This from an article by Joe Conason, at Working for Change.
On the far-right Web site WorldNetDaily, a columnist who describes himself as a “Christian libertarian” recently explained why he knew that the president is wrong about mass deportations. “If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves of six million Jews, many of whom spoke German and were fully integrated into German society,” he wrote, “it couldn't possibly take more than eight years to deport 12 million illegal aliens, many of whom don't speak English and are not integrated into American society.”
If memory serves me right, those Jewish citizens were not deported, unless sending them to a different astral plain counts. And conservatives say we have an anger problem.
Click here for the entire Conason article.
Also a post on this at the Talent Show. I followed the link from there to Crooks and Liars and finally to the article in question at WorldNetDaily. Mysteriously, the article has been altered and the German connection removed.
And to think that Pat McIlheran has quoted pieces from WorldNetDaily. Goes to show where his ethics lie.
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
New Deportation Strategy on the Right
They Just Can't Stop Lying
Clint at Milwaukee ID10T thinks that a video supposedly showing Tony Snow “smack down” octogenarian Helen Thomas is good TV. He fails to note, as usual for conservative listeners and, especially conservative bloggers, that Tony Snow was at his disingenuous best. Click here for the Media Matters follow up to this press conference.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
I Can't Wait To Spend That $20
Quality of life tax cut for my frind Clint:
Another $70 billion tax cut was recently passed. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says the average middle-income household will get a $20 tax cut. Oh boy!
Those making more than $1 million a year will get nearly $42,000.
Damn, you're right. Love that quality of life statement by conservative governance. But at least it's a plan, you'll say.
Some plan. Now if only we could win the lottery.
Who Are The Traitors to Liberty?
When conservatives tell you that you should be willing to sacrifice some freedoms "temporarily" for the sake of security in the war on terrorism, remember these:
“Those who would trade safety for freedom deserve neither.” -- Thomas Jefferson
“Those that would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither liberty nor security.” -- Ben Franklin
“Those who are ready to sacrifice freedom for security ultimately will lose both.” -- Abraham Lincoln
What Do You Think?
Another from Mom (in honor of Mother's Day):
It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then, just to loosen up. Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a social thinker. I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true.
Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time. That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's. I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself. I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it, exactly, we are doing here?"
One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."
This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confess, "I've been thinking..."
"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"
"But Honey, surely it's not that serious."
"It is serious," she said, lower lip aquiver. "You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"
"That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently.
She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door. I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche. I roared into the parking lot, with NPR blaring on the radio, and ran up to the big glass doors ... They didn't open. The library was closed.
To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night. Leaning on the unfeeling glass, whimpering for Zarathustra, a Poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked. You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster.Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker? I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's, this week it will be the speeches of George W. Bush." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting. I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home.
Life just seemed ... easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me. Today I made the final step: I registered to vote as a Republican.
Down on the Border
Rather than adding 6,000 National Guard members to the Border Patrol, let's just add F(at) James Sensenbrenner. His girth should be enough to cover the entire border several times over. Wouldn't have to feed him either. He could just eat the clumsy ones who fall into his pudgy grasp.
And if that is not enough, we can plant large speakers up and down the border and replay Jessica McBride radio shows.
Monday, May 15, 2006
What Conservatism Reaps ... Hatred
I read this a week or so ago in an old Time magazine. What a great idea. That conservative, homophobe bastard, Fred Phelps, deseves this kind of attention.
From The Army Times:
Bikers drown out funeral protesters
By Ryan Lenz, Associated Press
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — Wearing leather chaps and vests covered in military patches, a band of motorcyclists rolls from one soldier’s funeral to another in hopes their respectful cheers and revving engines will drown out the insults of protesters.
The motorcycle club members calling themselves Patriot Guard Riders are trying to shield mourners from cruel jeers by adherents of a tiny fundamentalist church who picket military funerals to reflect their belief that U.S. combat deaths are a sign God is punishing the United States for harboring homosexuals. Some protesters’ signs said, “Thank God for IEDs,” the improvised explosive devices, or homemade bombs, that kill many U.S. soldiers.
