The Christian Religious Right Has Lost Its Mind

Don’t worry, boys, we’ll weather this storm of approval and come out as hated as ever.

Saul Alinsky, June 1972

I wrote about this before Christian Theocracy.   They have gone mad.  Gingrich is now the new King David. That is what one what one religious leader told a Daily Beast reporter.  But he only compared him as is pertaining to marriage.  But really, King Gingrich, the giant killer.  The only sling shot Gingrich may have is his jock strap, and it has to be small.  But to compare him to King David, then one has to go all the way.  David was a murderer.  He broke as many commandments as he could; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness.  Yet, King David.  He was a Jew, non-white.  How do they align that with their theology of racism and hatred. With their whiteness and purity?

The Religious Right and Republican part has devolved into the Nazi Party or the Klu Klux Klan.  The Klan was a Republican Religious political organization.  The Klan was in control of choosing political candidates.  They championed the purity of womanhood and Christianity.  They came in as reformers.  God-fearing people.  Their hypocrisy and lies were exposed.  The Religious Right is working that same magic now.  They are trying to dominate the Republican race, align it with its theocratic vision.  It is not just about God, it is about their God.

Their God teaches that hatred of women, poor people, blacks and other people of color is righteous.  They and they mean all white people, have a right, a freedom to discriminate.  They endorse a so-called principle that permits white people to hate and discriminate.  They can do in the open air, in front of their God and for their country knowing that they have nothing to fear, no reprisals against people of color.  This so-called right is the living and breathing manifesto of white racism.  But it is not new.  They have reshaped politics and the political system.  They are saving God.

Then there is the boot licking.  Some call in pandering, but it is worse than that.  It is outright lick spital boot licking.  King Gingrich, Mittens, Ron Paul, all of them have to win them over.  They must proclaim “I am a Christian”.  The best one I know of is one I read in Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail ’72.  Hunter S. Thompson swears that Hubert H. Humphrey made the most stunning comment while running for present in 1972. While speaking to a group of Haddasah women Humphrey screamed out at one point in his speech, “Why, I was a Jew once myself!!!!”  He swears it is true.  I believe him.  They will say and do anything.  We all know it is lies, but we listen anyway and those “righties” believe them.

We have no one to blame but ourselves.  Well, not me, but those people voted out of anger.  What they got extremism.  The Religious Right has carried their anti-woman agenda further and further..and now besides being pro-rape, pro-incest-and the out of high school drop out party, bigots, racists, anti-Semite, the Republican party and the Religious Right have reached a very new low…..the pro-domestic violence party.

Like Hitler, who in the beginning wanted only to remove those who were not pure, the Republicans and Righties are doing the same thing.  Throw the dogs out.  We may all soon be able to read it.  Not the Bible.  Mein Republican.  It will be in your neighborhood Christian bookstore, along with King Gingrich key chains, tales of how “you can be white”, and stories of how “I was a Freedom Fighter for God.”

To paraphrase Steven Sondheim:  The world is a pit, and it is full of shit, and it is called Washington, D.C.

Christian Right Theocracy

This is a post I have been thinking about for days.  I have been thinking about this since I read an op-ed in my local newspaper entitled “Liberals expressing fear of theocracy again.”  The author argues that we should not be afraid of the conservative movement and the religious right.  That we are making an error in respect to the religious right. That we look at Christian conservatism and see a host of legitimately problematic tendencies:  grandiose ambitions, apocalyptic enthusiasms and fiery speech.  We should not be afraid, that Christian extremism is not on the march again.  The man has lost his mind.  It makes one wonder in what universe he has been living in for the last two years or more.

Now we have the Value Voter Summit.  It has the appearance of a good old fashion Klan meeting.

These are people who read the Constitution and Bible and obsess over the parts they like and ignore the parts they don’t like.  What they are telling us is that we have no right to religious freedom under the First Amendment unless of course we accept their version.   I am sure they mean non-christian religions, but I know they mean everyone.  Christianity is only valid if you follow their values.  They hate everyone.

