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Right Wing Subversion

By Jeff Blackwell
Tuesday, Apr 28 2009, 10:25 AM

When local bloggers casually (and thoughtlessly) ponder whether the President of the United States is a traitor it's time to call them out.

When the Governor of Texas panders to the people of Texas by accommodating the suggestion that they would be better off if they seceded from the United States, and it's considered mere commentary, it's alarming.

The Republican Party was high-jacked by the religious right decades ago, and has consistently been moving to a full-out Christan fundamentalist party.

However, during the eight years of the reactionary Bush regime, I believe that a line has been crossed. Bush said; "You're either with us, or you're a terrorist!", with the full implication; You know what we do to terrorists.

Christian values are no longer sacrosanct to the right, but instead are seen as weak. Anyone who would argue Jesus' position that aggression, violence and murder are wrong, is seen as a collaborator with the jihadists. Torture and violence are now glorified in His Name. Religious war is being called for, and the United States, under the administration of President Obama, has become suspected of siding with the enemy. The courts and the Constitution have become obstacles to their desire to build a new, proto-Fascist psuedo-Christian state where elections are contests of bigotry and intolerance and the country is a military-corporate dictatorship.

These people are few in number and their minds are weak, yet they are capable of inflicting damage beyond their numbers. Last week, right-wing extremest groups were identified by the Department of Homeland Security as the major threat to Americans.

Frightened people, and these people are terrified, are highly susceptible to mass-manipulation. We see this through their allegiance to the propaganda channel of Fox News. Only the fact that every one of their old demagogues have been totally discredited keeps them from forming a small but cohesive force for insurgency.

Dissent that advocates the dissolution of the Untied States and suggests that the President of the United States be removed extra-legally is not legitimate political discourse. As citizens and patriots, we must hold people who make such statements personally accountable, and not let them them stand unchallenged.

When you get tired of politics, check out my other blog about interesting people and interesting cars at http://www.rubberattheroad. Not just for gearheads.

 

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Comments

Locke   

It's come down to the point that those who apologize for torture and worry about handshakes with foreign leaders seem to be doing nothing more than trying to get attention. It's pretty sad. Real discourse is impossible with their likes simply because they've seemed to have wrapped their faith up with their politics and therefore, if one is wrong the other would have to be and as everyone knows, they can't let their faith be wrong.

I may occasional read the sad drivel. Usually it parrots some right wing extremism and its not original, it's just their Xerox like attempt not to feel the depth of how truly marginalized and out of touch they actually are. Sometimes, you just want to reel from the stupidity. Other times, you just have to laugh at the stupidity and hope that it's all a comedy act. A bad one, but one can hope they don't take themselves seriously.

April 28, 2009 1:21 PM

American citizen   

As many have said, the President of the United States is elected to be the steward of the United States Constitution.  It is not his job to re-write the Consititution as he wishes to see it.  Obama and his liberal followers are doing just that.  Is that in the best interest of the country?  Is it even legal?  Wonder if it is grounds for impeachment?  Just a few questions to think about.

April 28, 2009 1:35 PM

mpicard   

Let's see what parts of the Constitution did Obama re-write? None. Did I miss a constitutional convention in the last 100+ days. Nope. Next crazy comment please.

April 28, 2009 2:28 PM

claydj   

American Citizen - what are you talking about?  Please explain.

April 28, 2009 2:51 PM

American citizen   

MC Pickard:  

Just a small sampling of what Obama has done to shred our Constitution:

- rammed through a $1trillion spending bill without holding hearings or tolerating input from the minority party. While this doesn’t rise to a constitutional breech, it certainly violates the spirit of our government.

Barack Obama appointed himself CEO of GM (Government Motors), crossing a line no president had crossed before, unless you’re counting presidents of banana republics.

- Obama is bringing control of the US Census into the White House, politicizing what should be a straight up national headcount.

- Now the Democrats are proposing to literally violate the Constitution in order to gin up new Democrat Congressional seats in DC. Consider:

Justice Department lawyers concluded in an unpublished opinion earlier this year that the historic D.C. voting rights bill pending in Congress is unconstitutional, according to sources briefed on the issue. But Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who supports the measure, ordered up a second opinion from other lawyers in his department and determined that the legislation would pass muster.

A crazy comment, Mr. Pickard, is one that denies what Obama is doing simply because he IS Obama.

