Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

Business As Usual

I missed this one. Apparently, two female schoolteachers in their 50’s who had the nerve to attend a public Bush rally without the proper Republican approvals were arrested and strip-searched.

Alice McCabe and Christine Nelson, both in their 50s, were among five protesters arrested at the Sept. 3 rally. The pair were handcuffed, taken to the county jail, strip-searched and charged with criminal trespass. The charges were dropped months later.

“I believe the federal government behaved very badly in this situation,” said David O’Brien, the women’s attorney.

The lawsuit claims the strip search violated constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Typically suspects are searched only if authorities have cause to believe they possess a weapon or illegal drugs, O’Brien said.

“We don’t think they had a reasonable belief that these two, 50-year-old school teachers had a weapon or contraband in their possession that day,” O’Brien said, whose clients requested a jury trial and unspecified damages.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Cedar Rapids said the office had not yet seen the complaint and could not comment.

McCabe and Nelson — described in the lawsuit as political novices motivated by their opposition to Bush administration policies in Iraq — attended the rally at a city park, where McCabe held a sheet of paper urging, “No More War,” and Nelson wore a John Kerry button.

A Secret Service agent allegedly told McCabe, who was on a sidewalk near the rally, that she was on private property and would have to move. When they moved to a parking area, the agent approached again and repeated the order.

After asking why, McCabe was arrested by a state trooper. Nelson was arrested later by another trooper, according to the lawsuit.

Obviously, strip searching these women was an intimidation tactic, the same kind of tactic used to such great effect at Abu Ghraib. Sexual humiliation seems to be quite the rage among the macho these days. It was probably done by some cops who worship the phony Codpiece and think that American citizens who don’t are traitors. Why, all you have to do is read TIME magazine at the dentist’s office and you’ll see Ann Coulter on the cover telling the whole country that. Or just turn on the radio.

Arthur Silber wrote about the hilarious South Park Republican Rush Limbaugh the other day on the anniversary of the revelation of the Abu Ghraib scandal. Here’s a little of what Rush had to say:

CALLER: Just to keep you with the season, I want to wish you a Happy Abu Ghraib. And I apologize that I didn’t get my Abu Ghraib present in the mail. I was wondering what I could get you for Abu Ghraib this year and how are you going to decorate your Abu Ghraib tree sir?

RUSH: You want to know what to get me for Abu Ghraib? You know what? That is a good question. I don’t really want anything for Abu Ghraib. The Democrats, that is who we need to get presents for. One thing, have you thought about handcuffs? Those have multiple uses for Democrats. A whip. You know, to go along with the handcuffs. Dawn says a good present would be to give a Democrat a digital camera so that he or she can document their own atrocities. All you have to take it to a Madonna concert. You got the whips, and the handcuffs and chains right there on stage and people are paying for this.

CALLER: They may have military intelligence, Rush. Who knows?

RUSH: That is a great question. What kind of gift to give Democrats here on the anniversary of Abu Ghraib. I’m glad you called, Christopher.

We’ll think of more as they, as they come up. You know, you might give them a little pyramid game, something that is in the shape of a pyramid. Wire tap kit. Could borrow that. Ted, actually could borrow one from Raymond Reggie, a wire tap kit. What else? Autographed picture of Mary Mapes. Boy, if you could score, come up with an autograph of Mary Mapes, she’s the mother of the Abu Ghraib scandal. Jumper cables. A pair of jumper cables—superb idea, Mr. Maimone. And these are things we all have lying around the house, folks. Just get rid of it. It is junk. Give them a German shepherd. Oh, yeah, a German shepherd dog, little German shepherd puppy. You can train yourself.

Gotta love that jumper cable stuff. Whew. That’s a good one. He does some side-splitters on waterboarding, too. Read all of Silber’s post for the full rundown. That’s just an excerpt of the psychotic ramblings from that day.

This is what more than 20 million Americans listen to constantly. This is their entertainment and their religion.

Get ready to be strip-searched America. Rush Limbaugh and all his little sick clones are training ever more people to believe that you deserve it. And worse.

I’m depressed today. Don’t expect any inspiring words from me. The worst elements of our culture are on the rise. We have delivered massive government police power into the hands of authoritarian freaks whose followers are being told every day that liberals are a greater danger than terrorists are. Middle aged schoolteachers are being strip searched for protesting at a political rally.