I fully expect that God will make his presence known. A ventriloquist throwing his voice from the beyond.  Can’t you just hear that slow, low, deep voice saying “You have come here to receive the word, and the word is , well you can find the word in my Racism For Dummies or The Bigots Handbook.  All available at a discounted price for value voters.  Complimentary t-shirts to the first 1000. Sign up for my newsletter at Godbigotry.heaven.”

The Christian Right has permeated every part of lives.  If you are Christian, their kind of hate based Christian you don’t belong.  You can even find the love of your life online at ChristianMingle.com.  I am not saying that they are associated with any hate group, but I find it ludicrous that there even is such a site.  It implies that if you aren’t christian you won’t find love.  It suggests that you are not intelligent enough to know what you are looking for.  Their website promotes all the bible verses, belief in God, etc.   The days are gone  when your parents said  you can’t date or marry unless he is a christian, Greek, Irish, Buddhist, Muslim.  Why must you marry within your race, religion or gender.  “Are you single and Christian? Are you waiting for God to make the right choice for you? Find God’s match for you.”  It is on their website.  I am not necessarily saying that that is a bad thing.  I am just saying that it insults my intelligence and violates my freedom.  I don’t need God or the religious right to choose my friends, love, religion, for me.  God gave me free will so I could choose for myself. Now mind you they only ask if you are christian and single.  They do not ask are you straight, gay or lesbian.  If what they write is true, then you/anyone should be able to get a date and find love.  Does it not tantalize the imagination?

Then of course we have the get out jail free pass.  Church or jail.  Now you would have to be an idiot to pass that up.  Thirty days in church is better than jail.  Naturally the courts will strike it dead as they should.  There is no state sanctioned religion.  Violates the First Amendment.  But you can pretend to be christian as they do and stay out of jail for now.

I am not a value voter.  I will never be their kind of value voter.   The God I pray to does not condone violence, hatred, bigotry and killing.  The God I pray to is not a member of a hate group.  The only handbook he has is the Bible, the entire Bible.  Not just parts of the Bible that suit my purpose.  I do not bribe God.  I do not lie to God.  I do not pretend to be a Christian.

9/11/01: Personal View From Europe

I have had reservations about posting anything about September 11, 2001.  The reservations are simple:  in the days following 9/11, we as a people came together and acted as one.  We now have become a hate machine.  Turning into the very thing, the very hatred that led to 9/11.  Still we proclaim during these “celebrations” of 9/11 our patriotism and love of country. Our flag waving.  We are idiots. This post is about an American in another country witnessing what happened on that ugly day, and how it affected me all those miles away.

It all began on an airplane crossing the pond for Greece.  I was filled with joy, even though I had just been there six months ago.  September is glorious in Greece.  It is still summer.  I arrived on September 9th.  It was a beautiful day.  I was with family in a country that was the beginning of freedom, of all things as we know them now.  Notwithstanding that, I had no illusions of how Europeans, all Europeans felt about America and Americans.  They saw, see us as the land where the streets are paved with gold, everyone is rich, but also a country and a people who imposes their will on other people of the world.  Our way or no way.  They feel this way with good reason.

On September 11th. my cousin and I met a friend for lunch.  It was really a surprise visit first to her shop in Athens, then lunch.  We left to make our way home at about 3:00 p.m. Athens time.  We got in the car and proceeded home and listened to the radio.  “There has been a terrible accident in New York City.”  I remember it like it was yesterday.  We thought train accident, the Lincoln Tunnel.  That was all they said.  We arrived home and started up the stairs.  My cousin lives in a three-story walk-up.  As we were climbing, we could hear the phone ringing, ringing and ringing.  I t would not stop.  We ran up the stairs.  My cousin answered the phone.  The friend we had lunch with told up to turn on the television.  As I did that, the second plane hit the second tower.  Our friend still trying to talk on the phone, and my cousin and I in shock.  Truth be told we did not believe it was real.

The rest of that day and for days following, the phone continuously rang.  Friends calling telling my cousin that they will take care of me and that I should not be afraid.  Amazingly, I wasn’t afraid.  My friends and family weren’t the only ones protecting me.  The Greek Government and other governments, swore that they would protect Americans.  They did just that.

