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(part 1):
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SOME OF YOU READERS MAY THINK THE ABOVE PICTURE IS RATHER IRRELEVANT ON THE POINT I AM ABOUT TO ADDRESS, by way of the ConWebBlog:
The Media Research Center continues its tunnel-vision interpretation of the state of the newspaper industry with a Nov. 21 NewsBusters post by Tom Blumer, who chortles at the declining value of New York Times Co. stock (he denigrates the Times as "Manhattan's quaint little alternative newspaper"), accuses the Times of "insufferable bias," then claims: "Yours truly and many others saw deep trouble ahead for the Times as early as the summer of 2005 if the paper didn't stop its Bush-deranged, standards-compromised march towards the cliff."
What "yours truly" is referring to is a post by Blumer on his BizzyBlog in which he rants against the Times for covering the leak of Valerie Plame's identity by Bush administration officials, which Blumer designated as "Nadagate," "non-scandal about which I refuse to blog in detail" with "main players, whose full names I refuse to type. It appears obstruction of justice and lying to a grand jury is "nada," as far as Blumer is concerned.
Nowhere in either post note what actual media analysts do when discussing declining newspaper circulation: the paradigm shift from print to online and the growing commoditization of news.
Blumer's suggestion that the Times' problems are solely attributable to its alleged liberal bias is a politically motivated interpretation unsupported by the facts.
Which raises the question: If, as conservative illogic suggests, the Mainstream Media is in decline because of "liberal bias," are we to follow, therefore, that the conservative media is now in the ascendency?
If so, which conservative media outlets are showing consistent and healthy gains in circulation and advertising revenue year on year, based on audited circulation or viewership figures as the case may be?
And how many of these conservative media outlets have substantial audience numbers in lower-income, economically-disadvantaged or otherwise "white trash" neighbourhods best described as "culturally-deprived environments"? Is their appeal in such areas largely because of an unhealthy emphasis on quasi-pornography and appeals to jingoistic patriotism?
Are those involved with these conservative media outlets (un)consciously (un)aware that their core audience is comprised mostly of the vulnerable, the ignorant and the psychoemotionally unstable as may take its content way too literally--especially if such involves "calls to action" bordering on mayhem, civil disorder and violence?
We await your answers. And you can leave them in the comments section, so long as they are tasteful and respectful.
A COUPLE OF ITEMS FROM THE PAST WEEK'S NEWS THAT YOUR CORRESPONDENT IS AWARE OF perhaps illustrates what I'm getting @ in the title of this piece:
Bob Jones University, perhaps one of the more illustrious specimens of Fundamentalist/Primitive Christian Higher Education (if you could call it that), issued formal apologies for policies based not so much on Biblical Teaching and Authority (as officially claimed) as on "local custom and tradition" which, until 1971, barred blacks from admission ... and, until 1999, banned interracial dating among students.
eHarmony.com, in settling charges of discrimmination against the GLBTQ community with New Jersey's Human Rights Commission, announced that it had agreed "with reluctance" to set up a separate dating and relationships portal as would cater to the GLBTQ element (remember that eHarmony's founder, Dr. Neal Clark Warren, has openly expressed homophobic views and articles of faith--howbeit not on eHarmony's radio and TV adverts).
But, on the other hand, certain Zealots and True Believers in the Final Perfection of Pure Capitalism as a Holy of Holies vis-a-vis American Soverignty and Soverign Identity are afraid to express reluctance until and unless pushed, come to think of it. Dave Zweifel's "Plain Talk" e-column in The Capital Times (cyberspace, via Madison, WI) illustrated just how afraid certain hyperconservatives are reluctant to sign on to pleas by Detroit's "Big Three" for Federal financial relief while otherwise supportive of Pure Capitalism:
I'm not 100 percent sold on this $25 million lifeline that General Motors wants from the federal government, but listening to some of these self-important commentators attack it as being a sop to the United Auto Workers is enough to make one sick.
Indeed, some are portraying the UAW as the real villain of the American auto industry's enormous financial problems--not the corporate leaders who were paid handsomely to be visionaries for their stockholders but were so blinded by big car profits that they couldn't see the sea change that was headed their way.
