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IT MAY BE RATHER EARLY FOR INDECISION 2010 TO BE A MAJOR FACTOR IN THE NEWS, but if People For the American Way's Right Wing Watch has anything to say about it, such could be a major test of support for the ultra-right-wing Constitution Party in a mid-term campaign mostly dominated by Congressional and state races:
For years, whenever the Religious Right felt it was being under appreciated by the Republican Party, leaders would start hinting, and even sometimes openly threatening, that the socially conservative grassroots voters would utterly abandon the GOP for a third party during the next election cycle.
Of course, that never happened and every time an election came around, the Right did what it could to mobilize in support of the Republican Party, despite all its earlier threats and whining.
The one exception that I am aware of what back in 1996 when James Dobson cast a "protest vote" against the Bob Dole, the GOP's nominee, by voting for Howard Phillips, the nominee of the U.S. Taxpayer's Party (now known as the Constitution Party).
Since the Religious Right is always threatening to leave the GOP for a third party , it only makes sense that the Constitution Party would try to capitalize on the current discontent and start trying to woo disaffected "values voters" into its camp:
The fastest-growing third party in America, the Constitution Party, will discuss a nationwide effort to encourage Christians to vote "like their faith depended on it." The CP will host a number of notable values-oriented speakers at its Spring National Committee meeting June 12th and 13th at the Renaissance Newark Airport Hotel . The party will gather to discuss its unprecedented growth which coincides with widespread voter dissatisfaction with the Republican and Democratic parties. The Constitution Party, the only political party in America which is 100% pro-life is challenging all Believers to put an end to the "lesser of two evils" approach to voting.
"Christians must vote their values and leave the results to God," noted Constitution Party National Committee Chairman Jim Clymer adding, "Our country was founded on Biblical principles, that's why it was so blessed. Without returning to God's law, we cannot expect America to change for the better."
Nonetheless, it'll be interesting to see if the Constitution Party's efforts to win over Christian voters will pay off, especially in light of the on-going tension between the GOP and its right-wing base.
But then again, the Constitution Party's obvious base of support is poor, undereducated or Christian homeschooled, socioeconomically-disaffected and easily-influenced "poor white trash" from Podunk Center, Doo Wah Diddy and the Park & Flush Trailer Park--spiritual cousins, so to speak, of hubris-laden Afrikanerdom who were basically conditioned to vote for the Afrikaner National Party consistently in "elections" during the South African apartheid regime's high carnival of power and corruption in the belief that the Afrikaner was forever being "persecuted" by the legacy of British rule (citing especially Die Voortrek and the Boer War), and that apartheid was its Last and Only Hope for the Afrikaner's Salvation.
The same "poor white trash" who can easily be duped into "giving until it hurts" for the "emergency evacuation" of the "once-proud and simple Afrikaner Peoples of South Africa in Clear and Present Danger and Risk of Persecution for their Race and Faith" based on flimsy "refugee" claims which are likely to raise alarm bells @ Immigration and Customs Enforcement vis-a-vis their sincerity, or want thereof, all the while not expected to realise that the funds so raised will be diverted @ the last minute to "more pressing and urgent needs" among such weird and unwholesome groups behind the campaign all along "for reasons you will understand," or so the official patsy will go.
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NO WONDER CONSERVATIVE ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS ENJOY COOKING UP ALL MANNER OF RED HERRINGS, "STRAW MEN" AND AD HOMINEM ("TO THE MAN") BROMIDES to distract the attention of so-called "Real Americans" from The Big Picture and The Real Issues.
Case in point: Texas GOP Congressman Lamar Smith's announcing his launch of the so-called "Media Fairness Caucus," which, according to Think Progress (quoting NewsMax), will "point out unfair stories, meet with members of the media, and write op-eds and letters to the editor to highlight media bias," as if implying that "liberal media bias" posed as much a Clear and Present Danger to Our Antient and Peculiar Sovereignty and Sovereign Identity as a Peculiar Among the Nations as Creeping Communism or International Terrorism.
Unfortunately, as ConWebBlog (adjunct of ConWebWatch) points out in the following, conservatives are equally guilty of the same "media bias" they claim liberals have a presumed monopoly on:
Ronald Kessler's June 1 Newsmaxcolumn strangely praises the Washington Post for making "making an honest effort to be fair": "Hit jobs against Bush administration programs and Republicans in general have virtually vanished. Instead, the paper presents issues fairly. No longer is the other side suppressed or relegated to the last paragraph."
But Kessler offers no evidence that the Post ever did that in the first place. In fact, the evidence suggests that the Post has always had a soft spot for conservatives and their views. For example, in 2007 the Post published a fawning profile of right-wing blogger Michelle Malkin that glossed over her most controversial comments, and in 2006 published a similarly fawning profile of then-Fox News anchor Brit Hume.
Kessler cites another example of the Post's supposed change of heart: "On May 29, a Post editorial described Obama's budget, with its reliance on $9 trillion in borrowing during the next decade, as 'simply unaffordable.'" In fact, the Post has long shared numerous editorial positions with the decidedly conservative Wall Street Journal.
Kessler then goes on to defend Fox News: "Although Fox News prominently features conservative commentators, when it comes to news, the network has a rule that guests from opposing sides must appear on any partisan issue." Kessler offers no evidence that this rule actually exists--which is necessary because there's a decided lack of evidence that it's put into practice. As we've detailed, appearances on Fox News by employees of the conservative Media Research Center are typically solo or with like-minded conservatives, a nary a mention that the MRC is, in fact, conservative.
