My own position on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has been one of distaste for either side. I find I am sympathetic to motivations and unsympathetic to rationalizations for violence. I don’t think the Palestinians or the Israelis have a sound basis for the acts of violence they commit.
Posted under Politics
This post was written by Dan on January 8, 2009
Barack Obama is a very intelligent man. Which is why his invitation of Rick Warren is such a confusing move. Its his latest fuck you note pinned to the hope that swept him into office (Jesus’ General has a short and brilliant synopsis). It would also appear to be a fundamentally naive misunderstanding of what Rick Warren represents. Rick Warren is an ultra conservative Christian who is actively working to put a mainstream spin on fundamentalist ideas. As Lindsey Beyerstein notes:
Giving Warren even more mainstream cred is not just a cost-free nod to evangelicals. It’s a boost for someone who actively opposes Obama’s agenda and who is eager to influence secular affairs.
That mainstream cred may be cost-free to the evangelicals, but it comes at a deadly cost to the LGBT community…
Posted under News, Politics, Religion, Sexuality
This post was written by Dan on December 27, 2008
A plot to assassinate Obama was broken up by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. According to George Stephanopoulos’ Blog, the plot is not being treated as a serious threat:
An Obama aide tells ABC News that Secret Service headquarters “would be notified of anything that mentioned” Obama. But adds that “it never rose to any sort of serious level,” which explains why Obama’s personal detail was not notified.
Rather than explaining why the candidate’s detail was not notified, it raises questions about how seriously the government is pursuing these plots. Despite the FBI’s push to charge the Colorado Three, Troy Eid (a Rove Apppointee) dismissed the charges. This makes me wonder:
Is this administration — and particularly this Justice Department, as deeply compromised as it has become by the Bush White House’s crass politicization — capable of ensuring that true threats against Democratic figures like Obama are taken seriously and dealt with appropriately?
These men were found with firearms, and further investigation may lead to more charges. The Attorney General for Tennessee is Democrat Robert E. Cooper Jr, appointed in 2006. His office can be contacted here by phone. It can’t hurt to encourage his office to take this threat with appropriate gravitas.
This post was written by Dan on October 28, 2008
The ATF says it has broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree.
In court records unsealed Monday, agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target an unnamed but predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads.
No more details are available currently. Lot’s of questions remain:
Are there any links between the neo-nazi’s and existing hate groups? How many assasination plots are currently under investigation? Would Sarah Palin consider these skinheads terrorists?
This post was written by Dan on October 27, 2008
The Weekly Standard is claiming no one ever said “Kill Him” in reference to Barack Obama.
If in point of fact that comment was directed at Ayers (tell me again whether McCain and Palin’s more ignorant supporters hold any difference between Ayers, Obama, liberals in general, or Democrats), it doesn’t explain this second remark (Times Tribune via Justice League):
There were no incendiary outbursts from the crowd about Mr. Obama during Mrs. Palin’s speech, as there have been during other recent McCain-Palin rallies.
However, someone did shout out, “Kill him!” during Republican congressional candidate Chris Hackett’s remarks before Mrs. Palin took the stage.
The outburst came during a round of booing from the crowd after Mr. Hackett said Mr. Obama should come to Pennsylvania and learn what the state’s values are.
The right is in full spin control mode on this. Nothing upsets the right wing like being justifiably accused of terrorism (Orcinus). John Leo writes:
A Huffington Post piece by one Jeffrey Feldman asked, “Is Palin Trying to Incite Violence against Obama?” ‘Two subheads in this piece were worse: “McCain Camps Talk ‘Character Assassination,’Supporters shout for real assassination” and “McCain Campaign Amplifies Violent Rhetoric. GOP Crowd Threaten Obama’s life.” Nothing like this happened. No crowd threatened Obama, or called for his assassination. Millbank’s article, the only primary source for “ugliness” at Palin’s speech did not report this, probably because these incendiary events occurred only in the minds of some liberal writers, not in the real world.
He uses the tried and true right wing method of tactical right wing bullshit: projection. Thus far we have the Scranton threat, the Ayers-aimed threat, and the plot to assasinate Obama. In the right wing world “Documented by the press” constitutes the imaginary. Facts and Rationality fly out the window in the effort to make a point, which the Weekly Standard is only too happy to demonstrate with its attempt at balance:
The only nastiness I heard during the day was an outburst, apparently provoked by Obama supporters who wandered into the crowd outside just as I had to leave. I was too far away to hear the exact exchange, so I couldn’t write it up—although clearly such limitations don’t limit the MSMers who repeat the “kill him” myth—but others were closer and able to report on the friendly, tolerant rhetoric of the Left, whose members were calling McCain a “murderer.”
Obviously one can point out that in addition to calling Obama a murderer, the right has aggressively and falsely called him a baby killer. But I don’t understand how calling a man a murderer, presumably for his role as a warmonger, is in any way equivalent to calling for a man’s assasination.
Its bullshit like this that feeds the fire of the violent right wing and seeks to muffle media coverage.
The question reporters ought to be asking to the campaign is why haven’t McCain and Palin made forceful statements against both the explicit violence and its implicit sources? The Republicans should answer for relying on veiled nativist attacks and exploitation of eliminationist sentiment.
Posted under Politics
This post was written by Dan on October 15, 2008
Barring another stolen election (ironic given the white noise being made about acorn), Barack Obama is heading towards a decisive victory in November. The stakes are as high as the passion and personal investment being poured into both sides of this campaign.
While there has been much focus on both candidate’s pledges to fight foreign terrorism, right-wing domestic terrorism has remained off the campaign radar. This is deeply problematic given the anticipated likelihood of an increase in anti-liberal, anti-gay, anti-women and anti-minority violence come November 5th.
The source of that violence comes from the level of legitimacy we afford the ignorant and hateful dehuminization of target groups. The Republican party has straight up embraced the crazier elements in their ranks for fear of losing their last vital reserves of faithful supporters. Faithful being an apt word to describe the sheer lack of knowledge or reason informing their tenous grasp of reality.
The following video comes by way of Majikthise and Dana Blankenhorn:
I think its safe to say this is not a group of voters the Obama campaign will win over. It is however a group of people who should not be left to their insane notion that their ideas are even valid. Leaving these views alone to fester leads to closed door decisions like the one to install a nativist on the Prince William County, Virginia Board of County Supervisors (Hatewatch).
The outpouring of hate is not hard to understand given the games the McCain campaign is playing (The Guardian):
The Republicans have played on those fears and prejudices extremely well over the past week or so, but with the escalating hatred and disturbing language that has been espoused by some of their supporters at recent Republican rallies it seems that even McCain – forced this weekend to backtrack and start telling people what a “decent, family man” Obama is – now realizes that they may have gone a step too far.
At the most recent rallies, Republican supporters have cried out “kill him!”, “bomb Obama!” and “terrorist” in reference to Obama. Shouts of “treason” and other racial epithets have also been hurled.
I don’t think there is any solid indication McCain’s campaign realizes they’ve gone to far. I think they’ve simply locked up a section of the vote at the cost of future political stability, a price they are all too willing to pay. So much so their slogan “Country First” takes on a whole new meaning.
What we need to do is smash the lies and reason-like-substitutes being pushed around as firmly as we can. This level of willful ignorance and anger will only be exacerbated by a Democratic win.
Posted under Politics
This post was written by Dan on October 15, 2008