Many of these anti-union pontificators don't have a problem with pumping tens of billions into those banking conglomerates like Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase where millionaire executives can pad their own accounts or throw multimillion-dollar "retreats" for the company bigshots like insurance giant AIG did with money from its first U.S. Treasury bailout. Bailing THESE guys out is necessary to save the American economy, they say, but not the men and women who have toiled 40 hours a week on the assembly line floor so they can pay their mortgages and with any luck send their kids to college.
These columnists and bloggers lump unions with corporate America as "special interests," and since the UAW pumped lots of money into Barack Obama's campaign this fall, they claim that's why he and Democrats in Congress are ready to bail out GM.
True, unions do get deeply involved in elections, just like their management counterparts do. But, their "special interests" happen to be the working people who through the years have typically received the short end of the stick while corporations like Boeing, Xerox, Motorola, Dow Chemical, General Electric and other corporate special interests have made their contributions and been treated to corporate welfare by their friends in government.
It's also true that UAW members at GM, Ford and Chrysler are paid more than are the workers at the foreign-owned American auto plants, but that's not to say the union hasn't made considerable concessions in an effort to help right the ship, including taking over health insurance and agreeing to wage concessions that will eventually close that disparity.
Some of these union critics would rather have the auto companies go bankrupt so that they can, with a bankruptcy court's blessing, tear up the union contracts and eliminate other workers' safeguards. Some won't be happy until auto workers earn Wal-Mart-like wages. Perhaps, then they, too, can qualify for free health care that the taxpayers provide those who fall below the poverty line. That would really move America forward.
If we decide we need to provide taxpayer loans to the auto companies, we need to do it very carefully and with safeguards that will not only make those corporations stronger, but give taxpayers a good chance of getting their money back in the end.
And if it helps the working people who are the backbone of our country, that's not a bad thing at all.
As in its being of a purely informational nature, providing only basic information about facilities and amenities and contact details; reservations will need to be made as explained on the website.
Making it possible was a handy little resource called WebSpawner, as allows anyone to make their own modest little presence on the Information Stuporbahn with little or no knowledge of Internet basics. And free of cost for basics; see the site proper for details.
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SPEAKING OF MOTELS, YOUR CORRESPONDENT HATH THIS PECUILAR AFFINITY FOR INDEPENDENT MOTELS (as in such not affiliated with the major "cookie-cutter" chains like Best Western, Holiday Inn, or such as are in the Choice Hotels or Starwood groups) when it comes to any accomodation choices he wishes to make.
And in attracting attention to this weblog through a simple direct-mail campaign using the letterposts exclusively; "spam" (as in unsolicited bulk e-mail) is not only ineffective, but also violates Terms of Service (ToS) agreements among website and weblog hosts, contrary to such who see "bulk e-mail marketing" (to use the rather feeble attempt @ lily-gilding the "spam" community euphemistically useth) as "the advertising medium of the new millennium," not to mention being "environmental" by virtue of supposedly not using paper and other "wasteful" resources.
And besides, aren't there letter carriers who need work in these otherwise trying socioeconomic times where jobs may become limited or otherwise unavailable?
And just how many ethical online businesses are there as actually use "bulk e-mail marketing" exclusively for online marketing (as opposed to more ethical means like search-engine optimisation, banner ad exchanges or link swaps)--and manage to attract "fresher, timelier response" to their latest e-mail campaigns all the while?
(And Another Thing: In my use of the traditional letterposts for marketing this weblog, I prefer not to fall for the corny hokum suggesting that direct-mail campaigns can generate a 90% faster response rate by using markings implying express or otherwise expedited delivery [as in sound-alike terms for Postal Service products like Express Mail and Priority Mail] when they're otherwise using the letterpost mailstream.)
I THINK YOU WOULD FIND APROPOS THIS PICTURE TO ILLUSTRATE THE FOLLOWING WORTHWHILE ITEM by way of the Wake Up Wal-Mart Blog as makes note of apparent irony in recent press-release propaganda from Wally World heading into the holiday shopping season:
Al Norman has a story up on Huffington Post about a recent Wal-Mart press release talking about how Wal-Mart is helping Main Street. Normal points out the absurdity of the statement since Wal-Mart irreparably harms Main Street as opposed to helping it. It reminded us of a Press Release we saw a few weeks back. The release said that they, Wal-Mart, had been "relentlessly non-partisan" during the election. Of course if you read this blog, you know that Wal-Mart has been anything but non-partisan. They had been, possibly illegally, telling their employees to vote against Barack Obama in the election in order to forestall the Employee Free Choice Act. Both of these press releases are such outrageous distortions of Wal-Mart's actions, we wonder if Wal-Mart's PR folks have simply gone off the deep end.