We tried to live life as usual.  My cousin, friends and I were off to the British Consulate.  My cousin teaches English and needed supplies from the Consulate.  We got there on a hot, sunny day.  As we entered the building, they asked for passports or other ID.  I don’t carry any, I have never carried any.  I have had my pocket picked.  So in english I said, “That’s okay, I will wait for you outside.”  I went out the door,  lit a cigarette, and as I turned to wait, I found that the soldier, with his finger on the trigger of his ouzi or whatever weapon he was carrying that day, was standing six inches from me, protecting me.  We looked at each other but never spoke. There was no need.  We both knew what happened.  He stood next to me until my cousin came out, and then made sure I knew her.  When we walked away, he silently walked back into the consulate.  It was the first and only time I was afraid.  I say that, because I learned that day, I did not need to be afraid.  I was safe and would be defended and protected.

Yes I felt safe and protected.  That is not to say there weren’t protests and riots against America.  The U.S. Embassy was marched upon, protests in the streets of Athens and other cities.  There is no love lost among many in Greece and other European countries.  They tell you that America finally got what it deserved.  That it was God’s will for all our sins and deception.  It would be less than honest to say that America has not been all of those things.  I can say that how did we deserve this?  They will tell you remember Dresden? Remember the Junta of 1967?  Remember Cyprus?  Remember our starvation during  WWII while you did nothing?  They wonder why patriotism synonymous with hatred.  George W said, “Either you are with us or against us.”  Why must those who disagree with us be the enemy?

Make no mistake, I wanted justice.  Justice does not mean war.  Justice does not mean killing.  Justice does not mean blanket hatred of poor people, gay people, muslims, black people, the Irish, or those who oppose us.  Politics has become more important that human life.  Our superiority is our religion.  9/11 has become a money making machine. We have no Foreign policy. Only American policy.  We speak of democracy and freedom for everyone, but only if America can give it to them and of course it must be American democracy.  They laugh at our arrogance.

We are fighting two wars in two countries and call it protecting our freedom.  They won’t tell you they want justice, they want to bring criminals to justice or any such thing.  Our government tells us that we are protecting and defending our freedom.  That is pure bullsh$t.

The Europeans understand that.  They know we are playing games with their lives.  They don’t wish us death, but they want us to take responsibility.  Our government takes pride in its promotion of violence, extremism, destruction of America, and hatred.

My cousin was right many years ago.  She asked me why I was so sure that I was free and could do what ever I wanted?  Before I could answer, she told me that I wasn’t really free. Democracy in America was non-existent.  That we are trained from childhood to act and behave in a certain manner, read certain books, and to demand certain things, and that is why we think that we can do everything we want.  But in reality, we demand only what they, the government, is willing to give us.  Simple words, simple pictures manipulate the small child to be aware of what government wants, or teach the child to be a good citizen, and to teach the child to demand from government only what government is willing to give.  Is that freedom?

Ironically, 28 years ago, my cousin was right.  Look at us now.  We have allowed government to take our rights away, teach us to hate.  We can never bring democracy or freedom to the Middle East.  They have been killing each other since Abraham and Sarah.  The problem with the Middle East is that the killing is about religion.  Has always been about religion.  One sect of Islam against another sect of Islam.  It is not about freedom, democracy or human rights.  It is about religion.

Yes, I felt safe and protected in Greece and Europe.  So much more so than I do in my own country, America.

 

Glenn Beck: A Hitler Devotee

In today’s issue of The Telegraph Glenn Beck States:

There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like, you know, the Hitler youth. I mean, who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics? Disturbing.”

Well, you do Glenn Beck.  His great patriotic 9/12 Project does just that.  They teach the tea party doctrine.  Teaching them religion, economics and politics. They have been doing all this summer.  So he must be a Hitler follower.

Glenn Beck is a racist, bigoted and homosexual hater.

I accuse him.  He has no respect for the additional pain that these statements have caused a nation in mourning.  He is ignorant.  I can’t call him stupid, because to be stupid implies that you no the difference between right and wrong, good and bad.  Beck doesn’t.  He is ignorant.

