Countering the Phelps Clan

Today the Supreme Court made the obvious decision to uphold the First Amendment by siding with the odious Fred Phelps and his borderline-comically fanatic brood, known for protesting at gay and military funerals. Free speech includes hateful speech, after all, and any effort by the government to curtail unpopular expression, no matter how justified it feels, is gravely wrong-headed.

There remains, though, the problem of what to do with such unrepentant assholes; one of Ta-Nehisi Coates' commenters, JonF311, posted a lovely idea which--since it isn't turning up on Google--I'll just repost verbatim:

When Westboro Baptist protested the opening of a gay bar in Traverse City MI ten year ago, the bar had a rather creative response. They held a "sponsor a protestor" party, inviting patrons to pledge some amount of money for each minute a selected protestor continued his/her protesting. (It was a bitterly cold winter day). Some of the patrons even bought hot chocolate for the protestors to keep them going. And at the end of the event the bar informed the protestors how much money their presence had just raised for the HRC, and invited them back the next day.

When life gives you lemons, squirt citric acid into life's eyes.

Republicans are Responsible for the Giffords Shooting

I don't mean that. Or do I? How seriously should I be taken when I say Sarah Palin or any grinding, screeching cog in the Right-Wing Noise Machine has the blood of ten people, including a Congresswoman and judge, on their hands?

The answer, in question form: How seriously should we take the Republicans?

The soundtrack to the past two years has been a cacophony of fear-mongering about Socialism, Fascism, Terrorism, Death Panels, Totalitarianism, and any other number of menaces to civil society supposedly foisted on America by Obama and the Democrats. These were not scribblings by marginal nutters who live in isolated cabins with shotgun boners. They were said, loudly and often, by high-profile public figures and members of Congress.

New Speaker of the House John Boehner:

“If we pass this bill, there will be no turning back. It will be the last straw for the American people.

“And In a democracy, you can only ignore the will of the people for so long and get away with it.

“And if we defy the will of our fellow citizens and pass this bill, we are going to be held to account by those who have placed us in their trust.

“We will have shattered those bonds of trust."

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell:

"By preventing the accumulation of excessive power, the Constitution is designed to reduce the risk of tyranny or abuse at either the Federal or state levels," McConnell told the audience of conservative legal scholars. "The health care bill would remove an important bulwark of this protection."

Representative Michelle Bachman:

“What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass.”

....

“This is slavery,” Bachmann said after claiming many Americans pay half their income to taxes. “It’s nothing more than slavery.”

Former Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin:

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

If these figures are to be believed--and many people do believe them--America faces the prospect of undemocratic, tyrannical, evil slavery. You don't vote tyranny out of office or write it a letter of disapproval. You don't go to a tyrant's town hall meeting, unless it's with the intention of opening fire on the dastard and his enablers. Sic semper tyrannis.

Ezra Klein wrote about the consequences of dire rhetoric last night. And people are actually surprised this happened? Words have meaning. Either the Democrats or tyrants or they are not. If the Republicans did not actually think the nation is at risk of creeping tyranny, then they are not credible but empty and cynical actors, unfit for elected office.

Boehner and the rest are currently mouthing horror and condemnation in the most serious of words. But people have been taking them and their words seriously for awhile now, with Jared Laughner, the suspected gunman, the most serious of all.

(Follow-up here)

Navajo O

Dave Weigel noted a couple weeks ago that he doesn't pay much attention to the Birthers anymore, since they seem to be stuck in a feedback loop. Luckily, there's a new meme that's gaining currency on the right--Obama wants to give the U.S. back to the Native Americans:

The outrage began after the President announced on December 16 that the U.S. would reverse course and support the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. The Declaration was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2007, but the U.S., under President Bush, opposed it.

"The aspirations it affirms -- including the respect for the institutions and rich cultures of Native peoples -- are ones we must always seek to fulfill," the President said of the Declaration at White House Tribal Nations Conference where he announced the reversal. He went on to describe efforts to improve health care, education, and unemployment rates in tribal areas.

...."Perhaps he figures that, as an adopted Crow Indian, he will be the new chief over this revived Indian empire," [Brian] Fischer [of the American Family Association] wrote. "But for the other 312 million of us, I think we'll settle for our constitutional 'We the people' form of government, thank you very much."