The headline on Wal-Mart's press release this week simply makes no sense: "Wal-Mart Backs Main Street."
After having ravaged Main Street merchants for the past 46 years, how could Wal-Mart "back" Main Street by any stretch of the imagination?
It turns out that Wal-Mart's promise is not to Main Street---but to "thousands of rollbacks...targeting the needs of American families and communities." Wal-Mart has vowed "to lead on delivering a Christmas that costs less."
Wal-Mart's PR team thought that helping "Main Street" sounded good--even though businesses on Main Street will tell you that Wal-Mart is the Grinch who stole their Christmas. This October alone, 38,000 jobs were lost in the retail sector. Those bells you hear ringing are definitely not coming from Main Street cash registers.
As part of Operation Main Street, Wal-Mart is cutting prices for the next seven weeks, with a particular focus "on the prices of items families want and need most." Wal-Mart says that shoppers will be "amazed" at the depth of their price cuts on such essential items as: Betty Crocker potatoes; a General Electric 14 speed blender; and the board game Battleship. Most American families need Battleship, and it's hard to imagine what life on Main Street is like without the Littlest Pet Shop Play Pack.
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A cheap Christmas is perfectly timed for those "Wal-Mart Moms," many of whom must have voted last week for Obama. The New York Times magazine described these white woman as "slightly older and more downscale...more culturally conservative and more attuned to economics--who look most like the pivotal swing-voting bloc in 2008." If Wal-Mart Moms were supposed to pivot the election to McCain---they blew it! What has been pivotal for many of these Wal-Mart Moms is that their husbands have lost work, and the Moms themselves have had their hours cut back. Wal-Mart cannot help these families with their mortgage costs, or with their hospital and doctor bills---but the retailer is bringing down the cost of Betty Crocker potatoes.
Many Wal-Mart shoppers are working less, thanks, in part, to Wal-Mart's lack of appetite for American products, and a relentless pursuit of cheap labor in Third World sweatshops. We'll celebrate a cheap Christmas by default this year, as the American economy sours, and families cut back on their presents. If Wal-Mart were willing to be brutally honest, their Main Street press release would proclaim: "Our price rollbacks have led to American job rollbacks."
Wal-Mart's aim is to cut the cost of Christmas with "deeper values" for customers. But what Americans deeply value is a steady job at a decent wage--and those are hard to find at Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer. GM may be laying off hundreds of workers and running out of cash, but Wal-Mart is doing its part for transportation by taking $10 off the Power Wheels Barbie Princess Lil Quad Ride-On.
So thank you, Wal-Mart, for bringing us a cheap Christmas. As America's manufacturing base hemorrhages to China, Thailand, and Vietnam, and Wall Street implodes, it's comforting to know that we can still get an 8" Home Decor Digital Picture Frame with iPod-Ready Input for only $99.
Wal-Mart, we thank you from the bottom of our Main Streets.
As I express it in the title of this item: "How can Wally World be 'helping Main Street' when they're probably closer to the Park & Flush Trailer Park?"
In any case, such shows a woeful contempt for Corporate Responsibility, Good Corporate Citizenship--and Common Sense, not to mention Morals and Decency, on Wally World's part.
RIGHT WING WATCH IS A BLOG OF PEOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN WAY AS SEEKS TO EXPOSE TO AIR AND SUNLIGHT the latest in absurd propaganda missives and "calls to action" by the Religiopolitical Right targeting their followers, who are more than likely to be poor, ignorant and easily-influenced on obvious non-issues where appeals to True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command can be incorporate, risk of psychoemotional harm notwithstanding.
Since the emergence of warning signs of real or imminent socioeconomic harm during the election campaign, there's been plenty of patsies coming from the Religiopolitical Right's propaganda masheen vis-a-vis the root cause, all lacking any credible foundation in Reality. Latest example in this respect, per Right Wing Watch:
Last month, [Kyle] wrote a couple of posts highlighting the Religious Right's claim that our current economic mess was due to a collective loss of morality that could be traced back to abortion, homosexuals, and an overall breakdown in the family.