He is indiscriminate in his hatred and attacks.  He even attacks the Jewish faith.  No one is sacred to Beck.  No one that is except Glenn Beck himself.

I accuse him of being what is ugly in America.  I accuse him.

Yellow Journalism Is Alive: Thanks To Oslo

As I watched the events unfold yesterday in Oslo, the first thing that occurred to me was that no one had claimed responsibility for the bombing and shootings.  Does anyone really think, not believe, think that Al Qaeda, Muslims, would commit an act so heinous and not take full credit for the act?  It was obvious that they had not does this.  Obvious that is to me and probably many of you, but not to the New York Times, Washington Post and the BBC.

These well-known, print the truth only, media and journalism giants immediately said or suggested that it was Muslims responsible for the outrage in Oslo.  The Washington Post’s column still appears with no correction or update.  It implies that Muslims were guilty.

Only it wasn’t true.  It turns out that the alleged perpetrator wasn’t from an international Muslim organization at all, but was a right-wing Norwegian nationalist with a history of anti-Muslim commentary and love for Muslim hating blogs such as Pam Geller’s Atlas Shrugged, Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch and Daniel Pipes.   It seems now that the New York Times in some small way has realized that their eagerness in selling newspapers has backfired.  Still, they are trying hard to assign fault, even ultimate fault on Muslim radicals.

Terrorist specialists said that even if the authorities ultimately ruled our Islamic terrorism as the cause of Friday’s assaults, other kinds of groups or individuals were mimicking Al Qaeda’s brutality and multiple attacks.

If it does turn out to be someone with more political motivations, it shows these groups are learning from what they see from Al Qaeda, said Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism research at the New American Foundation in Washington.

Then there was this stunning passage from the NYT:

Initial  reports focused on the possibility of Islamic militants, in particular Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or Helpers of the Global Jihad, cited by some analysts as claiming responsibility for the attacks.  American officials said the group was previously unknown and might not even exist.

In other words, now that we know the alleged perpetrator is not Muslim, we know by definition that Terrorist are not responsible; conversely, when we thought Muslims were responsible, that meant – also by definition – that it was an act of Terrorism.

Are the only terrorists in the world Muslim?  If so, what do we call a right-wing nationalist capable of planting major bombs and killing scores of people for the sake of the greater glory of his cause?  Timothy McVey was a terrorist, the KKK was a terrorist, Skinheads are terrorists, the mafia is are terrorists.  None of which are Muslims.  Still, most or all or terrorists groups.

This yellow story maps and sets forth precisely how the “Muslim-did-it” myth was manufactured and then disseminated yesterday to the worldwide media, which repeated it without verifying that it was true. This article names names; it points to the incestuous,k self-regarding network of self-proclaimed U.S. Terrorism and foreign policy “experts” – what the article accurately describes as “almost always white men” who so often shape these media stories and are uncritically presented as experts, even thous they are drowning in bias, prejudice, nationalism, ignorance, stupidity, racism, and shallow or no credentials.

This is what the press, media always does.  In their eagerness to be first with the story, they leave out the truth.  They do not research or investigate to be sure that what they are going to print or say has any basis in fact.

Right-wing terrorism?  We in America can associate with that.  We’ve got Rep. Peter King, who is determined to rid of us all Muslims, Sarah Palin and her guns and God.  Good patriots all.

But they are terrorists too.

The New York Times should be ashamed.  What does it say in the corner?  “All the news that’s fit to print?”  Even if you make it up.

Thanks to Salon.com for part of this story.

Democracy Needs a Bailout

The first thing I ever learned about politics was never to let anyone else define what you believe, or what you are for or against.  I think for myself.

I am no “you liberals” or “you people on the left who always…” I have a name, and I can speak for myself, thank you.  I don’t need Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Pam Geller, Newt Gingrich or Karl Rove, Teabaggers, the Christian Right or Right-wing Republicans to tell me what I believe.