This must be what that freedom they hate us for looks like.

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Nanny’s Not A Wingnut

So I watched the show “Super-Nanny” last night to get a sense of this “Focus on the Family” shill job. The ad is perfect for the show, which featured a very dysfunctional family on the verge of chaos — the two kids (aged 3 and 7) were rude, undisciplined and out of control and the parents were in way over their heads. The FOF ads were very slick; they could have been a clever government sponsored spot, like those produced for Partnership For A Drug free America. They appeared to be connected to the show — and one would guess that the show endorsed the program by the way it was presented. The show featured a couple of very undisciplined brats which the ads, featuring little demon children saying they are going to wreak havoc on their parents’ lives, seemed to indicate the FOF program could cure. I bet they got some calls.

Having read Dobson’s torture manual “The Strong Willed Child” however, I can say that after watching the show, they bear no relationship to one another. Dobson’s book is extremely heavy on corporal punishment and strict authoritarian control. The nanny show consisted of common sense approaches like setting rules, scheduling activities and play time, communication and consistency. There was no hitting, although there was the expected sturm and drang over discipline, which had been a total disaster up to that point. The biggest problem in this family, it seemed to me, was that the mom didn’t seem to relate very well to small children, which is not unprecedented I would think. Why would every woman automatically be good at such a thing? (Not that the Dad was much better, but he seemed a little more natural around them, even if he was a putz and a control freak.)

It was obvious that she loved them, but she was frustrated by her inability to be herself, which appeared to me to be a somewhat reserved type of person who wasn’t very interested in kid stuff. She seemed quite depressed, or at least worn down, and she probably felt guilty for not liking the kid games she was being asked to do. The structure the nanny gave the mom appeared to give her something to hold on to, but I suspect she might be more comfortable as a mother when her children get a little bit older. I thought this was one family that could have benefitted from sending the kids to day care, where they could be around other little kids and grown-ups who are into playing with them.

Anyway, these kids were the children from hell, but anybody could see that it was because the parents were completely inept. They were the ones who needed guidance and I suspect that this is usually the case. There seemed to be a lot of improvement during the course of the show, but who knows how much these shows are edited for dramatic purposes. Still, these seemed like decent people who love their kids so they’ll probably be ok.

If they had taken Dobson’s advice, however, they would right now be indulging in child abuse instead of patience, discipline and understanding. His view is that children must be taught to obey because they must observe the hierarchy of the family which means that father, then mother are always to be obeyed without question. The point is not to raise happy, healthy people, but oppressed, subservient kids who turn into rigid authoritarian adults. He is in the business of creating Nazis, not normal human beings.

I pity the many poor little children who are going to be subjected to Dobson’s torture after their desperate parents saw that slick ad last night and called the FOF number. Those parents are going to learn that they are justified in being angry at their children and that violence is the proper way to express that anger, “for the good of their child.”

And I pity the country that takes another step back into the dark ages when torture was considered acceptable. We are now one of the torture cultures. That’s quite an achievement.

Update: For some very thoughtful commentary on this subject, read the comments to this Patrick Neilsen Hayden post on Electrolite.

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Life Lessons

Kevin at Catch gets schooled by Joe Scarborough on what a South Park Conservative is:

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Why don’t we just show a clip of “South Park” to help define what “South Park” conservatives are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, “SOUTH PARK”)

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Kids, this is the Costa Rican Capitol Building.

This is where all the leaders of the Costa Rican government make their…

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Oh, my God, it smells out here.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: All right, that does it. Eric Cartman, you respect other cultures this instant.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: I wasn’t saying anything about their culture.

I was just saying their city smells like ass.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Wow. Staying in a place like this really makes you appreciate living in America, huh.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: You may think that making fun of Third World countries is funny, but let me…

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I don’t think it’s funny. This place is overcrowded, smelly and poor. That’s not funny. That sucks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Lord knows South Park Conservatives know what ass smells like — their heads being buried up there and all.

Seriously, my friends, this a deep and meaningful lesson, not just a puerile, unfunny swipe at poor people. You see, the SP conservatives are just pointing out that it sucks to be poor. And they do it in a lighthearted, funloving way that makes everyone understand that it is better to be an American because our cities smell like vanilla cookies and lemon Pledge. Because we’re better.

I feel sorry for this generation. We had MAD magazine (the greatest influence in my life.) They have this.

