Scanning the insanity….
Lest a new earworm begins gestating in the tone deaf ears of corporate media slugs and conservative "faith basers"…..
….President Obama’s agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying.
…..About 7 percent (of the projected deficits) comes from the stimulus bill that Mr. Obama signed in February. And only 3 percent comes from Mr. Obama’s agenda on health care, education, energy and other areas.
If the analysis is extended further into the future, well beyond 2012, the Obama agenda accounts for only a slightly higher share of the projected deficits.
Already, in wingnut world media, it's questionable whether George W. Bush and Richard Cheney were ever President and Vice-President. The Bush Amnesia Syndrome is beginning to settle in. Newt Gingrich's speech the other day is a prime example…..if you hadn't known better while listening to Newt, you would have never known that the Terror Twins ever occupied the Oval Office for 8 years.
Before long, the "created reality" narrative will be that Bill Clinton left a surplus and Barack Obama frittered it all away, leaving us with eternal deficits. It won't be true, naturally, as the Times piece demonstrates…..but then, since when was truth a prerequisite for spinning a conservative narrative?
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Speaking of spinning….
Yesterday's Holocaust Museum attack by an extremist-right white supremacist, coming on the heels of the assassination of an abortion doctor by the extremist-right domestic terrorist, Scott Roeder, has left Republicans and their lapdogs scrambling.
The 88 year old Museum shooter and the nutjob, Roeder, both were acting on political ideology. Roeder, there's no question, wanted to stop a doctor from continuing his legal profession….a legal profession that Roeder could not tolerate.
James von Brunn dedicated his life to KKK-style hatred, bitterness, and violent acts because he, like those baited by the Republican Party's "southern strategy", hated the notion of a segregated America and the creation of what KKK'ers call a "mongrel race."
Both of these domestic terrorists were acting on deeply twisted POLITICAL beliefs.
But watch Mike Rogers (R-MI) spin out a counter-narrative. Beginning at the 4:45 mark, Rogers, hoping to direct the finger-pointing away from POLITICAL IDEOLOGY, much of it deeply held by conservatives, as the reason these tragedies happen….
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Rogers spins….
"If you realize the last time he (von Brunn) tried to do something at the Federal Reserve (1981), it was because interest rates were climbing. So, he had some financial stress in his life…this is another time in his life where he had financial stress, it pushed him to that point, and led him to act on all the feelings that obviously he had expressed on his website."
Tweety plays along with Rogers' distraction….
"There's a lot of stress out there, and a lot of anger about the failure of our establishment, our government, for failing to protect us from this economic calamity."
Starting at the 8 minute mark, Rogers begins spinning like a washing machine….
"Anytime you have that much stress on people's economic well-being, at anytime in our history, we've seen a spike in violent behavior.
Now, the Muslim, the converted Muslim who was radicalized in prison who attacked and killed our U.S. soldiers was IDEOLOGICALLY driven….I'm not sure I would put that in the same category (as von Brunn and Roeder). He was passionately and ideologically driven based on his conversion to radical Islam.
In the other instances (Roeder, von Brunn), are people who believe their political beliefs aren't being listened to or acted upon by the establishment and all the other pressures in your life. And again, if you do the profiling, you'll find that they had financial stresss, they had other stresses, they've reached that boiling point. Whatever it is, it may be mental illness, in many cases it may not be. They could be as rational as you and I."
Radicalized Muslims are driven by their extreme ideology to commit violent acts. Notice how Rogers deceptively mentioned that in the Muslim-shooting-U.S.-soldiers case, the shooter was radicalized "while in prison"…..and obvious shoutout to those fearmongers who don't want to try detainees "on U.S. soil."
However, according to the Republican, Rogers, who offers no evidence at all that Roeder or von Brunn acted out of economic frustration, being "radicalized" by decades of hate-filled political ideology against blacks, Jews, and abortion doctors shouldn't even be considered….."I'm not sure I would put that in the same category."
Right wing media have been overdosing on hate-speech and violent-revolutionary language since before Obama became president. Von Brunn, like many of the extremist conservatives who reject America's first black President, embraced the ridiculous notion that Obama isn't a U.S. citizen. Was von Brunn "radicalized" by right-wing media?
Right wing media have been overdosing on hate-speech and violent-revolutionary language since before Obama became president. Roeder, like many of the extremist conservatives who reject America's first black President, embraced the notion that Obama believed in "killing babies." Was Roeder "radicalized" by right-wing media?
The murders by von Brunn and Roeder, if you are to believe GOP spin, were not "ideologically" driven. It should go without saying that Mike Rogers (R-MI), and those who will most assuredly repeat Rogers' spin, have no credibility.