Setting up a straw man, calling it liberal and then knocking it down has become a favorite form of “argument” for those on the right. Make some ridiculous claim about what “liberals” think, and then demonstrate how silly it is.  Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and many other right-wing ravers never seem to get tired of this old game. If I had a nickel for every idiotic thing I have ever heard those on the right claim “liberals” believe, I’d be richer than Bill Gates.

It has been tried before.  During the Viet Nam war, they told me I was unpatriotic for opposing the war.  Now they are saying the same thing.  Only the war they speak of exists in their worm-eaten brains.  Islamophobia is their great war.  Burning a Quran was the latest act of ignorance of these lunatics.  They have no respect for human life.  What was their expectation in this burning?  Fame?  Publicity?  Christian religion is the only religion? They now have blood on their hands, and they feel no guilt at all.  They try to make me believe this was an act of stopping violence against us here.  They want me to believe that it was an act of patriotism. They want me to believe Muslims are trespassing in America. They want me to believe that I am stupid. Stupid as they are.

Since I have a name and I can speak for myself, I’ll tell you exactly why I opposed invading Iraq: because I thought it would be bad for this country, our country, my country. I opposed the invasion out of patriotism, and that is the reason I continue to oppose it today — I think it is bad for us. I think it has done nothing but harm to the United States of America. I think we have created more terrorists than we faced to start with and that our good name has been sullied all over the world. I think we have alienated our allies and have killed more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein ever did.  This last act of patriotism by Pastor Terry Jones and his supporters was simply throwing more gasoline on an already lit fire.  This was act done in the name of God.

I did not oppose the war because I like Saddam Hussein.  He was a miserable s.o.b back in the ’80s, when our government was sending him arms.  We created him.

I did not oppose the war because I am soft on terrorists or didn’t want to get Osama bin Laden. To the contrary, I thought it would be much more useful to get bin Laden than to invade Iraq — which, once again, had nothing to do with 9-11. I believe the case now stands that the Bush administration used 9-11 as a handy excuse to invade Iraq, which it already wanted to do for other reasons.  The Right is doing the same thing now.  They are Muslimcides.  They want them all dead, good or bad.

It is one thing for a political knife-fighters like, Rove, Geller, Gaffney and others to impugn the patriotism of people who disagree with them: We have seen this same lunatic fringe tactic before just as we have seen republicans use 9-11 for political purposes again and again. But how many times are the media going to let them get away with it? How long are the Democrats going to remain silent? When are they going to stand up and fight?

The actions of the Republicans on the state and federal level has threatened democracy in this country. The first furious assault on the patriotism of Democrats came right after the 9-11 commission learned President Bush had received a clear warning in August 2001 that bin Laden was planning a hijacking.

They believe that we live in the land of Oz, and like the scarecrow, we are all in need of brains.  They want us brainless.  That is how they succeed.

Democracy needs a bailout and it needs it now.

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Religious Tolerance is under attack: The Attraction to Evil

I hope to show that the very ideal of religious tolerance — born of the notion that every human being should be free to believe whatever he wants about God — is one of the principal forces driving us toward the abyss.

We have been slow to recognize the degree to which religious faith perpetuates man’s inhumanity to man. Sam Harris from his book ‘The end of Faith’

In this country, April, like December, has become something of a symbol of religious tolerance. As the Easter and Passover seasons coincide – like Christmas and Hanukkah — Americans celebrate the benefits of life in a live-and-let-live society. That is a wonderful tradition.

But lately a lot of people feel things changing.  Thanks to Conservative Christians. Conservative Christians, the Religious Right rise up against what they see as the increasing secularization of society – the death of what they think of as the American way. As a result of that uprising, other people see a threat to their idea of the American way.

Respect and tolerance for religious perspective other than one’s own has worked for this society and for post-modern World War II Europe. Today, if it is threatened by Muslim extremists, it is also threatened by extreme responses to them. And if it is threatened in this country by forces pushing a religious agenda in politics, it could also be threatened by extreme responses to those forces.