“The most important thing we can do is let families know that the nation cares,” said Don Woodrick, the biker group’s Kentucky captain. “When a total stranger gets on a motorcycle in the middle of winter and drives 300 miles to hold a flag, that makes a powerful statement.”
Across the nation, Patriot Guard Riders number more than 5,000. They show up at soldiers’ funerals to chant patriotic slogans and wave red, white and blue flags in hopes of overshadowing backers of a Kansas clergyman named the Rev. Fred Phelps.
Phelps and members of his Westboro Baptist Church have caused such a fuss that at least 14 states are considering laws aimed at the funeral protests. During the 1990s, church members were known mostly for picketing funerals of AIDS victims, and they have long been tracked as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project in Montgomery, Alabama.
The project’s deputy director, Heidi Beirich, said other groups have tried to counter Phelps’ message, but none have been as organized as the Patriot Guard.
“I’m not sure anybody has gone to this length to stand in solidarity,” she said. “It’s nice that these veterans and their supporters are trying to do something. I can’t imagine anything worse, your loved one is killed in Iraq and you’ve got to deal with Fred Phelps.”
At a recent memorial service at Fort Campbell, church protesters and sang vulgar songs condemning homosexuals and soldiers. The Patriot Guard was also there, cheering to support mourning families across the street as community members came in a freezing rain to chant “U-S-A, U-S-A” alongside the bikers.
“This is just the right thing to do. This is something America didn’t do in the ’70s,” said Kurt Mayer, the Patriot Guard’s national spokesman, referring to the era when protests against the Vietnam war were common. “Whether we agree with why we’re over there, these soldiers are dying to protect our freedoms.”
Shirley Phelps-Roper, a daughter of Fred Phelps and an attorney for the Topeka, Kansas-based church, said neither state laws nor the Patriot Guard can silence their message that God killed the soldiers because they fought for a country that embraces homosexuals.
“The scriptures are crystal clear that when God sets out to punish a nation, it is with the sword. An IED is just a broken-up sword,” Phelps-Roper said. “Since that is his weapon of choice, our forum of choice has got to be a dead soldier’s funeral.”
The church, which is not affiliated with a larger denomination, is made up mostly of Phelps’ extended family. A small group of them appeared last month in West Virginia outside a memorial for the 12 men killed in the Sago Mine disaster. They held signs reading “Thank God for Dead Miners” and “Miners in Hell.”
Kentucky, home to sprawling Fort Campbell, was among the first states to attempt to deal with Phelps legislatively. Its House and Senate have each passed bills that would limit people from protesting within 300 feet of a funeral or memorial service. The Senate version would also keep protesters from being within earshot of grieving friends and family members.
The Indiana Senate has passed a bill intended to prohibit protests within 500 feet (150 meters) of funerals. The House is considering the measure.
The bills were written to protect families of soldiers such as Pvt. Jonathan R. Pfender, 22, of Evansville, Indiana, a soldier from Fort Campbell’s 101st Airborne Division who was killed in January by a roadside bomb in Beiji, Iraq.
Westboro church members protested at Pfender’s funeral, screaming profanities at mourners as they passed. Family members were shielded from the insults by the rumble of Patriot Guard motorcycles.
“We were glad that the Patriot Guard Riders were there,” said Jackie Pfender, the soldier’s stepmother. “This group of protesters wanted to put something negative on Jonathan’s funeral. In actuality, it became a positive thing because of the support we had.”
Patriot Guard members only show up at funerals if invited by family. Richard Wilbur, a retired police detective, said his Indiana Patriot Guard group came to the Pfender funeral at the family’s request after protesters announced they planned to attend.
“No one deserves this,” Wilbur said. “If I were burying my loved one and they were out there yelling anything close to what they yell to the families of these soldiers, I know my temperament. I probably would not handle it very well.”
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Hanky Time
Another boo hoo piece from a conservative blogger. Once again it's the liberals' fault for all their woes. I'll let him speak for himself.