Notwithstanding the cardboard Santas who seem to have arrived in stores this year near Halloween, the holiday season starts in seven days with Thanksgiving. And so it will come to pass once again that many people will spend four weeks biting on tongues lest they say "Merry Christmas" and perchance, give offense. Christmas, the holiday that dare not speak its name.
This year we celebrate the desacralized "holidays" amid what is for many unprecedented economic ruin--fortunes halved, jobs lost, homes foreclosed. People wonder, What happened? One man's theory: A nation whose people can't say "Merry Christmas" is a nation capable of ruining its own economy ...
It has been my view that the steady secularizing and insistent effort at dereligioning America has been dangerous. That danger flashed red in the fall into subprime personal behavior by borrowers and bankers, who after all are just people. Northerners and atheists who vilify Southern evangelicals are throwing out nurturers of useful virtue with the bathwater of obnoxious political opinions.
The point for a healthy society of commerce and politics is not that religion saves, but that it keeps most of the players inside the chalk lines. We are erasing the chalk lines.
Keep in mind that this appeared in the Wall Street Journal and was written by the deputy editor of its editorial page.
With regards to the last paragraph of the original item, such has to leave you and me wondering if, in the Religiopolitical Right's Weltanschauung, the defence of Traditional Moral and Familial Values is that of free-market capitalism is that of Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity as a Pecuilar Among the Nations--and, what's more, all three are somehow intertwined and interconnected by Divine Will.
Sadly, though, there is nothing in either the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence or the Articles of Confederation implying the legality of such an interconnexion, let alone the Mayflower Compact.
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EN 'N ANDER DING: If you thought Supercow, the bombastic Spanish-speaking superhero alter ego of Cow on Cartoon Network's Cow and Chicken some years back, was rather silly, can you just imagine an equally-bombastic Afrikaans-speaking superhero seeking to deflate the arrogant racist mindsets promoted by the apartheid regime in South Africa for 46 years (1948-1994) as sought to inspire the "persecuted" Afrikaner into a hubris-weighted place of Pride and Honour rivalled only by Nazi designs on an "Aryan Master Race" "reclaiming German pride and honour"?
(Not to mention a fondness for an ur-sangria of Rooibostee and cheap Paarl red wines turned into an ur-Vin Mariani ... as well as Eet Sum Mor shortbread cookies, Tennis Biscuits, Romany Creams and Ouma Rusks.)
FOR STARTERS, WITH THE LIKELIHOOD OF SIGNIFICANT AND MEASURABLE JOB LOSSES AND UNEMPLOYMENT OCCURING in certain areas of the country too dependent upon old-school socioeconomic models and paradigms, you will no doubt want to watch out for "work from home/home business" offers as are short on specifics, yet long on glowing generalities (especially when it comes to potential earnings for only doing a nominal amount of work every day while "spending more time with your family").
History hath us taught that such schemes tend to proliferate during periods of real or imminent mass unemployment and socioeconomic uncertainty, what with their creating an aura of "real" employment being available in otherwise difficult socioeconomic conditions when it's really "make-work/fake-work" such as "home mailing," "envelope stuffing," "mystery shopper" and "product assembly."
And in any event, your local Better Business Bureau should always be contacted in case you run across any such--preferably before you consider responding and wind up sucker. (Initially, I would recommend that an Advertising Review be requested of any such you receive.)
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FOLKS, DON'T WORRY IF YOUR STORE RUNS OUT OF SPAM: With socioeconomic uncertainty bringing about reduced consumer purchasing power, Your Correspondent understands where supermarkets can't quite keep Spam (the luncheon meat) on the shelves for long as of late.
Which seems to be all the more an emerging trend, along with sales of simple foodstuffs like rice, beans, pasta and nonfat dry milk.
But then again, there's also the likelihood for panic buying thereof by Freeper types fearing serious disruption of food supplies thanks to Obama Administration policies tending heavily to Executive Orders rather than Congressional action ... much of which, methinks, is probably based on paranoia and fear.
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WITH REPRESENTATIVE MICHELLE BACHMAN (GOP/MN) HAVING NARROWLY WON REELECTION, I cannot stress all the more the importance of maintaining que vive on that which comes from her lips in the 111th Congress forthcoming. Especially so the sort as may risk posing clear and present danger to Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity as a Pecuilar Among the Nations by mere suggestion and tone.