Kessler then disappears into disingenuous territory:
Regardless of one's politics, most people want to feel they are being exposed to all sides of an issue. That is one reason Newsmax.com has been so successful. With an average 4 million unique visitors a month, according to Nielsen Online, Newsmax is bigger than many news Web sites, including the Drudge Report. If ranked among the nation's top 10 newspaper Web sites, Newsmax would rank with leading brands such as The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. It is also one of the few Internet news sites to make a profit. Though it features conservative columnists and news angles that the rest of the media ignore, Newsmax prominently runs stories that are critical of Democrats and Republicans alike.
Note that term "news angles that the rest of the media ignore." In other words, Newsmax has a right-wing bias. Kessler just can't admit it to himself.
Kessler's claim that Newsmas is "critical of Democrats and Republicans alike" is dubious at best. In fact, Newsmax has been disproportionately criticial of Democrats, even going so far as to report outright falsehoods about President Obama's stimulus plan. Its columnists inventquotes to put in the mouths of Obama and his aides. And Kessler himself is guilty of distorted attacks on Obama and creepy obsequiousness toward conservatives.
Kessler further touts a claim--unsupported by evidence since Newsmax is privately owned by Richard Mellon Scaifeand Christopher Ruddy and doesn't make its financial records public--that Newsmax is "one of the few Internet news sites to make a profit," suggesting that its supposed editorial balance is the reason for it. But it's not balanced, so that can't be the reason.
Of course, Kessler is on Newsmax's payroll, so he's more PR agent here than honest reporter. Of course he's not going to admit that Newsmax--and, by extension, Kessler himself--is hopelessly biased.
No wonder conservatives must have this fondness for projection in the psychiatric sense with the ulterior goal being one of protecting themselves from real or imagined scandal--especially if conservative media channels resort to "creative accounting" and/or offshore "pure trusts" structured solely "for tax reasons" (or so the official line hath it) to create the aura of prosperity when facts suggest otherwise.
And let's not forget where the apartheid South African regime, in its unease over "liberal media bias" making apartheid and its articles of faith look unfavourable (especially so the now-defunct Rand Daily Mail of Johannesburg, itself a notoriously harsh critic of apartheid's excesses as has since resurrected itself as the Mail and Guardian), secretly financed the launch of an alternative, conservative-leaning national daily gazetta by name of the Daily Citizen in 1974 (and tried to get away with it were it not for leaks to the outside world revealing the extent to which South African taxpayers were financing its operations).
Remember, boys and girls, what George Santayana said: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
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DO THE FOLLOWING REMARKS OF FORMER SENATOR RICK SANTORUM (AS QUOTED BY THINK PROGRESS) from Fox Prolefeed the other night reek of the condescendingly racist, with aspects of Archie Bunker/Alf Garnett-model crudity? (Emphasis supplied, know.)
And you have an African-American community, particularly in the poor inner city areas, we're looking at out of wedlock birthrates in three quarters to 75 percent (sic) of children being born out of wedlock. Marriage is an institution that's a bridge too far for too many African-American woman and is not desirable among African-American males.
Here we have a president of the United States who says that marriage is cool. You have respect for your wife, and you treat her with the respect and dignity that she deserves. And she is part of this team. And it's not just part of professional team, but it's also part of a personal, romantic team. I think that's all great. So I think it's important that he keeps having his date night. [...]
I think he has to realize that flying to New York is…self-indulgent. Go down to the corner bar and have a drink, a shot and a beer. It does not matter where you go with your wife, is that it's with your wife.
And when you get right down to it, boys and girls, such mindsets could be on the same plane of ideological crudity as apartheid South Africa's using beer halls in the black and "coloured" (mixed-race) townships as a means of controlling "inferior" peoples making up the majority of the population @ the expense of what the regime saw as a "privileged as of right" White Christian minority (remember the opening scene in A Dry White Season where some black rabble-rowser in one such beer hall before the 1976 Soweto Riots points out that the proceeds from said beer halls are turned over to the South African police and military as an ur-"Patriot Fund" for whipping up armed insurrection?).
*************
THE TIMING COULDN'T HAVE BEEN MORE INTERESTING, EVEN FOR RIPLEY TO TAKE NOTE OF: On this the 20-year anniversary of the Chinese government taking sadistic measures against pro-democracy student demonstrators in Beijing's Tiananmen Square (the which has been closed off by guards as a "preemptive" measure of the sort Machiavelli on steroids and amphetamines would certainly endorse), President Obama used an address @ Cairo University to the Muslim peoples of the world and the Islamic faith generally in calling for a renewed, healthy dialogue between our "morally superior" United States (heretofore regarded as a White Low Church Christian Nation now, tomorrow and forever) and the Islamic community of the world somehow strained thanks to His Fraudulency's Misadministration provoking ur-RAHOWA Against International Terrorism to distract the attention of the Lower Classes in particular (as love to see themseves as "Real Americans," remember) and appeal to their honest and simple feelings of True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command for as long as required.
And it was His Fraudulency's Misadministration more than anything as helped sow mistrust of America in the Islamic world (and, in return, having their right-wing propaganda droogs whip up distrust of Islam and Muslims among "Real Americans" Who Should Know Better, as if hard-wired in their insistence of America always having been, and always forever being, a White Low Church Christian Nation, never mind such a mindset having clear and present danger for corruption, waste, fraud, mismanagement, abuse of power and Maschienpolitik being excused as "perfectly natural [and yet] moral"--and all the more worse when you have alcoholics, drug addicts, sex fiends and maniacs, gamblers, chronic and habitual spendthrifts and the emotionally-disturbed in positions of power, confidence and trust).
