Month: August 2010

Just Another Nice Real American

by digby

I kept hearing that this fellow who wrote the “visitor’s guide” to DC is really a neat guy and that he isn’t a hater or a racist. I don’t know the guy personally, so I figured maybe he was misunderstood. But after reading this, if I did know him, I would find this a disqualification for friendship:

He’s organized protests online, and is the owner of the Tea Party Professionals group on Linkedin. He was also identified as a “LP [Libertarian Party] campaigner and everyone’s-facebook-friend” by a libertarian blog. He also appears to have written for the American Spectator, among other publications. A frequent commenter on progressive blogs, Majors describes himself on his OpenSalon.com profile as an “Anarcho-capitalist revolutionary sharpening his guillotine.” On Talking Points Memo — where he was flagged with a “Troll Alert” and the subject to a lengthy profile — his bio states that he is “[l]ooking for employment as guillotine operator for citizens’ tribunal.” Indeed, elsewhere in Majors ‘extensive online presence, there is a clear flirtation with violence as a political tool. In a Facebook note titled “We will remember in November,” Majors listed the names of all the members of Congress who voted for the Affordable Care Act — dubbed the “The Executioner’s List” — followed by a picture of a guillotine and accompanied by this call to action:

Call Capitol Hill and promise them retribution. Not just in their next race, but in their attempt to run for or be appointed to ANY office, and any private enterprise they will engage in in the future. And any member of their family.

Commenting on a TPM story, Majors wrote, “Poor walking cadaver [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid [D-NV] shouldn’t run fake tea party candidates to split the opposition vote against him. Someone might drop a plane on him. They already dropped a truck on his family,” referring to a car accident that seriously injured Reid’s wife and daughter. His Facebook page also features two jokes about President Obama’s death (and that he is a Muslim), and a picture of a sign referencing the Thomas Jefferson quote, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Like his visitor’s guide, which offered advice to dealing with “African immigrants,” Major’s other writings have clear racial undertones. In a tweet linking to an article about Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and affirmative action, Majors wrote, “Kagan says Obama is ‘my niggah.’” In another tweet linking to a video of Obama, Majors tweeted, “Poor little flop eared bitch. People are so mean to him.” Upon news of White House economic adviser Christina Romer’s upcoming departure, Majors tweeted, “Congratulations Christiina Romer! A house slave is now free. But all us field slaves are still in chains!” On the Shirley Sherrod dust up, Majors wrote:

[I]t is clear that most black Democrats in politics & the media are complete knaves and idiots (much like their white counterparts). The purpose of their constant race focus is, as Angela Codevilla discusses in his American Spectator article, to have a charge, racism, which which they can convict average Americans of a crime so they can then demand to enslave them.

Majors also posted a picture on his Facebook page comparing First Lady Michele Obama to Chewbacca from Star Wars:

(The Chewbacca comparison is the politically correct one. I’ve seen many other versions of this image featuring other primates.)

There’s much more at the link. I have to say that I was reluctant to say that his Visitor’s Guide was racist and I didn’t write about it. Alarm bells went off, but I didn’t think there was enough there to support calling him on it. But when you see it in the context of his writings, it’s fairly clear that this guy has some issues. The violent rhetoric may be the bigger problem, though.

Why people think that stuff is ok is beyond me.

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Unhelpful

by digby

Marc Lynch reports:

Two recent arguments about the impact of the rising anti-Islam trend in the U.S. — from the Stupid!Storm around the Manhattan mosque to the lunacy of “national burn a Quran day” — on the Arab world strike me as not quite right. Last week, Bill Kristol cited the translation of a column by Saudi TV station al-Arabiya director Abd al-Rahman al-Rashed downplaying the relevance of the mosque as evidence that the argument should be over. Meanwhile, several recent articles claim that the mosque had become the #1 topic of discussion on jihadist forums. Both are wrong, in different ways. Most Arab columnists agree with the argument that the anti-mosque movement will badly harm Arab and Muslim views of the United States, contra Rashed, but there isn’t as much active discussion of it in the forums as you’d expect. That isn’t a reason to relax, though. The impact is likely to be felt not so much on extremists, whose views about America are rather fixed, but on the vast middle ground, the Arab and Muslim mainstream which both the Bush and Obama administrations have recognized as crucial both for defeating al-Qaeda and for achieving broad American national interests. And that mainstream, not the extremists themselves, is where our attention needs to be focused.