Especially so in her riding: They will want to be all the more vigilant and consider the likelihood of a Recall Election in case her remarks become all the more embarrasing to Our National Honour and Identity in much the same vein as Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist excesses in the early 1950's (as in ruining innocent lives and careers to the point of some winding up taking The Other Way Out or having psychoemotional breakdowns stopping short of outright insanity).
A Preemptive Recall Election, as it were--especially before the House of Representatives is forced into debating a Censure or Condemnation Resolution against Representative Bachmann for "conduct bringing or tending to bring the House of Representatives into dishonour or disrepute" by virtue of her acts, deeds and exploits. Even if it risks driving her into insanity.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THE CAMPAIGN PROPAGANDA OF SOME WEIRD AND UNWHOLESOME TYPES SUGGESTING THAT PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA was associating too closely to Notorious Terrorist Elements, Iraqi Sunni cleric Muqtada al-Sadr used a march on Beautiful Downtown Baghdad earlier today to call for the immediate withdrawal of American troops.
Which, in effect, accelerates that agreed upon in the just-concluded US-Iraqi Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) as calls for removal of American troops from major Iraqi centres by this time next year and the "complete and final" withdrawal by 2011.
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AND SPEAKING OF BEAUTIFUL DOWNTOWN BAGHDAD, city leaders in the Iraqi capital are dusting off plans first formulated under the Ba'athist regime's salad days before the Iranian-Iraqi War for construction and development of a full-on Metro (subway) network, and repeatedly shelved time and again because of "more pressing priorities" in the Ba'athist order of things such as violating human rights, illegally goose-stepping it into Kuwait and otherwise driving the Iraqi nation into enforced impoverishment.
And Baghdad's civic leaders are blaming the increased traffic brought about by--you guessed it--the American Colonial Occupation (and all their checkpoints) as necessitating the Metro network's development and construction all the sooner.
Even if there winds up being disruptions of construction because of archaeological discoveries as have delayed the construction and opening of Metro networks in Rome and Athens.
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MEMO TO SUCH SPECIMENS OF ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF CLAIMING THAT BARACK OBAMA'S ELECTION IS ONLY LEADING AMERICA DEEPER INTO THIRD-WORLD STATUS, or so their paranoia suggests:
Thanks to President Robert Mugabe's excesses of depravity, mismanagement and arrogance all the more of late, United Nations officials are reporting where the whole of Zimbabwe is now facing an out-and-out cholera epidemic--and not even the Zimbabwean capital of Harare is immune from its devastation; this on top of hyperflation and food shortages translating into near-famine.
Perhaps it was time to stop thinking about America being Lord and Master of the World for once: The National Intelligence Council's just-released report, Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, suggests that America is more likely to become "first among equals" as China, India, Brazil and Russia all seek to compete with the United States for world dominance, thereby worsening the risk of political, military and socioeconomic instability ... the European Union becomes all the more a "hobbled giant" unable to compete on a collective footing socioeconomically ... the dollar is less likely to become the dominant global currency ... and conflicts could arise over control of food, water and natural resources made all the worse by global warming and climate change, among other serious issues facing the 21st-century world.
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THE LEAST LIKELY SORT OF PLACE WHERE YOU CAN EXPECT CHILD SEX TOURISM TO FLOURISH, according to BBC News:
Sexual exploitation of boys as young as six is on the rise in India, researchers say.
Abuse is becoming particularly more common in places of religious tourism, according to the study by non-governmental organisation Equations.
Children interviewed said the abusers were foreign and domestic tourists, as well as local residents.
Civil rights groups say there is an urgent need for the government to address the issue.
The study was carried out in the temple towns of Puri in Orissa, Thirupathi in Andhra Pradesh and Guruvayoor in Kerala.
The report says the abuse starts at about age six and by the time the boys turn nine they get drawn into full time prostitution.
The new findings come nearly a week after an Australian national was arrested on charges of paedophilia in Puri.
Boys unprotected
S Vidya, who compiled the report and is the programme co-ordinator for a Bangalore-based NGO, Equations, told BBC News that the incident was not an isolated case.
"The children interviewed mentioned that the foreign tourists relationships with them was very easy and the abusers were foreign tourists, domestic tourists and the locals also," Ms Vidya said.
"The foreign tourists stay in a particular place for very long and then they get used to the child and the child's family and they stay with the children and they try to abuse the children. With domestic tourists they go to brothels or middle men to abuse the child. Sometimes they are already abused by family members and later they are forced into it."
