in modern times." That this ad first appeared on the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur was not lost on many viewers.

(Rosenbluth's son was a crack-addict killed when he refused to pay his dealer, whom Kaine did not personally represent -- two small facts omitted by Howell. You can learn the whole, sordid story of this ad in my profile of Howell for the Nation, "Hitler in Virginia.")

Though Howell's ad purported to be a critique of Kaine's opposition to the death penalty, its larger theme was a celebrated motif of Republican pseudo-populism: the mobilization of resentment against liberal "elites." As Howell told me, "Tim Kaine is a Harvard-educated liberal activist" who has "tried to have it both ways on issues." In short, Kaine was the latest incarnation of the flip-flopper from Massachusetts.

When the dust cleared, it was clear Howell's salvo had backfired. In a poll on voter impressions of his Hitler ad, 25% of respondents said the spot made them less likely to vote for Kilgore. Nearly 70% said they had either not seen it or were not moved at all by it. In the meantime, Kaine pulled ahead of Kilgore for the first time in the campaign. (Perhaps Kilgore should have hired Max Bialystock instead of Howell).

Kilgore was unable to recover his lost momentum. In a fit of desperation toward the end of the race, Howell crafted an ad detailing Kaine's supposed contradictions of his own positions while a man bounced on a trampoline and the words, "Flip-Flop" flashed on the screen. This tired reminder of the Bush/Cheney campaign would only accelerate Kilgore's demise.

With the finest image handlers at his disposal, Jerry Kilgore cloaked himself in the dark, hyper-emotional aesthetic of the Republican campaigns of yesteryear. His rejection by the so-called "red state voters" of Virginia was thus a rebuke of the style the GOP has cultivated to enable and preserve its electoral domination. Let Kilgore's counterparts across the Potomac River shudder at this lesson.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but props to the ADL. From Ha'aretz:

NEW YORK - Institutionalized Christianity in the U.S. has grown so extremist that it poses a tangible danger to the principle of separation of church and state and threatens to undermine the religious tolerance that characterizes the country, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, warned in his address to the League's national commission, meeting in New York City over the weekend.

"Today we face a better financed, more sophisticated, coordinated, unified, energized and organized coalition of groups in opposition to our policy positions on church-state separation than ever before. Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview. To Christianize America. To save us!" he said.

Foxman proceeded to describe the process and to name names: "Major players include Focus On Family. Alliance Defense Fund, the American Family Association, Family Research Council and more. They and other groups have established new organizations and church-based networks, and built infrastructure throughout the country designed to promote traditional Christian values."

Hopefully this means Abramoff has cancelled his ridiculous alliance with Ralph Reed on Israel.

Decision Day in VA
Survey USA has Tim Kaine up by 9 points over Jerry Kilgore in Virginia. Roanoke College has Kaine up by a similar margin. I'd be surprised if the election is decided by such a wide margin, but anything's possible. Whatever the numbers are, a Kilgore loss will reflect directly on Bush, who swooped in to stump for Kilgore late today.

Not your ordinary baseball bat assault:

Emilia DiSanto, chief investigator for committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), arrived at her suburban Virginia home after work Wednesday about 6:30 p.m. As she was unloading belongings from her car, a 6-foot-1-inch white man dressed in black struck her repeatedly with an unidentified object believed to be a baseball bat.

After she screamed to her family inside the house, the assailant fled. DiSanto was transported to Inova Fair Oaks Hospital, where she was treated for significant upper-body injuries. Nine staples were needed to close her head wound.

DiSanto, who declined to comment, has reported back to work.

The attack and the possibility that it was motivated by congressional business have made some people anxious on Capitol Hill.

Chalabi in Town
I've been hearing rumors that Cheney will meet privately with Ahmad Chalabi Wednesday. It looks like they have been confirmed.

Radicalism in Context
In reading Tony Perkins rant about the protest at FRC today, I hadn't seen the word "radical" used so many times since I saw Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure:

Radicals Invade FRC!
The same radical group that last week disrupted a Baltimore speech by Claude Allen, today struck at Family Research Council's Washington headquarters. Allen, who is President Bush's Domestic Policy Advisor, was speaking at a national abstinence education conference sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This morning, between fifteen and twenty radicals entered FRC's building carrying placards, chanting anti-abstinence slogans, and demanding condom distribution. The protesters, including some from the violent homosexual group ACT-UP, chained themselves to a statue of an American eagle in the FRC lobby. The group that invaded FRC's private property disrupted work, defied orders to disperse, and seemed to invite arrest by the D.C. police.