A closer look at Arab mainstream media and jihadist forum debates shows what I mean. A scan of the major op-ed pages quickly reveals that Rashed is very much a minority voice in the unfolding Arab debate. Rashed’s column caught the attention of anti-mosque activists such as Kristol, because it suited their needs. But if Kristol really wants Americans to take their cues from Arab columnists, here’s a more representative sample of commentary over the last few days.

Click over for the list. It’s not helpful.

But you can’t blame mainstream moderate Muslim for being upset. After all, while the teabaggers can’t tell the difference between an American construction worker, Coptic Christians and Osama bin laden, actual Muslims know that the so-called terrorist, Ground Zero Mosque builders are Sufis — the Quaker pacifists of the Muslim world. if we hate them, then we hate all Muslims regardless of what they believe. And they don’t like it.

It’s very hard to see why anyone thinks this is a good idea unless they want a holy war.

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Just Don’t Call Them Conspiracy Theorists

by digby

Today in wingnuttery:

The State Department is maintaining a “counter-misinformation” page on an America.gov blog that attempts to “debunk a conspiracy theory” that President Obama was not born in the United States, as if the topic were equivalent to believing space aliens visit Earth in flying saucers.

However, in the attempt to debunk the Obama birth-certificate controversy, the State Department author confirmed Obama was a dual citizen of the U.K. and the U.S. from 1961 to 1963 and a dual citizen of Kenya and the U.S. from 1963 to 1982, because his father was a Kenyan citizen when Obama was born in 1961.

In a number of court cases challenging Obama’s eligibility, dual citizenship has been raised as a factor that could compromise his “natural born” status under Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution. The cases argue dual citizenship would make Obama ineligible even if documentary evidence were shown the public, such as the hospital-issued long-form birth certificate that indicates the place of his birth and the name of the attending physician

Who knew the teabaggers would be upset to be affiliated with flying saucers? They way they go on about “aliens” all the time, I assumed they were right there with it.

In any case, the duel citizenship thing is a new one on me. I’m sure we’ll hear more about it.

But this is where they really show their true colors:

The entry “The Obama Birth Controversy” was written by Todd Leventhal, identified as the chief of the Counter-Misinformation Team for the U.S. Department of State. The office appears to have been established “to provide information about false and misleading stories in the Middle East,” as described in a biography of Leventhal published on the U.S. Public Diplomacy website…

State Department spokesman Noel Clay confirmed to WND that Leventhal was a State Department employee and that an office of counter-misinformation existed in the State Department.

Clay did not subsequently respond to WND’s additional inquiries. He was asked whether Congress authorized the office and to provide information regarding the process within the State Department that checked Leventhal’s postings for accuracy and approved them as official U.S. government positions.

“Todd Leventhal is the department’s expert on conspiracy theories and information – stories that are untrue, but widely believed,” the State Department explains on America.gov. “He enjoys reading obituaries, which tell the personal stories of people who have shaped the fabric of American life.”

According to America.gov, Leventhal’s qualifications for the job at America.gov include that he “worked for Voice of America for seven years and bikes to work year-round.”

On the website, the State Department explains, “Todd became interested in international affairs after a four-month trip to the Soviet Union, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India in 1972.”

He’s clearly a bike-riding, commie, Muslim terrorist whose job it is to cover up for the commie, Muslim terrorist president. Anyone can see that.

This is the nonsense these people get in their email boxes every day. They watch Fox News, they listen to Rush they belong to the Tea Party and the NRA and they are inundated with information like this designed to make them aggressive and paranoid.

When I think about it, I have to say that it’s a testament to their restraint that something truly violent hasn’t happened. They are being ginned up to a frenzy and they’ve mostly just screamed and hollered. I so wonder what will happen if they don’t get their way at the ballot box this time, though. I’m not sure something won’t crack then.

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Provoking Real America

by digby

I hope New York cab drivers have learned about the dangers of provoking good Americans to lash out if they insist on being Muslim. As Ari Fleischer once said, “People need to watch what they say.”

But then, it’s always possible that this was a set-up as this conservative writer predicted last spring:

The war between the left and right has been ratcheted up this past weekend. Although a philosophical war of words, to the committed Alinsky left it is nonetheless a deadly serious war.

The progressive movement has long been known for its intolerance of opposing philosophies and its propensity for violence to attain its goals. As Noel Sheppard notes, at the 2008 Republican Convention leftist demonstrators hospitalized conventioneers with bricks thrown through bus windows and sandbags dropped from overpasses onto passing cars. The progressive media looked the other way.