When politics enters religion, politics rules.  Religion is used a tool of fear. These so-called Christian Conservatives, and the Religious Right do in fac lose their religion.  It is accomplished in three ways:  television, repudiation of all religions except their own, and money. Religion has no place in politics, and politics has no place in religion.

Reality has come to seem more and more like what we are shown by cameras.  Susan Sontag

We see it everyday. Just watch Glenn Beck.  The good Christian that he is attracting us to evil.  His hatred of all Muslims and his fear of the great Caliphate is driving toward evil. His mission is to make us afraid, ignore our religion and faith, accept his version of God and Religion and become as afraid as he is.  He is not alone.  There is Fox news, members of government and the tea party.  They want to bring us back to their version of God by taking away our rights, condemning all who do not believe in their God, and the lock and load method.  They do not see God as a “moral” being at all. For the Christian Right, God is that abundant overflowing happy joyness at the heart of us, and which allows us to be free to flourish.  To be entirely without such abundant, self-delighting life is to be evil.

Politics, has always been a con game. The American voter, insisting on his faith in a higher order, clings to his religion, which promises another, better life; and defends passionately the illusion that the men he chooses to lead him are of finer nature than he. And it has been traditional that the successful politician honor this illusion.

Advertising in more ways than wants to admit, is also a con game.  Politicians have used advertising well. It is not shocking that politicians and ad men have discovered each other. Once they recognized that the citizen did not so much vote for a candidate as make a psychological purchase of him, they began to work together.  Advertising has meant a reshaping of our very concept of truth especially true of advertising on television. Television is being used to seduce voters and the old political values disappeared.  The politicians on television tell you that we need to be brought back to our values and God.  That is not what they mean.  They mean to get elected, and then forget the people who put them their.  Then they lie, by telling you they didn’t lie to you to get your vote.  It is the road to evil from God-fearing good Christians.  Television is particularly useful to the politician who can be charming and disarming, but lacks ideas.  Does Sarah Palin come to mind?

On television it matters less that he does not have ideas. His personality is what the viewers want to share. He need be neither statesman or crusader; he must only show up on time. They have made us believe that we want celebrities.

We have been here before.  Remember McCarthy?  His hearings into communism without evidence, proof or facts.  Just innuendo and lies.  Now we have Peter King doing the same thing.  He is holding hearings without proof, evidence or facts. His intent is to condemn a religion, Islam.  Condemn the religion and the not the radial fanatics.  Condemn the religion simply because it is not “our”. Our past is strewn with this sort of religious bias.  We hated all Catholics.  We couldn’t elect a Catholic president because he would consult with the Pope and government would be ruled by his Catholicism.  There has always been a bias against all immigrants and their religions.  I will share one, which is a personal one.

My grandparents were immigrants from Greece. They fled World War I.  My mother was a second generation Greek, an American.  She spoke two languages, as I do.  She worked her way through college, Wittenberg University.  She graduated cum laude.  On the day of her graduation, she was called into the Presidents office.  He gradulated her and then told her that she would never work.  His reason: her ethnic background, Greek, and her religion, Greek Orthodox.  This was 1940. To my mother’s credit, she read him the riot act.  She asked him if he knew this from the beginning, why did you accept me in university? The she called him stupid.  And he was.  The Eastern Orthodox Church was the first, the original Bible was written in Greek, open any dictionary and you find that most words are derived from the Greek. The Greeks gave us democracy, art, music, the first Christian Religion, from which all other religions followed.  He was just plain ignorant.

Conservative Christians and the Religious Rights main mission is to raise money so they can impose their version of religion, values and fear upon the people of American and beyond.  Check their websites.  They want you to donate. By donating you begin to pave your way to heaven.

Virtue and morality is gone.  Their morality is money and their virtue is fear.  The attraction to evil.

We are not blameless in this attraction to evil.  We only have to look to ourselves to see that we enabled them.  The First Amendment gives us the right to freedom of religion and freedom of speech.  There is no government religion,  The founders had the good sense to understand that God is a personal choice and not a public one.

As I said in an earlier post Republicans want to save God.  But God doesn’t need saving.  God is everywhere.  He should be in your heart and not in your politics. The only people who need saving are the Radical Republicans, Christian Conservatives and the Religious Right, who profess their love of God, but in actuality have lost God.  Politics and money rule. It is the attraction to evil.