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Greenlight This Baby!

Roy Edroso gives us shorter Jane Galt:

Not only are Hollywood actors liberal and wrong — they don’t even know how to act! Jane Galt must school them in empathy!

She says:

America enjoys Forrest Gump, but it’s not really that hard to learn to deal with someone who talks a little slow. Where are the movies covering the people who seriously discomfort us–the unverbal, or inappropriately verbal, or whose verbal skills just aren’t up to sermonettes on love

She’s right, you know. We certainly don’t see enough characters whose skills aren’t up to sermonettes on love. And I have the perfect project to correct that. Just imagine George Clooney playing that dreamy he-man John Galt with Nicole Kidman as the sensual yet plucky industrialist Dagny Taggert — in the big Hollywood remake of “Atlas Shrugged: The Rapture.”

Haven’t I? — he thought. Haven’t I thought of it since the first time I saw you? Haven’t I thought of nothing else for two years?. . . He sat motionless, looking at her. He heard the words he never allowed himself to form, the words he had felt, known, yet had not faced, had hoped to destroy by never letting them be within his own mind, Now it was as sudden and shocking as if he were saying it to her…Since the first time I saw you…. Nothing but your body, that mouth of yours, and the way your eyes would look at me, if…. Through every sentence I ever said to you, through every conference you thought were so safe, through the importance of all the issues we discussed…. You trusted me, didn’t you? To recognize greatness? To think of you as you deserved — as if you were a man?

Get me a cig and a coupla dexies, stat.

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Mainstream Child Abuse

Via MAX BLUMENTHAL I see that ABC is going to allow that psychopath James Dobson to advertise his S&M child training techniques on their network, when they refused to allow the United Church of Christ to air its “controversial” ad. No no no — if you’re going to start making these kinds of judgements, you don’t get to allow sick fuck animal and child beating fundamentalists to advertise either.

Obviously, it’s time to let the good people of this country know who they are dealing with in Mr Dobson. His book, “The Strong Willed Child” — the precepts of which will be featured in the Focus on the Family “program” being advertised on ABC’s “Nanny” show, features the following little vignette, which many of you have already read here, but which deserves to be read by everyone, particularly those at ABC:

“Please don’t misunderstand me. Siggie is a member of our family and we love him dearly. And despite his anarchistic nature, I have finally taught him to obey a few simple commands. However, we had some classic battles before he reluctantly yielded to my authority.

“The greatest confrontation occurred a few years ago when I had been in Miami for a three-day conference. I returned to observe that Siggie had become boss of the house while I was gone. But I didn’t realize until later that evening just how strongly he felt about his new position as Captain.

“At eleven o’clock that night, I told Siggie to go get into his bed, which is a permanent enclosure in the family room. For six years I had given him that order at the end of each day, and for six years Siggie had obeyed.

“On this occasion, however, he refused to budge. You see, he was in the bathroom, seated comfortably on the furry lid of the toilet seat. That is his favorite spot in the house, because it allows him to bask in the warmth of a nearby electric heater…”

“When I told Sigmund to leave his warm seat and go to bed, he flattened his ears and slowly turned his head toward me. He deliberately braced himself by placing one paw on the edge of the furry lid, then hunched his shoulders, raised his lips to reveal the molars on both sides, and uttered his most threatening growl. That was Siggie’s way of saying. “Get lost!”

“I had seen this defiant mood before, and knew there was only one way to deal with it. The ONLY way to make Siggie obey is to threaten him with destruction. Nothing else works. I turned and went to my closet and got a small belt to help me “reason” with Mr. Freud.”

What developed next is impossible to describe. That tiny dog and I had the most vicious fight ever staged between man and beast. I fought him up one wall and down the other, with both of us scratching and clawing and growling and swinging the belt. I am embarrassed by the memory of the entire scene. Inch by inch I moved him toward the family room and his bed. As a final desperate maneuver, Siggie backed into the corner for one last snarling stand. I eventually got him to bed, only because I outweighed him 200 to 12!”

This is the basis of Dobson’s child rearing advice. He thinks of children as animals and he believes that animals and children should be beaten. He believes that nine month old babies should be switched on the bare legs. He believes they should be pinched hard, on the neck, so it will hurt. He believes in things that could get parents arrested in many states in the union.