Following the passage of ObamaCare, much media frenzy has surrounded incidents where a coffin was put on congressman Carnahan’s front lawn (didn’t happen) and a brick was thrown through congresswoman Slaughter’s Niagara Falls office window. Of course, the last time someone smashed Democratic Party office windows, a Democrat was found responsible.

Now, new incidents of Democrat windows being broken have been reported, some credible, some not. These are being used by the progressive media as a weapon against the Tea Party conservatives. Since this type of childish vandalism is a signature act of progressivism, I would search for suspects on the left side of the aisle.

The Tea Party demonstrations in DC the previous weekend were noted by the progressive media only for an “alleged” incident (although some reports did not use the word “alleged”) of a black congressman being “spit on”, and another of someone shouting the “n-word”.

The question I have is, why did these congresspeople, including Emmanuel Cleaver (the alleged “spitee“, who actually walked too close to a protester shouting “kill the bill” and got sprayed), Barney Frank, and Nancy Pelosi deliberately march into the demonstration and confront the Tea Partiers? After all, wasn’t it Nancy herself who said she was “frightened” by these supposedly violent people? Is it possible that they wanted to provoke a reaction from the crowd to be used by the media to demonize the Tea Party movement (i.e., “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it“)? Is it also possible that when there was nothing sufficiently provoked by the lawmakers’ confrontation, they decided to fabricate it? I believe their previous record of untruthfulness supports this hypothesis.

Update: Good God. Maybe they’re right. Welcome to the rabbit hole.

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Issa Trailer

by digby

From my wingnut mailbag:

Get those subpoenas ready. The circus is coming to town.

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Boring Boehner

by digby

I have to give it to Boehner. His speech today was almost elegant in its pompous vapidity. He’s got a real gift for saying absolutely nothing with the careless aplomb of an empty playboy years past his prime.

Unfortunately, he’s actually a thoroughly corrupt tool of corporate interests who wields great power over millions of people and as the potential speaker of the House his actions are of much greater interest than his shallow rhetoric.

Blue America and its partner Americans for America responded to his dull remarks with its latest ad set to start running tomorrow morning. His actions speak much louder than his words:

A big tip ‘o the hat to Dan Manatt and his creative team at Americans for America for turning that ad around immediately upon hearing Boehner’s plodding words this morning. But for the millions of Americans who are suffering because of Republican policies that created their problems and Republican obstructionism that’s keeping anyone from solving them, it would be very hard to find inspiration in such drivel.

Update: Howie adds:

Notice this DNC ad below, which I like a lot. They used it yesterday– while Justin Coussoule was racking up endorsements from Tim Ryan (D-OH), Steve Filner (D-CA) and the Congressional Progressive Caucus– to ask for money: “Boehner’s horrible; he’s going to eat your children; send us your money.” But not a world about Boehner having an opponent. But he does; it’s Justin Coussoule and you can donate towards electing him and defeating Boehner right here. Remember, when Boehner is shrieking “Where are the jobs, Mr. President,” it isn’t the DCCC or DNC telling voters in southwestern Ohio that it was Boehner who engineered the 2008 no-strings-attached Wall Street bailout; it’s Justin Coussoule. And it isn’t the DNC or the DCCC telling voters in Ohio that the trade policies, like NAFTA, that Boehner has been pushing for two decades explains where the jobs are; it’s Justin Coussoule. Let’s help him.

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Better Than Nothing

by digby

Good God:

When you recognize that GDP growth in the second quarter of 2010 was only 2.4%, and could revise to just 1% after all the data comes in, this estimate from CBO is horrifying:

The massive stimulus package boosted real GDP by up to 4.5 percent in the second quarter of 2010 and put up to 3.3 million people to work, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday. CBO’s latest estimate indicates that the stimulus effort, which remains a political hot potato ahead of the November congressional elections, may have prevented the sluggish U.S. economy from contracting between April and June. Economists surveyed by Reuters expect that revised numbers due out on Friday will show that the economy grew at an anemic 1.4 percent pace during that time period — less than the boost of at least 1.7 percent that the stimulus provided, according the CBO estimate.

So not only would the economy have contracted at extreme rates throughout late 2008 and 2009, but without the stimulus the economy would STILL be contracting. That’s a testament to how completely shaky the recovery is right now. And the scariest part is this final line: “CBO said it expects the effects of the stimulus to gradually diminish over the remainder of the year.”

That was dday who goes on to point out that although it’s great that the administration was able to prevent the worst case scenario from coming true, it’s also sadly true that this information makes it more clear than ever that the stimulus was inadequate to do the job it needed to do. And it’s also true that the inept use of the bully pulpit, particularly on deficit fever (which even DFH’s knew from the beginning was playing into the hands of the wealthy wingnut elite) and the silly rhetoric of “Recovery Summer” has effectively bound the hands of the government going forward.