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AND SPEAKING OF HIS FRAUDULENCY'S MISADMINISTRATION AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF ITS ACTS, DEEDS AND EXPLOITS upon our supposedly "morally superior" society and nation, Think Progress offers up the following transcript of an exchange between former Vice-President Cheney and Greta Van Susteren on Fox Prolefeed where the former Vice-President may have let slip An Inconvenient Truth which Fox Prolefeed's censors may have been ignoring all the while (emphasis added):
VAN SUSTEREN: On last question is on GM. We've spent an awful lot of money since last fall on GM to only have them end up in bankruptcy. Going back to last fall, would you have let them go into — or would you have pushed them into bankruptcy, do you think then, I mean, now that we've spent billions, or did you think that it was sort of a good idea to do what we've been doing?
CHENEY: Well, I thought that, eventually, the right outcome was going to be bankruptcy. They had to go through such a dramatic restructuring to have any chance of survival that they had to be able to renegotiate labor contracts, and so forth. And the president [His Fraudulency] decided that he did not want to be the one who pulled the plug just before he left office.
VAN SUSTEREN: Why?
CHENEY: Well, I think he felt, you know, these are big issues and he wouldn't be there through the process of managing it, but in effect, would have sort of pulled the plug on GM and that was one of the first crises the new administration would have to deal with. So he put together a package that tided GM over until the new administration had a chance to look at it, decide what they wanted to do.
VAN SUSTEREN: But it's cost us billions to get—I mean, you know–
CHENEY: It has.
VAN SUSTEREN: I mean–
CHENEY: And now the government–
VAN SUSTEREN: I mean, and we've now spent billions.
CHENEY: And now the government owns a big chunk of General Motors. That bothers me. I don't like having government own those kinds of major financial enterprises. I think it's—it does damage to our long-term economic prospects when we get government involved in making those kinds of decisions.
The private sector then I think will be very different, function differently, if it's full of government-owned enterprises, than would otherwise be the case.
Next thing you know, expect the John Bircher crowd to call for a Constitutional Amendment giving, in essence, the Mere Formality of Legal Recognition to Unwritten Custom and Tradition holding that the defence of Our Antient and Peculiar Sovereignty and Sovereign Identity is interconnected with that of a "morally superior" free-enterprise socioeconomic paradigm ("capitalism with American characteristics," as it were--as in "profit above all else," using the Lower Classes as corporatist guinea pigs, excusing reckless and utter disregard for Corporate Responsibility and Good Corporate Citizenship), and that the two must coexist "as of natural and inalienable right" "for mutual benefit."
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THE OLD COLLOQUIALISM THAT "GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE" COULD BE EQUALLY APPLICABLE to right-wing propagandists, especially the sort who specialise in "winning of hearts and minds" among especially the Great Unwashed in Podunk Center, Doo Wah Diddy and the Park & Flush Trailer Park, to cite the more obvious examples of "poor white trash" hubris made flesh.
Case in point, from the ConWebBlog adjunct of ConWebWatch:
One
of the stranger sights we've seen lately is right-wingers' embrace of
"news" sources, no matter how dubious, that reflect its preferred
talking points--as illustrated by the ConWeb's embrace of an
editorial on global warming published by a 9/11 truther on the Russian Pravda website.
That spectacle repeats itself in a June 2 CNSNews.com article by Fred Lucas that follows other right-wing media in embracing a Pravda website opinion piece lamenting "the American decent [sic] into Marxism."
Lucas
claimed that the piece was "published in the once-official newspaper of
the Soviet Union"; in fact, Pravda.ru, where the opinion piece
appeared, is largely separate from the Pravda newspaper, with the website taking a much more sensationalist and nationalist approach.
Lucas
fails to make note of the overall hateful tone of the opinion piece.
For instance, it refers Rep. Barney Frank as "Senator Barney Franks
[sic], a social pervert basking in his homosexuality." Moreover, the
author of the piece has also attacked
America as "a democracy where the rights of the minority, such as the
homosexuals and Muslims, routinely trumps the rights of the Christian
majority, who are viewed by the elites as a vast unwashed, ignorant
economic unit to be taxed as needed, bled for the right causes ... in
foreign wars and socially experimented on, at the elites' whim."
Are those sentiments Lucas and CNS endorse as well?
No wonder the right-wing media is as weighted with hubris as it is, not to mention a warped delusion of journalism being "the means which justifies the ends," no matter how vitriolic, crass or disrespectful for truth it has to be.
Remember Der Sturmer, as per one Julius Streicher back in Nazi Germany? (You know--the lurid and stereotypical depictions of Jews as filthy, perverted, greedy, sex-crazed; the whole lot ... cartoons depicting "Aryan" womanhood "under mortal danger" by Jews in the guise of snakes, rats and other vermin ... the motto @ the bottom of the front page warning that [in translation] THE JEW IS OUR MISFORTUNE!, not to mention the nameplate insisting they were "Germany's Weekly Newspaper in the Fight for Truth," notwithstanding an overzealously sensationalist tone bordering on the pornographic throughout ... Hitler himself admitting that it was the one weekly gazetta he read especially thoroughly, front page to back, and even a number of prominent Nazi Party leaders endorsing it as "essential" to the Peoples' Understanding of the Jewish Question....)
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CONSIDERING CONSERVATIVE ARTICLES OF FAITH FOREVER SEEING THE LOWER CLASSES AS A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO THE PREVAILING ORDER, you could just imagine them coming up with rather tasteless concepts galore by which to keep Kankerdom all the more pacified and in line long enough to keep their mouths shut and not "develop unhealthy interests in politics," among other Social Evils in the Conservative Playbook.