April 28, 2009 3:57 PM

mpicard   

@AC: Your argument is that the Constitution is explicit that any of those actions is expressly unconstitutional, is that correct AC? However, you'll come on my blog and make the argument that waterboarding is okey dokey. Where were you during the last 8 years of Bush's rule? Nah, don't bother to answer - I'm not really interested in your excuses.

April 28, 2009 5:53 PM

Jacob Pickard   

@AC - I think you need to re-read how the constitution can be re-written.

   I think your projecting the Shredding your precious GW Bush did and his Rethuglican rubber stamp lackies did the past 8 years.

 Then again, I think you approve of torture as well, so not a big surprise.

April 28, 2009 6:00 PM

Amy L. Geiger-Hemmer   

Pickard squared got their clocks cleaned by American Citizen's response to the Constitution question, so they fall back on "ooooh!  but you approve of torture!."  Great way to prove a point, guys!

By the way, did you both forget what the White House did in regards to the recent Tea Parties that swept the nation?  You know, average American citizens exercising their right to protest the government's out-of-control spending and other issues which are not in the best interest of our country?   Well, seems the Obama Administration found nothing wrong with classifying the protestors as "domestic terrorists" and putting them on a domestic terrorist watch list.   Hmmmm...violation of the First Ammendment?  Going after people who disagree with your own political beliefs in an effort to stop them?  Doesn't sound like Obama & Co. cared much about what the Constitution says about free speech.  Kind of scary, actually.

OK, now Pickard squared - accuse me of being in favor of torture!  Igore my point!  Distract!  

April 29, 2009 9:41 AM

jmark   

Amy:  Where was your righteous indignation when peaceful protesters were arrested at the Republican National Convention? Amy Goodman, a member of the press, was arrested for doing nothing more than reporting the event. At least be consistent with your bitchyness.

April 30, 2009 11:37 AM

Jacob Pickard   

Amy - The constitution can only be changed with a constitutional convention, Something AC got dead wrong.

 And yes, you are in favor of torture.

May 1, 2009 12:43 PM

American citizen   

jmark:  Amy L. Geiger-Hemmer doesn't need to show any righteous indignation concerning the horrid behavior of protesters at the RNC.  Peaceful protesters?  You have to be joking.  By peaceful do you mean its OK to resort to throwing rocks and spitting in the faces of those attending the Republican National Convention in 2008?  Going into restricted areas?  Linking arms to prevent Republicans from entering the building where the convention was being held?  Because that is what happened.  And it was reported by some news outlets.  It may not have been on CNN or MSNBC, so you might not have seen it, jmark.

Check out the L.A. Times report:  latimesblogs.latimes.com/.../rnc-protests.html

Just a brief description of the peaceful protests from the LA Times:

Monday started out peacefully enough, a relief to many. But as the afternoon wore on, small groups peeled off from the main rally, and that’s when things started to go bad. Road flares were thrown into garbage dumpsters, and then the fiery receptacles were pushed into position to to block traffic.

Shop windows were busted. So were police car windows. Protesters threw rocks, bottles, even garbage at the thickening rows of police in riot gear.

One group cornered members of the Connecticut Republican delegation as they were walking to a security check-point to enter the Xcel Energy Center.

“They linked arms and tried to prevent us from going in," said Heath Fahle, the state party's executive director. "They were pushing and shoving, and we were pushing back, just trying to get by."

He added: “They were grabbing at purses, at credentials, spitting on the delegates.”

One protester wrestled with 83-year-old Fred Biebel and stole his credentials. Another spit on Lila Healy, the mother of the state’s GOP party chairman, and hit her in the face.

When former U.S. Rep. Rob Simmons, who used to work for the CIA, stepped in front to protect her from the crowd, a bottle full of water and bleach was thrown in his face.

What wonderful behavior from those peaceful protesters.  I'd hate to see what violent protesters are like!

May 1, 2009 2:46 PM

Jacob Pickard   

Amy - The report you cite was started under the Bush administration and it also covered Left Wing groups as well.

 It found RW groups were more likely to stockpile guns and start militia's, while leftwingersw will use computers.

 So it means that 1) RW 'ers who lose it are more likely to murder people for ideological reasons, thus like Adkison and Timothy Mcveigh may become domestic terrorists.

 I would think you would be concerned about murder, but I guess you have to defend your ideological base at all costs. Then again, it's only liberals who are destroying america that are targeted.