The stimulus was definitely better than nothing. It may have prevented a depression and (so-far) a double dip recession. But better than nothing isn’t really adequate to the times. Obviously, the Republicans would be even worse, but that just isn’t very comforting

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Wingnut Hobgoblin

by digby

It’s short. Listen to it so you can see how someone who has no idea what he’s talking about is able to reconcile totally conflicting ideas — within the same sentence. It makes no sense, but he seems quite pleased with it.

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Clean And Efficient Pain Machines

by digby

I had heard these were coming, but I didn’t realize they were already on the market:

The 7½-foot-tall Assault Intervention Device emits a focused, invisible ray that causes an unbearable heating sensation in its targets – hopefully stopping inmates from fighting or doing anything other than trying to get out of its way, sheriff’s officials said. The device, unveiled Friday at Pitchess Detention Center, will be mounted near the ceiling in a dormitory housing about 65 prisoners, according to Commander Bob Osborne of the Sheriff’s Department Technology Exploration Program. “We hope that this type of technology will either cause an inmate to stop an assault or lessen the severity of an assault by them being distracted by the pain as a result of the beam,” Osborne said. “So that we have fewer injuries, fewer assaults, those kinds of things.” Deputies have tested the device on themselves and say the beam is painful – especially when it’s not expected. “I equate it to opening an oven door and feeling that blast of hot air, except instead of being all over me, it’s more focused,” Osborne said. “And you begin to feel this warming feeling, and then you go ‘Yow, I need to get out of the way.”‘ The pain can be stopped by moving out of the beam’s path, which targets do instinctively. Deputies say it should reduce injuries by speeding up the time it takes to break up a fight. Normally if a fight breaks out, deputies can’t move in immediately, but have to take the time to assemble a team while the fight continues.

They love the idea of being able to cause pain without “injury,” whatever that means.

“This device will allow us to quickly intervene without having to enter the area and without incapacitating or injuring either combatant,” said Sheriff Lee Baca in a statement

Ok, so these guys have been convicted of a crime and are in custody. Their freedoms (although not their human rights) have been taken away for cause and they are unquestioningly subject to the states’ orders. But imagine a society in which the police (for our own good) use methods like this to break up political protests. And then further imagine that same society some time later in which its people have been trained like Pavlov’s dogs to comply with authorities’ orders. Authorities, by the way, which are sheltered from danger by being able to control its subjects from a distance:

The device is controlled by a joystick and computer monitor and emits a beam about the size of a CD up to distances of about 80 to 100 feet. The wave travels at the speed of light and penetrates the skin up to 1/64 of an inch.

“If you got in the way, you’ll know,” said Mike Booen, vice president of advance security at Raytheon, which has been working on the device for about 20 years. “You feel the effect in less than a second. No one can stand there for more than about three seconds because it really hurts.”

[…]

The technology was originally designed as a less-lethal weapon for military applications. Larger versions, including one which can heat up a person’s entire torso, were mounted on a back of Hummer to use for crowd control purposes.

“When you get that many of your pain receptacles telling you brain ‘This needs to stop,’ you can’t think of anything else,” Booen said. “And that tends to be very effective.”

I wonder what happens if people subject to these heat rays can’t get away? For instance, if they are in a confined area. Like a prison. Or a crowd.

I guess they’ll think twice before they do anything again that might precipitate such pain. After all, “when you get that many of your pain receptacles telling your brain ‘this needs to stop'” and you can’t stop it, I’d assume there might be some psychological after effects.

But hey, it’s all good:

“With this device, we can affect people that we need to have experience that effect and not have anything happen to other people,” Osborne said. “And there’s nothing to clean up, and no injuries.”

Well that’s a relief.

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Stupid Or Evil?

by digby

At times like these only comedy can adequately explain what’s going on:

Think Progress reports:

Prince Alwaleed has grown close with the Murdoch enterprise, recently endorsing James Murdoch to succeed his father and creating a content-sharing agreement with Fox News for his own media conglomerate, Rotana. As irony would have it, the Arab News just published this picture today of Prince Alwaleed meeting with News Corp executives to discuss how to “further strengthen the strategic corporate alliance between Rotana and News Corp”:

As Eric Cantor would say: “Come on!”

*I didn’t see this segment until after I had written the previous post, but it certainly does fit the theme. I vote for evil rocks with mouths.

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