Ms Vidya says the current government policies are only geared towards addressing the abuse of girls. She says boys are equally vulnerable but they are being left out of their ambit.
Ms Vidya's organisation says the government must come up with what it calls zero tolerance towards any form of child abuse.
(Which, come to think of it, is not the sort of thing as should happen in communities as are sites of religious or sacred pilgrimage or veneration, regardless of the teachings or faith traditions involved.)
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IT SPEAKS VOLUMES FOR THE EXCESSES OF JUDICIAL ARROGANCE AND HUBRIS when you learn that Myanmari comedian Zarganar has been sentenced to a 45-year term of penal servitude by the military regime there for organising an "illegal" disaster-relief campaign following Cyclone Nargis earlier this year to protest the laxity of response by official channels in this respect (complicated all the more by a lack of official warnings or evacuations beforehand, as if expecting to use Nargis' devastation as a sick and twisted Loyalty Drill against real or suspected "dissidents").
Now imagine similar circumstances occuring here in the "morally superior" (or so we're taught to believe as an article of faith) United States following a major disaster of unprecedented scope which the Elmer Gantry element uses as a show of Divine Judgement and Condemnation upon the United States for Abandoning His Holy and Divine Will and Commandments (cf. the reaction of some pseudoreligious to Hurricane Katrina's devastation of New Orleans in 2005, as if seeking to discourage any sort of support for relief campaigns by excusing such in His Name).
IN THEIR PARANOIA ABOUT THE LIKELY BYPRODUCTS OF A BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENCY (NOT THE LEAST OF WHICH IS THE FACT THAT OBAMA IS OF COLOUR), some of the more pathetically specious specimens thereof include claims that:
an Obama Administration will get around the Second Amendment's "right to keep and bear arms" guarantee by using Executive Orders to tighten gun-control laws and policies;
an Obama Administration is about to "sell out our traditional soverign identity" to a so-called "New World Order***having reckless and utter contempt for American tradition and experience" based on free-market capitalism; and
Executive Orders likely to be issued by an Obama Administration could only have the effect of "undermining the traditional rights, privileges and powers entitled White Christian Americans as of right," among others.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre's Hatewatch blog makes note of such paranoia fuelling what may be a resurgence in so-called "citizen militias" as attracted notoriety in the mid-1990's, with the Oklahoma City Incident revealing the dangers of such posing clear and present danger to the peace, safety and good order of our communities as much as the Nation:
As the anti-Obama backlash continues to play out, with new reports of effigy lynchings, racist graffiti and other disturbing incidents surfacing daily, a number of voices on the far-right fringe are calling for a revival of the militia movement, a loose confederation of hyper-survivalist paramilitary groups that claim legitimacy under the Militia Clause of the Second Amendment.
Characterized by "black helicopter" paranoia and militant opposition to government regulation, especially concerning the purchase and possession of firearms, the militia movement has dramatically declined since peaking in 1996. Law enforcement crackdowns, arrests for weapons violations, and frustration among those waiting for the revolution that never came all contributed to that collapse.
But now, with the election of the nation's first black president, some conspiracy theorists and fringe "Patriot" radio hosts are seeking to reverse that course by calling on their friends and countrymen to arm themselves, organize and head for the hills in preparation for a fast-approaching second Civil War. Their language is remarkably similar to that employed by the more notorious militia leaders of the 1990s.
"My fellow patriots, constitutionalists and citizens of the failing Republic, HELL is staring you in the eyeballs," said Greg Evensen, a militia sympathizer and former Kansas state trooper whose essays and radio broadcasts are widely disseminated on apocalyptic Christian and militia websites, as well as the nominally mainstream right-wing Web forum NewsWithViews.
"We will no longer argue amicably about politics," Evensen said. "Those of you who have anointed this socialist, Muslim sympathizing, gun rights hating, Mexican illegals embracing, abortion loving charmer POTUS [President of the United States] … I see you as my enemy. Am I picking a fight? Pretty much. Might as well, one's coming down the street anyway. You have been warned."