 

 

 

 

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Lamp Chop Is Spying for America

It seems that the US Government is planning to use technology to create and manage fake identities for social interaction with terrorists. It is disgusting.  In the time or greater openness and accountability brought on by the internet, the US of all places is trying to create a system of sock puppetry.  It is just plain stupid because without a doubt the fakes will be found out.  The end result will be the diminution, and not the enhancement of American credibility.

This part of the defense budget, that no one wants to cut.  Cut NPR, cut just about everything else, but the main items that really affect the budget, the ones with the most fat to cut, and we add a program that will cost millions of dollars so they can spread propaganda.

They want to create fake online people designed to influence internet conversations and spread the greatness of America, American propaganda.  They want people with a convincing background, that might leave some us out, history and supporting details, and that up to 50 controllers must be able to operate false identities from their workstations.   It has been contracted out to a California company, but it will all military.

This project has been compared by web experts to China’s attempts to control and restrict free speech on the internet.

The truth is this is a program that will be run by the military for the military.  I feel that the California company may be just a front for the military, that will have open access to the internet and everyone  They will tell you this is to protect you; to counter violet extremist and enemy propaganda outside the US.  But they have spied on all Americans for years.  They did it during Watergate, tapping phones, during the George’s administration and now they are doing it again.  Since we are paying for it, we are spying on ourselves and everyone else. They want to counter extremist ideology and propaganda, keep us safe, the Patriot Act at its finest.

But they could get this all done for free.  It is a joke, anyone us could do even a child.  There isn’t anything to creating a false identity online.  Millions do every day.  If the government insists on paying, they can pay us with our own money.

I think we should all volunteer to become little lamp chops. We can all get fake email accounts, Uncle Sam or whatever, and we can create and manage anonymous and pseudonymous identities across most any social service.

Hell, if my government wants to spread information around the world without being detected, why doesn’t it just use Wikileaks? Oh, I forgot, Hillary Clinton called Wikileaks disclosures “not just an attack on American[but an] attack on the international community.” The leaks she said “tear at the fabric” of government.

Yeah, that’s right, it ripped the fabric of the Tunisian government and helped launch the revolts in the Middle East and a wave of freedom. The revolutions of freedom we are seeing came not from war and weapons, or spying, but from a more powerful force: transparency; openness; honesty.

Obama’s knee-jerk response to the WikiLeaks was to condemns, attack and as we all know, torture the alleged leaker and his allies. Our president lost the opportunity to remove himself from a secretive and deceitful history of government.

He ran of a campaign promise to be an open, transparent administrative. Disapprove of the theft of documents, but acknowledge the lesson of the leaks: our government keeps too much from its people.  Try to get something from them, fill out FOIA and wait years for it, or get an excuse as to why they can’t. We have interfered in foreign politics and preferred security over democracy.  We supported Mubarak for example so allegedly the Middle East would be stable.  Stability was the operative word during the Egyptian revolution.

We cannot promote democracy abroad if we do not defend it at home.  Once again our rights are being violated in the name of the greater good.

Persona management, as they call it, would face legal challenges if it were turned against citizens of the US, where a number of people engaged in “sock puppetry” have faced prosecution.   Still being a lamp chop sounds like fun.  We could all sing songs.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.  Edmund Burke

 

Related Articles

• Fake IDs: Can we trust the social media battlefield? (ctv.ca)
• Bloggers beware: You may be punk’d by the Pentagon (rt.com)
• Wikileaks ‘helped Arab uprisings’ (bbc.co.uk)

Sarah Palin, The Red Queen and The Troika of Lunacy

Sarah Palin, the Leader of the Troika of Lunacy

The Troika of Lunacy includes its leader, Sarah Palin, Rep. Peter King and Huckaboo.  Rep. King and Huckaboo have taken their lead from the Red Queen. 