One especially likely such (though they don't want to acknowledge as much openly, For Obvious Reasons): A series of generically-packaged Adult Sex Videos priced ridiculously low to better attract the Lower Classes all the more, the sort lacking any sort of underlying plot, story or production values (as in little more than random sexual scenes, especially the sort where the "money shot" is drawn out to the point of unhealthy or obnoxiously unnecessary prominence); on occasion, such videos would likely include scenes of animal mating, bestiality, even pedophilia, "just to liven things up a bit," or so things will be explained internally, interspersed @ random.
And the background music being a rather bad insturmental arrangement of "Je t'aime ... moi non plus" which unintentionally becomes grating on the ears of Kankerdom reduced to so watching.
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ONE THING ANTI-ABORTIONISTS DON'T WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE AS AN ARTICLE OF FAITH, @ LEAST FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION, is their implementing the same "pro-life" policies as Romanian Communist-era majordomo Nicolae Ceauçescu as mandated @ least five children for all married couples and monthly gynecological testing for pregnant women as included bromide-laden reminders that what they were doing was for the Greater Glory of Socialism, and that if they didn't want to take care of the infant, there were always State orphanages available.
That, and their unwillingness to openly acknowledge their regarding the aforementioned Ceauçescu as a Hero and Role Model Worthy of Study and Emulation Among Right-Thinking "Real Americans" (largely poor, undereducated or homeschooled, socioeconomically displaced and easily influenced) on the same level as Eric Rudolph and Randall "Operation Rescue" Terry.
This I bring up in view of today's edition of The Progress Report from the Center for American Progress having as its lead article that entitled "Tiller's Killers," about Extreme Right reaction and invective vis-a-vis the weekend murder of Wichita abortionist Dr. George Tiller:
The issues of abortion and domestic extremism have been thrust back
into the national spotlight with the brutal murder of Dr. George
Tiller. The Kansas doctor had "long been the most prominent target of anti-abortion activists
in this country due to the fact that he was one of the few physicians
in the country willing to perform 'late-term' abortions." On May 31, a
51-year old man named Scott Roeder allegedly shot Tiller "as he stood in the foyer of his church." Tiller had already survived being shot in both arms by another radical in 1993. In 1986, his clinic was bombed, and in 1991, it was blockaded. Tiller had to be protected by federal marshals
and his clinic was fortified by bulletproof glass and security guards.
Unfortunately, Tiller is far from the only victim of extremist
violence. There have been "more than 6,100 acts of violence
against abortion providers in the United States and Canada since 1977,"
and four doctors have been killed. Many of the anti-choice groups that
have spent years fomenting hatred against Tiller rushed out
condemnations of Roeder's actions. But as Mike Hendricks of the Kansas
City Star wrote, "His accomplices know they have blood on their hands, which might explain why they were quick to issue statements...expressing disapproval of Tiller's murder."
WOMEN'S LAST RESORT: First of
all, it's important to understand that the abortions Tiller provided
were legal. In fact, his murder came just two months after he was found not guilty
of performing illegal late-term abortions. But his right-wing critics
portrayed him as a killer, eager to "execute" babies. "Dr. George
Tiller destroys fetuses for just about any reason,
right up until the birth date," said Fox News host Bill O'Reilly. Last
night, O'Reilly criticized the practice of late-term abortions--which
usually occur in the third trimester, at 24 weeks--saying that women
could choose the procedure if they simply had a "headache." Will
Saletan of Slate has claimed that "there are cases where there's no
real medical situation other than some teenager in denial." Women, however, do not choose this procedure willy-nilly. Just one percent of all abortions in the United States occur after 21 weeks, and very few doctors provide this service. Additionally, most states have strict restrictions
on when a woman is allowed to undergo the procedure. As Jessica Arons,
Director of the Center for American Progress's Women's Health and
Rights Program, has stated, "Although his [Tiller's] chosen profession
of providing mid- and late-term abortions was one some found
distasteful, he remained committed to his calling to serve women in
their greatest hour of need." Indeed, testimonials from Tiller's patients
have shown that he was often a woman's last--and only--resort when
she had to make the excruciating decision to terminate a pregnancy for
reasons such as her health or congenital defects.
HATEFUL EXTREMISM: Many anti-choice groups quickly denounced Roeder's actions. The group 40 Days of Life said that it was "shocked and dismayed" and Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue, issued a statement saying, "We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act."
But as Hendricks wrote, Operation Rescue couldn't have been "shocked"
by Tiller's death. After all, it was that group that coined the name "Tiller the Killer"
and "spent decades fomenting hate toward a man who simply believed that
he was serving a purpose by being one of the few doctors in the country
performing late-term abortions." In fact, veteran anti-abortion
activist Randall Terry--who founded Operation Rescue--issued a
statement calling Tiller a "mass murderer,"
adding that he was an "evil man" whose "hands were covered with blood."
Roeder, in fact, had been an active member of the Operation Rescue
community and used the group as a platform for his vigilantism.
(Authorities found a Post-It note
with the group's phone number in his car after the shooting.) In May
2007, Operation Rescue organized a "77-hour round the clock prayer
vigil" in Wichita, KS, Tiller's hometown. On May 19,
Roeder commented on an online forum for the event, chillingly urging
Operation Rescue members to take the fight inside Tiller's church. On
Sept. 3, 2007, Roeder stepped up his rhetoric
on another Operation Rescue site, writing, "Tiller is the concentration
camp 'Mengele' of our day and needs to be stopped before he and those
who protect him bring judgement [sic] upon our nation." Newman later issued another statement stressing that "Scott Roeder has never been a member, contributor, or volunteer with Operation Rescue."