The radicals honed in on statements I have made against homosexual sexual activity and drug needle distribution. "Hateful!" "Ignorant!" That's how these radicals characterized my statements. This is not debate. This is not democracy. What we see is the attempt by a radical few to intimidate, to shout down, to forcibly prevent the _expression of any ideas they disagree with. It does not matter that these ideas are based on indisputable science and on timeless Judeo-Christian teaching. Is this the future of freedom in America? Will your church or para-church organization be invaded next? Will your business be targeted by radicals because you support abstinence? We will not give in to fear.

No, Perkins will not "give in to fear" or a bunch of anti-democratic radicals. This is the same guy who was suspended from the Baton Rouge Police Department in the early 1990's for taking part in a violent anti-abortion protest. I guess one man's radical is another man's freedom fighter.

Where "Immigration Reform" and Anti-Semitism Collide
For as long as Peter Brimelow's "immigration reform" magazine, VDare, has existed, it has tried to stay above the fray of white nationalism and anti-Semitism, even though much of its content conveys a strong racialist undertone. Now the facade has cracked, as Brimelow has published perhaps the most prominent anti-Semite in American academia, Cal State Long Beach evolutionary psychology professor Kevin MacDonald.

VDare is currently running a long essay by MacDonald called "Stalin's Willing Executioners," which attempts to blame Jews for Stalin's purges, and hysterically accuses them of wanting to repeat such purges upon "red state voters." Here is a key passage:

The fate of Russia in the first two decades following the Revolution prompts reflection on what might have happened in the United States had American communists and their sympathizers assumed power. Sectors of American society might perhaps have been deemed unacceptably backward and superstitious and even worthy of mass murder by the American counterparts of the Jewish elite in the Soviet Union—the ones who journeyed to Ellis Island instead of Moscow.

Those “red state” voters who have loomed so important in recent national elections would have been the enemy. The cultural and religious attitudes of “red state” America are precisely those attitudes that have been deemed changeworthy by the left, particularly by the Jewish community, which has been the driving force of the left in America throughout the 20th century.

As Joel Kotkin points out, “for generations, [American] Jews have viewed religious conservatives with a combination of fear and disdain.”

And, as Elliott Abrams had noted, the American Jewish community “clings to what is at bottom a dark vision of America, as a land permeated with anti-Semitism…”

As outrageous as this passage is, it is typical of MacDonald's academic publications (which you can read here). Which makes me wonder:
--Why Ward Churchill's stupid but comparatively benign comment about "little Eichmanns" provoked a rebuke from Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, while MacDonald churns out anti-Semitic pseudo-science with no consequence to his tenure at a state-run university.
--Why David Horowitz has baselessly accused numerous professors of anti-Semitism (usually for espousing sympathy for Palestinian causes) but has never deemed MacDonald fit for criticism.
--Why Michelle Malkin is published by VDare, but is never called to account for being one degree of separation from white nationalists.

Gary Bauer's Nightmare
ACT-UP is bringing it all back home. This is from some bullshit anti-abortion site which happens to be the only source of reporting on this:

WASHINGTON, November 7, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Homosexual activists chained themselves to a display in the foyer of the Family Research Council (FRC) headquarters in the US capitol today in an attempt to disrupt work there.

A FRC employee said that about 12 homosexual activists, some wearing "ACT UP" t-shirts - an acronym for AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power - followed a single member who gained admittance through a keyed security door by posing to be there for an interview. Once the door was opened, the dozen forced their way in, strewing condoms and fliers, chanting "condoms work, abstinence kills." The group also stuffed pamphlets into books in the main-floor FRC library.

The group then chained themselves to a display, while FRC employees waited for police to escort them away. Meanwhile, another 30-40 homosexual activists waved placards and protested outside the building. The FRC employee said the group had planned a similar demonstration for the White House for later that day....

According to Gary Bauer in his "End of Day" newsletter today, this protest revived lesbian nightmares that have recurred for the past 10 years:

The rhetoric and actions of the radical Left are becoming more and more
desperate every day. Leftwing websites are full of the most offensive
“hate-speech” you can imagine – especially if the topic is conservative
Christians and orthodox faith. We frequently find ourselves on the
receiving end of disgusting e-mails, letters and phone calls from
“tolerant” leftists.

Today, brought one more example of the Left’s attempt to force
pro-family
conservatives into the closet when a group of protestors stormed the
offices of the Family Research Council, where I served as president for
ten
years. (I’m still having nightmares about one incident where the FRC
building was surrounded by a large mob of angry lesbians!) While it’s
easy
to laugh about such things years later, you can’t take anything for
granted
these days.