Rep. Peter King is her perfect student.  He supported the IRA knowing that they were murderers and terrorists. He even to this day doesn’t deny it and has no regrets about supporting the terrorist group.  It is strange for someone who is supposedly against terrorism.  Do we condemn all Catholics as being members of the IRA?  Do we condemn all whites as being members of the KKK?  Who do we leave out? American must distinguish between Muslims and murderers.  We can’t condemn an entire religion for the actions of the radical elements of that religion.

The Red Queen on the other hand, with all her anti-muslin, anti-muslin, anti-terrorism protestations, may have more in common with Muslim fundamentalist than she admits, and that we know about. 

www.Salon.com in an article on Sept. 9, 2009 wrote:

“While may of Wasilla, Alaska, Palin inquired of the local librarian how to go about banning books that some of her constituents thought contained inappropriate language. She tried to fire the librarian for defying her. Book banning is common to fundamentalisms around the world, and the mind-set of Palin displayed did not differ from that of the Hamas minister of education in the Palestinian government who banned a book of Palestinian folk tales for its sexually explicit language. In contrast, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it.”

She is making an effort to destroy the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which forbids the state to give official support to any particular theology. It would set a precedent to any country’s religious activists thereby enabling them to cite an American precedent for their own quest to put religion back at the center of any country’s public and foreign policies.  We all know what the Queen things of the First Amendment.  Freedom of speech is only for her and does not apply to anyone else.  She uses her contempt for the First Amendment to her advantage.  She becomes a victim. 

She has played the victim card, never more brilliantly than when she invoked the phrase “blood libel” against liberals and media commentators. Her politics of grievance and group identity is a betrayal of conservative principles. For decades it was the usual line of the right that liberals cynically used victimhood to achieve their goals and that they practice the politics of identity – race, sex, and class over ideas.  But now she is being turn against and by her own party.  Her ignorance was obvious with the use of the “blood libel” line.  She had no idea that very charge was used to justify atrocities against Jews over centuries. It is an old strategy to respond to one controversy or criticism by starting another .  She is good at that and it makes her the victim.  Unjustly attacked.  This is the only things that she is good at.  If she is considering a run in 2012, and this writer truly hopes so, then she needs to learn about policy, plans, government, and the First Amendment. She is good at using symbols, cross hairs, “blood libel” and others.  She cannot discuss policy or international relations or other subjects she would need a working knowledge of to be credible. 

Palin holds that abortion should be illegal, even in cases of rape, incest or severe birth defects, making an exception only if the life of the mother is in danger.  She calls abortion an “atrocity” and pledges to reshape the judiciary to fight it.  Palins views are to the right of those in the Muslim country of Tunisia, which allows abortion in the first trimester for a wide range of reasons. Iran’s law on abortion is virtually identical to the one that Palin would like to see imposed on American women

“Theocrats confuse God’s will with their own mortal policies. Just as Muslim fundamentalists believe that God has given them the vast oil and gas resources in their regions, so Palin asks church workers in Alaska to pray for a $30 billion pipeline in the state because “God’s will has to be done.”

Palin has her right to her religious beliefs, as do fundamentalist Muslims who agree with her on so many issues of social policy. Still non of them has a right to impose their beliefs on others by capturing and deploying the power of the state. the most harmful belief that Palin shares with Muslim fundamentalists is her conviction that faith is not a private affair of individuals but rather a moral imperative that believers should include into statecraft wherever they have the opportunity to do so.   She really needs to read the Constitution, especially the First Amendment.

But Palin is not alone. She has taught her followers well. The public should stop wanting to see itself reflected in a leader. It is irrelevant if a political leader has any affinity with my life. The only that really should matter are ideas, experience and executive ability.

I must admit though, that Palin should have a discussion with Bachmann about the Revolutionary War.  I presume that she knows where the shot heard around the world occurred. Then again, she may only remember that they had guns and ammo.

To paraphrase Ann Coulter [it pains me to do so]: The reason not to condemn Muslims is that it’s unkind – not to jihadists, but to Muslims who mean us no harm. The same goes for building a mosque at ground zero – in both cases, it is not a question of anyone’s “rights,” it is just a nasty thing to do.