O'REILLY'S 'FACTS': One of the
most prominent media voices attacking Tiller has been O'Reilly.
According to Salon, O'Reilly first discussed Tiller on Feb. 25, 2005,
and followed it up with 28 more episodes that mentioned the doctor. In
the past four years, O'Reilly has frequently described the doctor as
"Tiller the Baby Killer" and "a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida." "And if the state of Kansas doesn't stop this man, then anybody who prevents that from happening has blood on their hands
as the governor does right now, Governor [Kathleen] Sebelius," said O'Reilly on
one of his shows. On Monday, O'Reilly made his first public comments on
Tiller's murder. Although he briefly said that "Americans should
condemn the murder of Dr. George Tiller," O'Reilly then segued into
more attacks on Tiller. He also used the opportunity to attack his
critics, saying they were trying to "exploit" the incident to attack
Fox News. "No backpedaling here. ... Unlike you, I report honestly,"
said O'Reilly. "Every single thing we said about Tiller was true, and
my analysis was based on those facts." Washington Post media reporter
Howard Kurtz criticized O'Reilly for his segment, saying that he was
"surprised that, along with his reminder that Tiller had been called a
baby killer, O'Reilly didn't issue a ringing denunciation of the
shooting and anyone who thought it was justified. The occasion, in my view, called for it; he chose a different approach."
In any event, Your Correspondent feels it was about time:
for the anti-abortionists to acknowledge their being, in effect, a Secret Admiration Society for Nicolae Ceauçescu and the anti-abortion policies of his Communist regime in Romania (1966-1989), notwithstanding the ulterior motive here being one of Hastening the Final Onset and Perfection of Pure Socialism;
for the same element to stop playing doublethink and acknowledge, in no uncertain terms--in plain English, as it were--the old proverb that "words have consequences" applying in the wake of recent events, rather than their continuing to use platitudes just to avoid scandal; and
for Mr. "No-Spin Zone" (or so he wants himself presented to his audience of, by and large, Kankerdom) to accept responsibility, liability and culpability, preferably on his show, and from his very lips, for such comments as triggered Scott Roeder's infamous acts, deeds and exploits. (The same could be said for Roger Ailes and, in a way, Keith Rupert Murdoch, themselves equally liable by extension per the News America Corporation chain of command.)
So what stands in the way otherwise?
*************
NEWS SURE TO BE EXPLOITED BY CONSERVATIVE "FAMILY VALUES" TYPES WITH HYPED-UP SENSATIONALISM in their ongoing campaign to whip up opposition for Federal and/or State day-care funding:
The owners of a highly-reputable day-care centre in North Carolina have been found to be selling illicit moonshine from the same premi as the day-care centre on the side (as if looking to earn some extra income as could cross-subsidise the day care centre, methinks).
In any event, these developments could be grounds enough for revocation of the day-care licence because of Moral Turpitude (as in illegal liquor sales).
*************
NO DOUBT YOU MAY STILL RECALL THE HEADLINES GENERATED WHEN SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA, howbeit when he was still leader of the African National Congress (ANC), was "shocked and appalled" that whites could be reduced to living in poverty after visiting a white slum in Bethlehem township near Pretoria ... especially considering where apartheid-era propaganda forever insisted that the "privileged" and "morally superior" whites were "morally and racially incapable" of reducing themselves to the same depths of poverty which the regime forced the "inferior" blacks and "coloureds" (those of mixed race) into.
Not to mention the motivation for the assaination by stabbing of then-President Hendrik Verword in 1966 being one of unease over apartheid-regime policies failing to address the lot of poor, undereducated and easily-influenced (and yet "privileged") whites, especially of the Afrikaner derivation.
In any event, South African President Zuma's first State of the Nation Address to Parliament in the Union Buildings, Pretoria, held earlier today, called for creating 500,000 jobs (mostly in public-works projects) to help deal with the crushing and dehumanising effects of poverty in post-apartheid South Africa, especially so in light of the current global socioeconomic situation making matters likely to be worse without timely intervention. And with The New South Africa being seen as the Rainbow Nation, such jobs should be assigned equally and without due regard to race or colour (including the same specimens of poor whites which shocked Mr. Zuma back in Bethlehem).
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WITH MINNESOTA GOVERNOR TIM PAWLENTY ANNOUNCING HIS NOT SEEKING A THIRD TERM IN OFFICE IN INDECISION 2010, The Gopher State will doubtless be washing its hands of a major disgrace to her good name and repute.
One which has attached itself too much to K Street and their droogs among "the Four Hundred" @ the expense of the so-called "Fundamentals of the Economy" (as in the Lower Working Classes), thanks to Governor Pawlenty's hard-wired Zealotry and True Belief in the flawed and discredited "low taxes=jobs=social stability and order" mentality which the so-called "Club For Growth" has been especially fond of perpetuating.
In any event, this will be one governor's race which the Secular-Progressive element will especially want to pull out all the stops in ensuring sure victory--especially with the GOP still in uncertain territory vis-a-vis its future ideological direction as much as its finances.
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AND SPEAKING OF THE WHOLE IDEA ABOUT "LOW TAXES=JOBS=SOCIAL STABILITY AND ORDER" CONSERVATIVES HOLD DEAR AS AN ARTICLE OF FAITH, such, it turns out, may carry some fatal flaws unbeknownst to its most ardent believers who can't accept the idea of its being discredited.