Later on Countdown, reporter Pete Williams, explained, "The Holocaust Museum is one of the most threatened buildings in Washington."
American Jew-haters, American Holocaust deniers….much like Iran's Ahmadinajab….embrace far-right, ultra-conservative IDEOLOGY.
The spin, which surely will become conventional wisdom, will be that all this violence is because of economic frustration.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I don't know, Reverend. I've seen some Republican style blogs and such and never came across any Jew hatred or anything to incite violence towards them. I do see it on "progressive" blogs, sometimes.
Now that I think of it, even you have often called out the Israeli people for mass murdering women and children and also railed about the shadowy but powerful sway unnamed Jews hold over our federal government. Would that be called 'inciting'?
Would it? Stating the facts is now inciting violence?
It is a fact that neo-conservatives in American foreign policy leadership roles, many of them Jewish, not all, hijacked our military power to "defend" Israel from Saddam. The same characters are still trying to do the same with Iran. Apocalytic evangelical Republicans embrace Israel as a pawn in some fantastical cosmic drama, no matter what the cost is or how many non-Israeli citizens are killed.
It is also a fact that Zionist Jews inside America stifle the American media from criticism of Israel. That's why ALL of media uses the canard, "settlements."
It is also a fact that the U.N. and the Red Cross defined Israel's recent brutality of Gazans as war crimes.
Is it no longer possible to state those facts without being called a Jew-hater? Those from the left who state those facts….do not….call for attacks on Jews.
Von Brunn comes out of the deep south tradition of hating all "others." Which political party is the least pluralistic, the most white, and the most negative towards multi-culturalism? Not a trick question.
So the neocons love Israel but hate Jews? Odd, I guess. I can't really recall any Jew hatred coming from the GOP, off the top of my head. The only folks I can remember calling New York "Hymietown" and such have been Democrats.
Maybe Rev. Wright incited this attack with his Jew-hate last week? He said they're now even controlling Obama.
Spin on my friend. Von Brunn, his ex-wife said, hated Jews and BLACKS. Some conservative white Protestant southerners cling to an anti-other ideology. There's the "Southern strategy", "Cadillac driving welfare queens", "states' rights" code, anti-Catholic (Bob Jones U.) types, anti-Latino immigrant, pro-Israel apocalyptics, and anti-Israel KKK'ers.
It's all part of the conservative movement in America. All of it.
What Wright said was…well…right. Are there Jews in Obama's inner circle? Of course. Wright, in context, was appealing to Obama to be his own man and do the right thing…not be swayed by the political experts. I agree with Wright….although I would have left the Jew stuff out. It doesn't help.
Good one, Reverend Bigot.
Ditto to what larry said. The only anti-semitic stuff I ever hear comes from the left, and that includes the Blog Of Mass Destruction.
Rev says, "James von Brunn dedicated his life to KKK-style hatred, bitterness, and violent acts because he, like those baited by the Republican Party's "southern strategy""
So, now it's the Republican Party that told Brunn to hate people ?
Reverend, you are indeed a pathetic creature.
Btw, Brunn hated Bush, neocons, Jews, and believed in 9/11 conspiracy theories.
Let's see….who else do I know who feels like that………hmmm. You know what they say about pointing the finger, Rev.
Almost forgot. That stuff about Obama not being responsible for the deficits was truly precious.
But I give you credit for nerve. Most people would never even think of trying to promote something so patently ridiculous. You go full speed ahead, though. No facts get in your way. Can't wait for your next post. How about "Switzerland Responsible For WWII" or something along that line ? Step up to the challenge.
This is what I said…
"James von Brunn dedicated his life to KKK-style hatred, bitterness, and violent acts because he, like those baited by the Republican Party's "southern strategy", hated the notion of a segregated America and the creation of what KKK'ers call a "mongrel race."
Those successfully baited by the Republican Party's "southern strategy", it should read, "hated the notion of an integrated America". I had the wrong word there…my mistake.
Brunn didn't need the GOP in order to learn how to hate people. The GOP needed the votes from people like Brunn, so they appealed to the pre-existing hate of Brunn and millions of other white southerners in order to gain or maintain national power.
Did you miss this part?…
"There's the "Southern strategy", "Cadillac driving welfare queens", "states' rights" code, anti-Catholic (Bob Jones U.) types, anti-Latino immigrant, pro-Israel apocalyptics, and anti-Israel KKK'ers."
Have you guys been awake the last 50 years?
A regional bigot as well, I see.
So, I'll take that as a yes, you have been sleeping.
Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, 'sleeper cell'.