Please join us in praying for Tony Perkins and all our friends at FRC
tonight. Remember to pray regularly for all those “fighting the good
fight” for faith and family here in our nation’s capital and throughout
our
great land!

Virginia GOP Hypocrites
Another thing I was able to do while away from my blog was get some reporting done. Here are the fruits of my blogging hiatus:

Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his campaign, promising an aggressive crackdown on day laborers and undocumented immigrants attending state universities. "Will we reward illegal behavior with hard-earned dollars from law-abiding citizens?" he asked a campaign rally crowd this August. "I say the answer to this question should be an easy one: no!" While Kilgore accepts the financial support of an anti-immigrant group with racist ties, he also has taken massive contributions from companies notorious for exploiting undocumented immigrant labor.

Virginia Republican Attorney General candidate Bob McDonnell has declared himself "a drug dealer's worst nightmare," while appearing in ads slamming imaginary crooks behind prison doors and pledging to protect Virginians from sexual predators. McDonnell has not only financed his campaign through a possibly illegal slush fund but has hired three former associates of indicted Republican über-lobbyist Jack Abramoff. One of them, who once served as McDonnell's campaign manager, is now in prison for soliciting sex with a young boy.

Another One Bites The Dust
Ken Tomlinson is under State Department investigation in part because of his payments to the bizarre and mysterious Fred Mann, an apparently mentally-addled conservative operative he hired to research supposed liberal bias at PBS. It appears that much of Tomlinson's skullduggery was done at the behest of, or in collaboration with, Karl Rove:

In recent weeks, State Department investigators have seized records and e-mail from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, officials said. They have shared some material with the inspector general at the corporation, including e-mail traffic between Mr. Tomlinson and White House officials including Karl Rove, a senior adviser to President Bush and a close friend of Mr. Tomlinson.

Mr. Rove and Mr. Tomlinson became friends in the 1990's when they served on the Board for International Broadcasting, the predecessor agency to the board of governors. Mr. Rove played an important role in Mr. Tomlinson's appointment as chairman of the broadcasting board.

As I reported, Tomlinson has a long history of activities on behalf of sordid interests, including collaborating with a neo-Confederate Phillip Morris lobbyist to generate specious pro-tobacco industry press reports. Tomlinson accomplished this through the National Journalism Center, a training center for ambitious young wingers (including the laddie mag castaway Greg Gutfeld, white nationalist Eugenics promoter Kevin Lamb, and alleged transvestite Ann Coulter) which he helped fund. Fred Mann was the greeter at the NJC.

None of this was illegal, though it was used as fodder against Phillip Morris when it was sued in the mid-1990's. But it reflects what kind of a character Tomlinson is: a right-wing operative more interested in advancing the goals of a reactionary political movement than advancing public broadcasting.

For background on this unfolding saga, read my story on the Mann Report, the stranger-than-fiction, taxpayer funded study by Fred Mann of liberal bias at PBS.

Empty Metal Jacket
I haven't felt like blogging all week. I'm sure you found some other, more hyperactive, less entertaining blogger to keep you abreast of all the news of liberal import instead.

With so much free time on my hands, I was able to get out to the neo-suburban megamall hellscape that Silver Spring, Maryland has become to check out "Jarhead." This movie was such a waste of celluloid, I might as well have taken $9.50 and buried it underground. What purported to be a journey into the psychology of the Gulf War Marine consisted of little more than an endless series of homoerotic displays of rowdiness in the desert. If you want to see Hollywood's finest (including the miscast Jamie Foxx) portraying a bunch of shaved primates who scream "Hoo-rah!" like they're perfoming an involuntary bodily function, you'll love Jarhead. If you want fresh insight into the Gulf War, or war in general, or if you enjoy complex narratives with rich character development, read any book by Chris Hedges. And avoid this movie.

The only interesting thing about Jarhead was that it drew droves of current and former Marines to the theater. They hated the movie as much as I did, though for probably different reasons. As I filed out of theater, packs of guys were standing around outside complaining that, for instance, "It was a war, but without the war." I also heard more than a few comment that, "That movie fuckin' sucked." Indeed, there were no gory action scenes, no "Hajis" getting blown away, and a distinct scarcity of glorious explosions. If Jarhead had any value, it was in denying viewers nostalgia for that brief and bygone era when America was able to conduct its wars as quickly and efficiently as an oil change.