For one, such expects so-called "Essential Industry" (unskilled manufacturing especially) to remain labour-intensive all the more, especially through tax disincentives against new plant and equipment as could translate into "major job losses" translating into "idleness" and "danger of hooliganism;" ergo, keeping outdated equipment and processes all the more viable "to protect essential jobs" towards a theoretical nil unemployment rate--even if it means cannibalising older equipment for parts in service to such a warped "industrial heritage" agenda.
For another, the whole idea that a theoretical nil rate of unemployment will magically keep tax revenue steady and consistent @ arbitrarily-low rates thereof fails to consider the fact that many lower- and middle-income "Fundamentals" wind up getting withholding taxes clawbacked, @ least in substantial part; that, and their also paying sales, excise, fuel and franchise taxes.
For still another, you have the rather obvious one of how to make up for lost revenue to the State while keeping taxes all the lower in the name of creating jobs which, in its turn, translates into social order (not unlike the "Asian Values" mentality Singapore likes promoting to explain its prudish mindset).
Can we please have logical answers to especially that last point?
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SOMETHING FOR RACISTS, WHITE CHRISTIAN SUPREMACISTS AND OTHERS CALLING THEMSELVES "PATRIOTS" TO PONDER, especially if they have relatives who served and died in the European Theater of Operations during World War II in defeating the Nazi regime in Germany and its designs on an "Aryan Master Race" ensuring the continuity of the Thousand-Year Reich and a New Golden Age for Germany after her "stab in the back" following World War I:
By your acts, deeds and exploits in, and your calling for, racist and white-supremacist articles of faith, don't you realise that you may be trivialising, even desecrating, the memory of those who succeeded in defeating the evil and sadistic designs of Adolf Hitler (himself a paranoid megalomaniac whose being blinded in a poison gas attack in World War I may have only shaped his delusions all the more)?
The evil and sadistic designs which saw not just Jews, but also Roma (gypsies), the Russo-Slavic peoples, Jehovah's Witnesses (known to the Europeans as "Bible Students"), the physically- and mentally-disabled (including such as were disabled by war) and homosexuals as "sub-human***life unworthy of life" whose presence was to be regarded as "a wasteful and needless burden upon the good taxpayers" and, hence, needed to be put out of their misery (in Nazi thinking)?
The evil and sadistic designs which justified outright bastardy in the name of "perfecting the Aryan Master Race" and increasing its numbers to a point where the Nazi regime's continued stability was theoretically assured--including by way of "campouts" involving the Hitler Youth and League of German Maidens in close proximity to each other? (The same line of thought held marriage to be "outdated and archaic" vis-a-vis "racial perfection," although those desiring the mere formality of its sanctity could still be "married" as per a Nazi-centric formula.)
The evil and sadistic designs which justified young and even impressionable children, not to mention the lower elements, being exposed to quasi-pornographic materials in the interest of whipping up anti-Semitic feelings for the sake of "national and racial honour"?
The evil and sadistic designs which saw the aforementioned specimens of "life unworthy of life" being "productive" as slave labourers or guinea pigs in "medical experiments" of dubious legitimate value?
The evil and sadistic designs which expected children to turn against their parents as one with "national duty," in effect being pawns of the State and its campaigns of sadism and ultraviolence thanks to a fanaticism instilled by way of the Hitler Youth movement (and its girls' branch, the League of German Maidens)?
The evil and sadistic designs seeing women's role and place confined to a trinity of Kirche, Kuche, Kinder ("Church, Kitchen, Children") even the Religiopolitical Right in our "morally superior" United States would look upon as "Traditional Values," reinforced by the League of German Maidens and its "finishing school" of sorts, Glaube und Schoenheit (Faith and Beauty)?
The evil and sadistic designs which expected especially fecund specimens of German motherhood, legitimate and otherwise, to be shown Due Respect and Honour through the agency of the Honour Cross of the German Mother (especially so such in the Hitler Youth)?
The evil and sadistic designs which sought to replace "archaic, superstitious and outdated" Christian teachings with an alternative "faith movement" rooted in Nordic paganism and using Hitler's Mein Kampf as its Holy and Sacred Text?
The evil and sadistic designs in which the Self was expected to become subordinate to a Greater Collective Will "by whatever means necessary," including the Kraft durch Frude (Strength Through Joy) programme of organised cultural and leisure activities available @ nominal cost, intended primarily to pacify the working-classes into accepting Nazi beliefs as one with "labour discipline" without question or reservation? (One needs to consider, too, that the Kraft durch Frude was financed through payroll deductions, whether one participated in its activities or not.)
The evil and sadistic designs fuelled more than likely by insanity, drug addiction, involvement in the Forbidden Arts, veneral disease, "sexual perversions" and other examples of personal misadventure which could be used to fuel delusions of grandeur, unaware such could only open the doors to corruption and abuse of power?
The evil and sadistic designs that not only the United States, but also our allies among the British, the Free French, even the then-Soviet Union, challenged and repulsed as a united force against the excesses of tyranny and inhumane cruelty?
All in all:
Have you no shame, no remorse?
"Have you no sense of Decency, Sir, @ long last? Have you left no sense of Decency?"
Have you no regard for those who fought and died to defeat such a dangerous madman as Hitler and his racist designs which could have unwittingly carried the risk of genetic harm in the name of "perfecting" an "Aryan Master Race"?
And yet you call yourselves "True Americans" and "patriots" all the while, unaware of past misadventures towards such aims you now seek the final perfection thereof!