No less than John Bolton, George Bush's ambassador to the U.N., actually takes this seriously:

"It's a kind of feel-good document that has so many unclear phrases in it that nobody's really sure what it means when you agree to it," he told FoxNews.com. "It's wrong and potentially dangerous to sign onto a document that you don't fully understand the implications of."

I do sometimes wonder if Obama conspiracy theories are not some elaborate thought experiment on the outer limits of human credulity, gone tragi-comically awry.

The Truthers Will Set You Free, From Employment

Van Jones was forced to resign his Green Czar position with the Obama administration last year, when it was discovered that he had signed a Truther petition (#46). It articulated such thoughts as,

[I]t's "hard for me to believe that" World Trade Center building 7 "came down by itself."

and

[T]wenty years from now, people will look at 9-11 the way we look at the assassination of JFK today. It couldn't possibly have been done the way the government told us.

Except those quotes aren't his. They belong to Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano.

I'm sure Glenn Beck will be demanding his scalp any minute now.

I'm positive.

Eat Spinach and Die

Rick Santorum has been coy about running for President. He's starting to show a little leg:

There are lessons to be learned from President Barack Obama’s historic run in 2008, Santorum told the audience. Obama’s vision of a united America inspired voters.

“But he failed to deliver and that is disappointing,” he said. “I think Republicans whoever the Republican nominee is needs to be as compelling.”

Voters are looking for authenticity, he said.

“I’m the Popeye candidate – I am what I am,” he said. “And I think in 2006 they didn’t like what I am. And that’s fine.”

This is so obviously wrong. Popeye liked to eat spinach, but in 2006 Santorum just ate shi--uh, santorum.

In any case, it might be fun to watch him and Sarah Palin fight to prove who has the biggest purity bracelet.

Trutherness

Having been punched at the Rally to Restore Sanity myself, I had a flash of excitment when I saw the YouTube video title, "Rally to Restore Sanity Organizer Punches Activist." Not out of malice toward the Daily Show crew, but out of solidarity with another punchee. I was brutally disappointed, then, to learn it was a Truther.



I'm not for assaulting people with whom one has disagreements, I don't think many are, but the brazen assholicism of the Truthers practically invites it (as Dave Weigel mentions, concern trolling public figures is nothing new to them). They take the Mormonesque self-righteous earnestness of wanting to get at "the truth," which is merely annoying, and inject it with the (ob)noxious notion that the trauma and sorrow of a terrorist attack isn't genuine enough. It's like learning you have cancer and then having a dog poop on your shoes afterward.

I guess sanity has its limits.

The Gathering Storm

The New York Times' headline story from this morning is ominous. Perhaps most dispiriting:

Meanwhile, opponents of the Obama administration’s health care law, business leaders and conservative groups have begun making plans, too, for what they expect will be a series of welcome openings. Among the possibilities: a new flurry of proposed state prohibitions on abortion, same-sex marriage and illegal immigration.

“I feel like a little boy on Christmas morning — which package do you open up first?” said Troy Newman, the leader of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group. Already, abortion opponents were considering pressing for new regulations in New Mexico, Iowa and Kansas, where Sam Brownback, the Republican governor-elect, follows Democratic governors who vetoed some abortion limits approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

To refer to Operation Rescue as just "an anti-abortion group" is gross understatement. Lest we forget, Operation Rescue is the far right anti-choice group that harassed late-term abortion provider George Tiller for two decades before he was assassinated by Scott Roeder, who claims to have been a member and posted on their website. Newman denies having ever met Roeder, who denies the denial and then some (emphasis mine):

Also that year, Roeder says he went to lunch with Newman and asked him about using violence to stop abortion.

Robb: What did you say to him?
Roeder: Oh, something like if an abortionist—I don’t even know if it was specifically Tiller…was shot, would it be justified? … And [Newman] said, “If it were, it wouldn’t upset me.”

Troy Newman is exuberant for the future. That should tell you all you need to know.

Conclusive Proof That Rich Iott is Not Fit For Public Office

He's not sure if he would support John Boehner for Speaker of the House.

Loyalty is a highly overrated virtue in politics--George W. Bush's loyalty to Donald Rumsfeld played a large role in keeping Rumsfeld on until it became absolutely untenable--but at the very least you've got to show some gratitude to the only person not to bail after learning of your proclivities for Nazi reenactment. Rewarding supporters, at least when you're in a position of weakness, is Electoral Politics 101.

If Iott doesn't know how to play the game, though, he can always go back to playing dreSS-up instead.