May 1, 2009 3:05 PM

Amy L. Geiger-Hemmer   

jmark:  American Citizen beat me to the punch, but the "peaceful protesters" at the past Republican National Convention weren't exactly "peaceful" or well-behaved.  Throwing rocks, breaking car windows, storefront windows, spitting on people, and making human blockades so people couldn't reach their destinations doesn't exactly sound really "peaceful."   So I am consistent in argument (I don't think the term you use:  "bitchyness" is even a word...).

May 1, 2009 3:49 PM

Locke   

Random thoughts for no good reason...or perhaps there is a reason, and a good one and I do not know about it but the reason does exist, or there are bad reasons but what is a bad reason for random thoughts...sure, random thoughts can lead to bad things, especially if those thoughts take place while driving and you aren't paying attention, but still...there was a random thought about the word so here goes...aside formt he fact I changing topics and changing topics is deliberate and not a non sequitor into the word thing, but anyway...

Perhaps Bitchyness is spelled with an I instead of a Y? Bitchiness? That kind looks like a morphed form of the slang Bidness though, which would be used to talk about someone's "business", so perhaps the Y works better visually but the I is preferred.

Not a word? Well, new words are coming along all the time, so lets not be too hasty and dismiss a word just because it might not be one, because, as soon as you form it, hey, it's a new word...or is it? Who has the final say? The dictionary is always playing catch up, so they're kinda out in left field there.  I wonder what number and cross section of people it takes to accept a word as a word - just two? Just you...your own personal word.  Hmmm... It's likely that it doesn't take many as far as slang vernacular but there is probably a threshold number of people and a geographic penetration that must take place for a slang word to just become a word word.

These moments of unconfused random thought confusion have been sponsored by The Letter "L" and the Number "5".

May 1, 2009 5:17 PM

jmark   

Amy/AC: I don't have a problem when unruly protesters are arrested. The fact of the matter is, peaceful protesters were arrested, as were members of the press. Watch this video of Amy Goodman being taken into custody. Do you think her rights were violated? Is the constitution exclusively yours?

www.youtube.com/watch

Oops, I misspelled.

From Dictionary.com

bitchiness

noun

malevolence by virtue of being malicious or spiteful or nasty

May 1, 2009 5:46 PM

Amy L. Geiger-Hemmer   

Jacob Pickard:  Oh, but you are wrong.  The Constitution can and indeed is being changed by Obama and Co.  Re-read American Citizen's comment to find out how.  Two straight-forward facts that you cannot dispute are:  Obama is giving the White House control of the U.S. Census - something entirely unheard of and going directly against the wishes of the Consititution AND giving the District of Columbia a vote (never before done, but how convenient that the D.C. seat is currently chaired by a Dem....).  Both power grabs are up for review and have been deemed unconsitutional.  

And Jacob, I do approve of "enhanced interrogation techniques" especially since they have been proven to save American lives.  Don't you?  Or do you prefer to keep terrorist prisoners comfy and let Americans die?  

Locke:  Good one....distract!  Distract!  Don't pay attention to the fact that the liberal responses on this blog site are weak and unsupported with facts.....

May 2, 2009 9:58 AM

Locke   

Hey Jmark, thanks for the clarification on the spelling and definition. :)

As far as the other nonsense.   Distract...??

I take a moment to delve into randomness and a little bit of fun and someone's all wound up on distraction? If Jeff didn't want to post the comment he would not have and obviously he saw it in the spirit it was delivered.

Whatever.

The constitutional concerns are disingenuous at best; and those other opinions, like the regular laughable posts (Teleprompters, Bowing, oh and Handshakes), are irrelevant to me.

Republican apologists continue to define 'weak and pathetic' without any help needed, but they get it in droves from like minded sycophants who can't form a proper thought without having it sanctioned and rubber stamped by Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and people of their tainted ilk.

May 2, 2009 7:09 PM

Jacob Pickard   

Amy - It's called water torture, and you approve of using torture on prisoners. Moral relativism is something you also practice.

 1) Could you give me something non-biased to read for these power grabs you mention?

May 3, 2009 8:57 AM

Jacob Pickard   

@AC and Amy - I agree rightwing protests don't happen often, that because they make truck bombs or get the semi-auto AK-47's and just kill cops or liberals in chruches.

May 3, 2009 8:59 AM

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About Jeff Blackwell

Short description of me: Unrepentant liberal. Writing on: Politics, American society, and the media.

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