So don't come crying to me, especially if you're maudlin drunk, having read this far; you got yourself into your own sorry state of affairs, and only you can undo yourself thereof. As George Santayana put it, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
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WHAT EXACTLY IS BILL "NO-SPIN ZONE" O'REILLY TRYING TO HIDE NOW, especially in view of one of his more notorious "Talking Points Memo" targets, Dr. George Tiller, having been shot dead Sunday after years of essentially calling for outright murder?
I ask this especially in view of these observations from today's edition of "The Progress Report," an e-newsletter from the Center for American Progress (as in the Think Progress weblog), suggesting that Mr. "No-Spin Zone" may have blood on his hands, but doesn't want to openly admit as much:
MEDIA--O'REILLY RESPONDS TO THE TILLER MURDER: 'NO BACKPEDALING HERE. ...EVERY SINGLE THING WE SAID ABOUT TILLER WAS TRUE': After Sunday's brutal shooting of George Tiller, a Kansas doctor who administered abortions, many anti-choice groups quickly condemned the murder and attempted to separate themselves
from the actions of the killer. Even Operation Rescue, which made
Tiller a special target of its harassment over the years, denounced the
killing as "vigilantism" and a "cowardly act." Fox News host Bill O'Reilly had also singled out Tiller in the past. According to Salon, O'Reilly first discussed Tiller on Feb. 25, 2005,
and subsequently did 28 more episodes mentioning the doctor. When Fox
News announced that O'Reilly would be making his first comments on
Tiller since his murder, some journalists believed that O'Reilly would
"most certainly decry" the killing. But on his show last night,
O'Reilly briefly said that "Americans should condemn the murder of Dr.
George Tiller" before segueing into more attacks on the late doctor. He
also used the opportunity to attack his critics, saying they were
trying to "exploit" the incident to attack Fox News. In particular, he
singled out the writings of Helen Kennedy of the New York Daily News, Mary Mapes on the Huffington Post, Mike Hendricks of the Kansas City Star, and Markos Moulitsas
of DailyKos. O'Reilly blasted liberals who were "very, very
sympathetic" to Tiller and said one of the first things that he thought
of when he heard the news of the killing was himself. "When I heard
about Tiller's murder, I knew pro-abortion zealots and Fox News haters
would attempt to blame us for the crime," said O'Reilly. Washington
Post media reporter Howard Kurtz writes today that he was "surprised
that, along with his reminder that Tiller had been called a baby
killer, O'Reilly didn't issue a ringing denunciation of the shooting
and anyone who thought it was justified." "The occasion, in my view,
called for it; he chose a different approach," wrote Kurtz.
So, Mr. "No-Spin Zone," who are you trying to protect by avoiding liability, as it were? Yourself?
Roger Ailes?
Keith Rupert Murdoch?
And just how much longer will Mr. O'Reilly go on playing Lady Macbeth, as it were, with his "Out, d***ed spot!" patsy, all the while (un)consciously (un)aware he could be called as a witness in the ensuing court proceedings against the murderer, with the clear and present prospect of an exceptionally thorough cross-examination which could, in the right circumstances, be set up to undermine your credibility, confidence and trust?
SPOT THE IRONY DEPARTMENT: With the personal savings rate having increased to 5.7% of GDP in the first quarter of the current year after years of close to nil rate (an attribute, perhaps, to the current uncertain socioeconomic state which His Fraudulency's Misadministration may have aggravated as much as brought about in their warped Zealotry and True Belief), it just seems rather amazing that many would prefer to use as their savings vehicle traditional-model bank savings accounts which, by and large, pay between 0.1% and 0.5% p.a. among traditional "brick-and-mortar" banks ... and, among "direct" banks operating on the Information Stuporbahn, paying between 1% and 1.75% p.a.
And there are still specimens of conservative Zealotry and True Belief insisting that the only way to "promote self-reliance and personal responsibility" in the "Fundamentals of the Economy" (as in the Lower Working Classes, especially such lacking in clear advancement potential as much as job skills) is the "complete, final and binding" denationalisation of State Social Security through insolvency proceedings based on frivolous claims made in "taxpayer lawsuits" as turn out being scripted farce--or worse.
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MEANWHILE, CHINA'S STATE COUNCIL (AS IN THE CABINET, REPORTING AS THEY DO TO THE SO-CALLED "CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLES") has called for making Shanghai a world-class banking, finance and trading centre by 2015.
Wishful thinking, according to the BBC World Service, who point out that the only ways such can actually be made viable are:
Making Renminbi ("people's money"), a/k/a the yuan, fully and openly convertible on the FOREX markets;
Having the Communist Party surrender its "natural right" to a monopoly on power by allowing democratic reforms and free, fair and transparent elections; and
As the preceding, vis-a-vis its all-powerful role reeking of interference in business and industry.
No wonder Beijing still refers to developing a market economy on their terms as "socialism with Chinese characteristics"--which sounds a bit like certain K Street types in the Zealotry and True Belief department speaking about "capitalism with American characteristics" somehow being seen as one with the defence of Our Antient and Peculiar Sovereignty and Sovereign Identity as a Peculiar Among the Nations by Natural Right of G-d....
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MEANWHILE, ACCORDING TO SOUTH KOREAN NEWS REPORTS, North Korea has officially "elevated" Kim Jong Nam, the youngest son of current "Great Leader" Kim Jong Il, to "Dear Guide."
Who, come to think of it (or so a Swiss magazine hath it, talking with some of the former classmates of the new "Dear Guide" @ an International School outside Geneva which Kim Jong Nam attended under an assumed name), may be a "chip off the old block:" Shy, lonely, introverted, yet fond of sport (especially skiing and NBA basketball) and fast living.