Yet his program is considered to be more wholesome and less controversial than a church that allows gays to be a member.

Max Blumenthal has the addresses and phone numbers of the various ABC offices to which you can lodge your complaint. I think this one is worth fighting. Dobson is real menace and he should be marginalized as quickly as possible.

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Ya Think?

Doubts About Mandate for Bush, GOP

The day after he won a second term in November, President Bush offered his view of the new political landscape.

“When you win there is a feeling that the people have spoken and embraced your point of view,” he said, “and that’s what I intend to tell the Congress, that I made it clear what I intend to do as president . . . and the people made it clear what they wanted, now let’s work together.”

Six months ago, this comment was widely viewed as more than just a postgame boast. Among campaign strategists and academics, there was ample speculation that Bush’s victory, combined with incremental gains in the Republican congressional majority, signaled something fundamental: a partisan and ideological “realignment” that would reshape politics over the long haul.

As the president passed the 100-day mark of his second term over the weekend, the main question facing Bush and his party is whether they misread the November elections. With the president’s poll numbers down, and the Republican majority ensnared in ethical controversy, things look much less like a once-a-generation realignment.

Where do they come up with this stuff? Of course he has a mandate. Of course it’s been a sweeping realignment. He won 51-49, a completely unambiguous indication of huge popular support, particularly for the centerpiece of his campaign, his social security plan. Why would anyone think otherwise? I thought we all understood that the vast majority of the country are social conservatives who support overturning Roe vs Wade, a constitutional amendment against gay marriage and remaking the courts in the image of Tom DeLay. Nothing could be clearer.

Now the press is wondering if that interpretation of the last election is wrong. In the article, of course, they claim that’s the administration’s interpretation, but we all know that administrations tend to exaggerate their mandates, so it’s up to the media to properly put these things into perspective. And, needless to say, they were convinced from the beginning that Bush could claim support for anything he chose to do, given his “impressive” victory in November (which was impressive only in comparison to his previous “impressive” showing.) And the Democrats, properly chastened by their embarrassing defeat would support it also, because they are losers and wouldn’t have the nerve to stand up to the codpiece collosus.

But it hasn’t worked out that way. And the press is scratching their little noggins and wondering if maybe Karl Rove’s talking points didn’t quite capture the limits of Bush’s victory. Certainly, one could have interpreted a 2% win in the presidential race as something less than a validation of the president’s most extreme positions, but why dwell on the negative?

Nobody in the mainstream press bothered to consider for even one moment that Bush might not be able to get support for the destruction of what was up to now known as the third rail in politics or that the public did not support the notion of fundamentalist preachers involved in the government. They just assumed it would be so.

Among the press it has been as if Bush has magical powers. He and Uncle Karl are thought to be so spectacularly gifted, in ways that they can’t even comprehend, that they can accomplish the impossible. Apparently, they think that cutting taxes and lashing out in inchoate anger after being attacked is some sort of difficult task — completely misunderstanding the true difficulty of governing which is to not run deficits and keep the people from lashing out in inchoate anger after being attacked. It was never going to be difficult to talk the country into taxcuts and killing after 9/11. That they gave Karl and George credit for something really courageous in that is a testament to their shallowness. President Britney Spears could have gotten that done.

After 9/11 (or maybe even before, when they anointed him in 2000 and told the rest of us to “get over it”) they never once gave up the idea that Bush was a popular, extraordinary leader who only a few hippies in Hollywood and a couple of stiffs in New York didn’t like because he talked funny. We had to fight that every step of the way in 2004 and still we came extremely close to winning.

There is no realignment. We are in a period of pure political combat in which the power could change dramatically in each election. There is no real middle, there are only two opposing forces. Nothing is predictable and anything could happen. The Republicans hold institutional power by only the most tenuous means, despite all their bluster about political dominance. And their biggest achilles heel — as it has been forever — is hubris. Clearly, that is the story that one would have thought the press would see from the beginning; an administration that overreached its non-existent mandate in an intensely polarized political climate.

Better late than never, I suppose. Still, it would be nice, if just once, the media could play this administration straight. They are always given the benefit of the doubt at the least, and portrayed as masterful political players most of the time — and then the ditzy media is surprised when Bush and Rove gamble and lose. It happens over and over again. For reasons I will never understand, the Washington press corpse invested itself in Junior’s success early on. It’s past time they woke up and realizes that the Republicans aren’t political wizards.