Reich Behind You

You'd think after Eric Cantor and the Young Guns (which would make a great band name) disassociated themselves from bad Nazi-impressionist Rich Iott that the GOP would have been content to leave him to electoral defeat.

You'd be wrong:

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) plans to campaign for House Republican candidate Rich Iott on Saturday in Toledo.

Photos showing Iott dressed in Nazi-style clothing threw his campaign into the spotlight earlier this month. But Boehner did not return the $5,000 contributions he made to the candidate, and Iott's campaign said there was no reason to.

Boehner represents Ohio, so I wonder if this one of those "I still love my crazy racist uncle" things. Iott's not a Nazi, of course, he just is willing to put the whole genocide thing aside because other than that the Third Reich's military prowess was so badaSS. And Boehner doesn't seem to have a problem with venerating war criminals either, so why not help a guy in need?

Electorally, though, it doesn't make much sense. Iott's district is historically Democratic, and Nate Silver gives him essentially Calvinist odds of success. Surely Boehner's political heft could be better spent in a competitive race where his presence could make a difference.

Sehr interessant.

[UPDATE: In the interest of avoiding what Jim Fallows calls ignorant incurious certitude, a quick Googling provides something of an explanation.

Leader Boehner will be rallying Republican volunteers at the Lucas County Victory Center to support the local Republican Party's get-out-the-vote efforts. Boehner has been on the road headlining rallies for Republican candidates in Ohio and across the country, and he'll continue his busy campaign schedule into the final weekend before Tuesday's referendum on Democrats' jobs-killing policies.

So just to be clear, it is an Ohio thing. I still note that John Boehner thinks Democrats' jobs-killing policies ought best be resisted by an SS LARPer.

UPDATE UPDATE: Forgot to tip my hat to absurdbeats for the Fallows link, which I had not yet read.

Mystic Crystal Litigation

It's always terrible when someone dies, but I have to say, Marc Lacey must have had an awful lot of fun writing this:

SEDONA, Ariz. — There is negative energy in the air here, which the channelers, mystics, healers, psychics and other New Age practitioners of Sedona are grappling to identify and snuff out. It has to do with the recent dearth of visitors to this spiritual oasis in search of enlightenment.

Nobody is sure exactly what is keeping people away from Sedona’s four vortexes, swirling energy sources emanating from the earth, but the effects are clear: far fewer crystals are being bought, spiritual tours taken and treatments ordered, from aura cleansings to chakra balancings.

That an earthly power — the economy — is a culprit is not in doubt. But some do not discount the effects of an awful incident from a year ago that put Sedona’s New Age community in a bad light and that, to some degree, still lingers, despite efforts by metaphysical people to cast it away.

The problem just might be that a New Age sweat lodge ceremony held there killed three people and injured several others.

Another great bit:

Several months back, the Hamiltons made a spiritual appeal to end the lawsuits, e-mailing those who were suing them and asking them to consider the implications of what they were doing. “Let’s come together,” the e-mail said. “Let’s find a new way to do this.”

Their effort drew no takers, although it did rile the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Read it all.

Gott Fag? 2

There's been a lively discussion at Ta-Nehisi Coates' place on gay mannerisms and speculating on whether Andrew Shirvell, who has blogged obsessively (and now exclusively; it's no longer publicly accessible.) about the gay student body president of his alma mater Chris Armstrong, is a closet case. Responses range from discomfort at stereotyping to "Well, duh." Generally there is concern that his clearly unhealthy obsession could turn dangerous.

For my part I see Shirvell, like all these cases, to be scorned and pitied, for it is obvious he is in deep denial about himself. It's in the eyes. They are constantly shifting and rarely looking at the camera straight on (so to speak). They betray a great strain and effort to maintain the facade, to continue in a futile attempt to prove not just to others but himself most of all, that he is not actually who he really is. (I say who and not what, for it is personhood and identity that are at stake here.)

Further evidence is the blog itself, with pictures of Armstrong scrawled on (using MS Paint, by the looks of it) with "Resign" and swastikas. This behavior is but a denial and perversion of the same impulse that makes the wistful write his beloved's name surrounded by hearts. When those channels of emotion are closed off and the object of affection becomes something the observer can never have or be, this is the sad and sorry result.

Projeculation

The Andrew Breitbart strain of Tea Party conservatism is a lesson in projection. Exhibit A: a man who willfully takes a black woman telling her story of triumphing over her own racism and manipulates it into a declaration of proud racism in order to "prove" how racist she--and the NAACP, and Barack Obama--is.