Not so fast, Pyongyang will be first to insist, suggesting that this appointment to "Dear Guide" is "subject to confirmation" in the form of certain spontaneous and sudden displays of natural phenomena by the official Korean Central News Agency (cf. the KCNA's announcing the "confirmation" in late 1997 of heretofore "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il's elevation to "Great Leader" being "confirmed" by a fisheries crew finding a white sea cucumber in their catch and thousands of pear and apricot trees spontaneously blossoming out of season, among other displays of "confirmation" in the natural world).
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KUDOS TO BRITISH MUSLIMS FOR TAKING THE INITIAITVE IN SETTING UP THE ISLAMIC HOTLINE (WITH THE BACKING OF CAIRO'S AL-AZHAH UNIVERSITY)to help Muslim emigrés in England's Green and Pleasant Land come to terms with their faith and how best to intergrate its teachings into daily life over the ameche.
And the raison d'etrê, come to think of it, is a rather sound one: The likelihood of especially younger Muslims, or such tending to be naive and vulnerable in a strange land, to be easy prey for recruitment by Muslim extremists with terrorist proclavities, usually promoting a perverted interpretation of the Holy Qur'an to justify their articles of faith as may be incompatible with Muslim teachings generally.
Your Correspondent sends The Islamic Hotline its best wishes, because "it's a small world, after all." Even if calls to 0900-0700 (from landlines) or 0900-0577 (from mobiles) are 75p/minute and e-mail queries are 69p each (responses sent within 48 hours of the original query).
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SOMETHING WHICH EVERY RIGHT-THINKING "REAL AMERICAN" (OR THINKS THEY ARE) SHOULD READ:This rather worthwhile (and yet sobering) report from the Mercatus Center @ George Mason University revealing the extent of depravities of Federal spending under His Fraudulency's Misadministration.
Which, once again, reveals all the more importance that Reduction of the National Debt makes as a Good Cause for the sake of this blog, and the proceeds of the online shopping. Not to mention all so-called "Real Americans," or those who think of themselves as such (including those in the astroturf "tea party" movement).
As reminder, donations to any amount can be sent to:
Dept. G Bureau of the Public Debt PO Box 2188 Parkersburg, WV 26106-2188
Cheques or postal orders so directed should be made payable to "Bureau of the Public Debt," with the memo reading "Gift to Reduce Debt Held by the Public." (And such are tax-deductible.)
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KUDOS TO THE JAPANESE AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES for his apology @ the weekend on behalf of the Japanese people and nation, and His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Akihito, for the depravities which the Japanese military inflicted upon United States troops during the Bataan Death March of 1942, in which American troops in the Philippines as were taken prisoner were forced to march in extreme heat and under the supervision of sadistic guards.
Your Correspondent graciously accepts this most humble apology.
Now let's hope the Germans apologise to the Jewish Diaspora for the excesses of the Nazi regime against German Jewry within measurable distance.
Likewise to the disabled.
The homosexuals.
Jehovah's Witnesses.
Roma.
Among other specimens of the persecuted, which the Nazi regime saw as "life unworthy of life" hindering the Final Perfection of the "Aryan Master Race" the Nazis were forever seeking to glorify.
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WITH THE BANKRUPTCY OF GENERAL MOTORS NOW ALL THE MORE OBVIOUS, we can expect all manner of platitudes and patsies most pathetic and obnoxious from so-called "patriots" about the "clear and imminent sellout of Our Antient and Peculiar Sovereignty and Sovereign Identity" to the "New World Order" and its "un-American" agenda "rooted in Socialism" "within measurable distance" all the sooner.
Especially the kind fond of resorting to pathetically emotional excesses of hubris to advance True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command of the worst sort.
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PERHAPS ONE OF THE HOMOPHOBIC MOVEMENT'S GREATEST "HEROES AND ROLE-MODELS WORTHY OF STUDY AND EMULATION" among especially Vulnerable and Impressionable Children and Youth undergoing National Christian Homeschooling would have to be Howard Rushmore, longtime editor of the notorious 1950's Hollywood gossip and scandal monthly Confidential ("Tells the Facts and Names the Names--Uncensored and Off the Record--No Fiction, All Fact" among its reassuring-sounding slogans), which had considerable popularity among the Dregs of an Otherwise Idealised 1950's America who couldn't wait to put down their 15¢ a copy @ the newsagents' for each monthly issue.
And for the latest juicy revelations, including such supposedly "outing" homosexuals and homosexuality in Hollywood's ranks, which the editors of Confidential saw as much a Clear and Present Danger to Our Holy and Beloved Nation as Creeping Communism (which Confidential also took issue with, usually under J. Edgar Hoover's byline and imprimateur).
They may want to think again, especially when they realise that a series of libel suits by a number of prominent Hollywood figures starting in late 1956 as were subjects of scathing articles in Confidential caused its confidence and trust to be seriously compromised and undermined (especially after the crudity of its journalistic methods was made note of), its circulation to fall from some 4 million copies every month to some 350,000 virtually overnight, its being compelled by court edict to avoid Hollywood and otherwise tone down its stories ... and, in the end, Rushmore's suicide death just after boarding a New York City taxicab on New Year's Day 1958 (by shooting himself in the mouth).
And is it any wonder that conservatives would love to dump among lower-income communities especially the trashiest and most pornographic of journals and literature on the so-called "Fundamentals of the Economy," and then only as an ur-opiate psychological (cf. Oceanic policy towards "the proles" in Nineteen Eighty Four justifying prolefeed)?
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