Without 9/11 Bush wouldn’t be president today. It’s all he has, and all he ever had. No mandate, no realignemnt. No nothing. Karl Rove is not a genius.

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Geniuses

Kevin at Catch links to Little Green Footballs so I don’t have to. While gingerly tip-toeing through the dreck, I came across the dumbest, dumass rightwing post of the week (and you know how tough the competition is for that.)

Reacting to a quote from Al Gore’s speech last week (which was, btw, just great) one of the tiny chartreuse pee-wee players said:

“This aggressive new strain of right-wing religious zealotry is actually a throwback to the intolerance that led to the creation of America in the first place,” Gore said as many in the audience stood and applauded.

Another thing that gets me about this statement is the hypocracy of it. I get told by Leftists all the time that this nation was founded by enlightened folks who wanted to create a secular nation. Does anybody else see the logic error in stating that religious zealots wanted to create a secular nation?

Are these people allowed to drive?

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Naughty, Naughty

I read these Wonkette excerpts of Laura Bush’s speech at the WH correspondence dinner last night and I thought it was satire. But I just saw the tape and it’s for real:

“I am married to the President of the United States and here is our typical evening. Nine o’clock, Mr. Excitement here is sound asleep, and I am watching Desperate Housewives. With Lynne Cheney. Ladies and gentleman, I am a desperate housewife. I mean if those women on that show think they’re desperate, they ought to be with George. One night after George went to bed, Lynne Cheney, Condi Rice, Karen Hughes and I went to Chippendales….I won’t tell you what happened, but Lynne’s Secret Service code name is now Dollar Bill.”

“George always says that he’s delighted to come to these press dinners. Baloney. He’s usually in bed by now. I’m not kidding. I said to him the other day, George, if you really want to end tyranny in the world, you’re going to have to stay up later.”

“The amazing thing is that George and I were just meant to be. I was a librarian who spent 12 hours a day in the library, yet somehow I met George.”

“I’m proud of George. He’s learned a lot about ranching since that first year when he tried to milk the horse. What’s worse, it was a male horse.”

Now that I see it again, it really does have the ring of truth.

Thank goodness she’s such a good Christian or someone might get the idea she’s alluding to equine hand jobs, thong stuffing and a very limp husband. I’m sure James Dobson would interpret these comments correctly as her desire for her husband to take his proper leadership role. And, of course, if she doesn’t respond to his leadership George can always take a belt to her as if she’s a dauchshund.

Did anyone happen to notice if FauxNews covered this little story?

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Goldilocks Logic

By the logic of modern journalism, in which they are considered to be “getting it right” if both sides of an issue criticize them, we now know that James Dobson is a moderate on gay rights:

Gay rights supporters from around the country, angry at James Dobson’s stance against homosexuality, are expected to converge Sunday and Monday on his Focus on the Family headquarters.

A second demonstration is also set for Sunday by a handful of extreme anti-gay activists from the Rev. Fred Phelps’ Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan.

Ironically, both groups will be protesting the stand taken by Dobson and his ministry on homosexuality. The gay rights advocacy group Soulforce accuses Dobson of “spreading lies about same-gender families.”

Phelps’ group says Focus officials are headed to hell because the ministry is soft on homosexuality.

One’s too hot, one’s too cold and this one’s juuust right.

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“They’re talking about my burrito”

A call about a possible weapon at a middle school prompted police to put armed officers on rooftops, close nearby streets and lock down the school. All over a giant burrito.

[…]

The drama ended two hours later when the suspicious item was identified as a 30-inch burrito filled with steak, guacamole, lettuce, salsa and jalapenos and wrapped inside tin foil and a white T-shirt.

[…]

Russell said the mystery was solved after she brought everyone in the school together in the auditorium to explain what was going on.

“The kid was sitting there as I’m describing this (report of a student with a suspicious package) and he’s thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, they’re talking about my burrito.'”

Afterward, eighth-grader Michael Morrissey approached her.

“He said, ‘I think I’m the person they saw,'” Russell said.

The burrito was part of Morrissey’s extra-credit assignment to create commercial advertising for a product.

“We had to make up a product and it could have been anything. I made up a restaurant that specialized in oddly large burritos,” Morrissey said.

The terrorists have won.

Hat tip to senior blog research assistant, Gloria