Evensen's screed, which first appeared online Oct. 31, five days before the election, concluded with an outright call to arms: "American patriots you need to decide what your battle plans are. You cannot wait any longer. Are you stored up? Are you prayed up? Have you stayed up all night figuring it out? Have you decided that the time has come? Will you stand firm when they shut off your supplies? Will you resist in the cold and the dark? Will you go all the way to constitutional victory? Minuteman and militias were responsible for their own arms, ammunition and supplies. Can you muster with others and provide the essentials? Can you sleep with your back to a tree on cold, wet ground? Can you shoot and then seek good cover so you can survive another shot? When martial law is declared, can you and will you do these things or will you be rounded up by the hundreds of thousands each day? This is the new reality, friends."
Another prominent "constitutionalist' and NewsWithViews contributor, Devvy Kidd, declared in a column dated Nov. 10 that "Barack Hussein Obama is dangerous to freedom and liberty," "Barrack Hussein Obama spits on God's laws," and "Our very survival depends on the states of the Union revitalizing the constitutional militias."
"Forget states like California and New York. Real Americans in those states are outnumbered by the lazy, ignorant mobs who demand more and more from the public treasury," Kidd said. She identified the states to "concentrate on" as: Arizona, North and South Dakota, Kentucky, Idaho, Montana, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. "I would also like to include New Hampshire whose state motto is Live Free or Die, but over 50% of the voters in that state allegedly voted for Obama," Kidd said. "Is their motto dead or are there enough real patriots left in that state to get the job done?"
The omission of Michigan from Kidd's list seems to be a glaring oversight, considering that state is home to a half-dozen of the largest and most active Patriot groups in the country, including the Michigan Volunteer Militia, which posted this message to its homepage last week: "Let it be known that the day after the election, we began the reforming and strengthening of a lawful Constitutional militia, dedicated to preserving our freedom, our Constitution, and our way of life."
Meanwhile, sales of firearms and ammunition are reportedly skyrocketing nationwide as gun stores hold "Obama sales," and the survivalist chatter on some right-wing blogs is heating up, exemplified by this post to "Moonbattery," dated Nov. 9 and signed, "Glenn M. Cassel AMH1(AW) USN RET.":"One in the belt, one in the hand, one over the shoulder. ATV's ready to roll, gear packed, food, fuel, ammo stashed in various hillside hideaways. What's the expression … 'guns, gold, gas, grain'? Multiply that by two. But the daily Rosary will do more than all others combined. Pray to prevent formation of The Brown Shirts. I don't care where your families live, they'd better have plans."
As for the idea of such "militias" having Constitutional Authority which, in theory, makes such legal, the reverse is actually the case. As example, consider Minnesota Statutes 624.61, "Armed Associations," which provides that
It shall not be lawful for any body of persons, other than the National Guard, troops of the United States and, with the consent of the governor, sons and daughters of veterans and cadets of educational institutions where military science is taught, to associate themselves together as a military company with arms, but members of social and benevolent organizations are not prohibited from wearing swords. Any violation of this section shall be a misdemeanor.
(The provision allowing the wearing of swords was a concession to the Knights of Columbus and Knights Templar, both fraternal organisations whose traditional regalia includes swords.)
In any case, the whole notion of "citizen militias" of dubious legality, dominated more likely than no by drunks, drug addicts, the emotionally unstable and the ignorant "Joe Sixpack" crowd who traditionally falls for such crude appeals to True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command, being patriotic "white knights" saving and reclaiming America From Herself has to make you wonder if such is nothing short of boasting under the influence of Al Cohol, Mary Jane, Auntie Em and Old Lady Snow; "Aslan Maskhadov," in a comment to the original blog item, is inclined to agree:
I wonder how often these militia people really take the time to think about what they are proposing. Do they really think Mini-14s are going to stop Abrams tanks, self-propelled artillery, Apache helicopters, and the B-52?
Good luck, cretins.
In any event: Should you get word about so-called "militia" activity in your community, get in touch with law-enforcement agencies in your community posthaste. And contact your County Attorney's Office, reminding them (politely) of prevailing legislation in your state as proscribes "armed associations" of unofficial nature, and calling on them to take action accordingly.
Said "militias" could also be actionable in some states under the laws as deal with Criminal Syndicalism, defined (in Minnesota Statutes 185.06; your state's laws may vary) as
the doctrine which advocates crime, sabotage, violence, or other unlawful methods of terrorism as a means of accomplishing industrial, social, or political reform.
In short, then, remain vigilant and watchful. Because for all these so-called "militas" may say in their propaganda about "reclaiming Constitutional Law and Liberty," there is easily the danger for such crossing the line into sadisto mayhem, anarchy and disorder.