Exhibit B:

James O'Keefe, the young conservative activist who secretly recorded meetings with ACORN and was convicted in May of entering Sen. Mary Landrieu's office under false pretenses, allegedly tried to "punk" CNN reporter Abbie Boudreau by luring her on to a boat and seducing her....

...There's also a script O'Keefe was supposed to read on camera before meeting with Boudreau.

"I've decided to have a little fun," reads the script. "Instead of giving her a serious interview, I'm going to punk CNN. Abbie has been trying to seduce me to use me, in order to spin a lie about me. So, I'm going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she'll get seduced on camera and you'll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath."

If you squint really hard--and avoid the proliferation of porn star anchorwomen on FOX News, another instance of projection--you can kind of make out the vague, fuzzy point he's trying to get at: 'she thinks we're crazy! Well, we'll act crazy, and then show it was an act, proving CNN's confirmation bias!' It's a distant cousin behind the logic of the brilliant Sokal Hoax. Another case of conservative ressentiment, perhaps, but there's a point to be had.

Except that's not the point he's making at all.

The whole scheme of seducing a CNN anchorwoman is premised on her unprofessionalism. But for a journalist, as O'Keefe would style himself, seducing a subject in order to humiliate them is operating on a sub-Borat level of ethics.

And then there are the means by which he meant to seduce her [formatting mine]:

Equipment needed

a. Video

1. hidden cams on the boat
2. tripod and overt recorder near the bed, an obvious sex tape machine

b. Props

1. condom jar
2. dildos
3. Music

a. Alicia keys
b. 80s romance songs, things that are typically James
c. avoid Marvin Gaye as too cliche

4. lube
5. ceiling mirror
6. posters and paintings of naked women
7. playboys and pornographic magazines
8. candles
9. Viagra and stamina pills
10. fuzzy handcuffs
11. blindfold

That O'Keefe and his crew actually thought a woman would find decorating a room with porn and sexual paraphernalia (Viagra???) sexually enticing shows how seriously warped their own perspective is. Methinks they've spent too much time at The Forum.

About the Benjamins

Just a quick recap: I didn't actually do much in Philadelphia besides explore, mostly in the historical district. I visited Franklin Court (the site of Benjamin Franklin's old property, long ago razed by his grandchildren), Christ Church, Old City Hall, and Second Bank of the United States. I actually think, outside of the continued existence of the buildings themselves, these will be the least interesting places I'll visit. That in itself dgserves a complete write-up and discussion, which isn't going to happen, at least not until I get settled into something resembling a normal schedule.

Notes and other potential topics of discussion:

- There is a (straight) porn theater on the west end of the city, and I am going to patronize it and document my experience. That much I can promise.

- I came across some "9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB" bumper stickers slapped onto some lamp posts and ripped most of them down. Boiled my blood, it did.

- Philadelphia has lot of very interesting architecture, more than DC, which was something of a backwater until the beginning of the 20th century.

- Benjamin Franklin's old residence, like Shakespeare's Birthplace, was basically wiped clean; the former was torn down, the latter--if it even IS Shakespeare's birthplace--was stripped and even partially remodeled. Yet the two are markedly different in their approach. Franklin Court uses some white-painted metal beams to form the frame of what would have been the house, and the different rooms are merely indicated. Shakespeare's Birthplace tries to "recreate" an Elizabethan household to mostly embarrassing results. And, Franklin gets a much more detailed museum.

- In front of the Philadelphia Convention Center were representatives of some truly batshit crazy black supremacist Jewish(?!?) group, the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge, whose attire of bright red and green fabrics with rindstone-studded leather makes them look like ninjas. It turns out they're pretty nasty folks, but based on what I saw I wondered if they were some kind of performance art, like what conservatives wonder about Fred Phelps. Check out the quotes of the day at the bottom to see why.



I know that tomorrow I'm going to the Philadelphia Art Museum. Everything beyond that is more or less improvisation.

Quotes of the day, courtesy of the crazy black supremacists:

"Why do they [white people] want to send the Mexkcans back? Because they want the black man back in the fields!"

"That transvestite, Lady Gaga. That's a man is who he is."

(on gays:) "They get it from Greece and Rome and those two faggots, Romulus and Remus!"

"God is without Valentine's Day. And Mother's Day? The white man won't tell me when to give a gift to my mother!"