Saturday, April 21, 2012

Obama wants to kill Chelsea Clinton! And David Brock wants to kill Jesus! AIEEEE!!!

Right-wingers have gone so far off the wall as to be off the freakin' planet. Case in point:
...according to the deluded ramblings of a birther blog, while locked in a heated primary battle with Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton became privy to information proving that he was secretly Kenyan and therefore ineligible to run for President. And in order to keep the Clintons quiet, people working for Obama told them that she better shut up about how he's a secret Kenyan, otherwise Barack Obama was going to personally murder Chelsea Clinton.
This nuttiness didn't stay relegated to a "birther blog." It was picked up by Fox News host Heather Childers.

Her source, a documentarian named Bettina Viviano, also believes that Joe Arpaio has uncovered conclusive "proof" of Obama's Kenyan birth. She thinks that the media has ignored Arpaio because Obama has issued death threats against everyone in the House and Senate.

The plot against Christianity: CBN News says that it has uncovered documentary evidence that Media Matters for America (which reported on Childers' descent into madness) has an anti-Christian agenda. The "evidence" is an IRS form in which Media Matters founder David Brocks allegedly "declares it's going to be an anti-Christian organization."

Oddly enough, CBN refuses to publishes this "evidence," at least not in full. Here's what Brock actually wrote on that form:
“Media Matters for America (MMA) believes that news reporting and analysis by the American media, with its eye on profit margin and preservation of the status quo, has become biased.  It is common for news and commentary by the press to present viewpoints that tend to overly promote corporate interests, the rights of the wealthy, and a conservative, Christian-influenced ideology.”
My only issue with this statement is grammatical. (How did Brock get into U.C. Berkeley without learning about split infinitives?)

Obviously, nothing here indicates any conspiracy against the followers of Jesus. In fact, I can picture Jesus nodding his head in agreement upon hearing that line about the wealthy.

David Brock filled out that IRS form in 2004. Yet for some reason, this quote -- or a somewhat garbled version of it, with the "wealthy" bit snipped out -- is all over the right-wing sites right now. Obviously, someone at GOP Propaganda Central gave the order to push this inane meme. The propagandists know their audience: Many evangelicals and fundamentalists are very paranoid and insecure people who love to feel persecuted.

Someone should tell the Republicans that it is in their interest to turn off the crazy. A lot of disappointed liberals had decided not to support Obama in 2012. But the Republican party has become really kooky and really creepy and just plain scary. We cannot let these nuts attain power, even if the only alternative is voting for a guy we can't stand.

17 comments:

Mr. Mike said...

To paraphrase the Joker:
"This country needs an enema" and the GOP are the bag and nozzle.

Remember how the Greenies justified their support of Ralph Nadir by claiming there was no difference between Bush the Lesser and Al Gore?

The same wrong thinking led people to support Obama over Hillary Clinton.

I'm all for letting them pay for that mistake by sitting out this election.

Ken Hoop said...

Bull. The only other alternative is NOT supporting Romney, nor was it of a vote for Gore who was only a little less likely to stage the immoral Iraq War.

Go third party or sit home, or help in forming a viable one.
(Party that is, or maybe home, as there is little family life left here.)

Anonymous said...

The Republicans are beyond creepy. They're insane and dangerous. And you're right there are a lot of disillusioned and pissed off liberals who will not be supporting the Obama train with monies and/or even votes. But there's no way in hell any rational person would support or vote for the present GOP; they are totally off the rails.

So, it's another round of the War on Christianity by people who wouldn't recognize the Christian message if they tripped over it. Love the pushback by the Catholic Church on the Ryan Budget [otherwise known as dump the poor, elderly and disabled on the curb and call it good because the fear of dependency is a greater problem than starvation]. You cannot make this stuff up.

The hoot'en and holler'en goes on!

Peggysue

Joseph Cannon said...

Ken, that Gore comments proves that the left can be just as delusional as the right.

Peggysue, I've been bugged about the alleged "War on Christianity" for years. Back in the late 1970s-early'80s, evangelicals began to circulate the rumor that Christians would soon be rounded up and placed in gummint concentration camps. The rumor only gained strength during the Reagan years.

What possesses these people to think that such nonsense is even possible?

In large part, I think the problem is simple insecurity. Christians wedded to creationism, for example, know -- deep down -- that they do not possess enough smarts to debate the issue persuasively. And so they resort to conspiracy theory. They convince themselves that others believe in evolution because they've been deceived by the devil.

And very soon, that paranoid outlook becomes their default mechanism for dealing with the outside world.

Terry said...

Cannon: "David Brocks allegedly 'declares it's going to be an anti-Christian organization.'" As is clear from the article, Coglianese claimed it, not Brocks.

For whatever its worth, here's the source:

http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/16/media-matters-targets-revealed-business-wealth-christianity/

Pdf embedded. See Page 25 of 80, for the actual quote: "It is common for news and commentary by the press to present viewpoints that tend to overly promote corporate interests, the rights of the wealthy, and a conservative, Christian-influenced ideology."

No biggie, anyhow. The Left-Right clown war continues unabated. You bad, me good. Clever as hell. Tell me something I don't know.

Joseph Cannon said...

Terry, jeez. You missed the POINT of what I wrote. I didn't say that *I* believed that Brock thought that...

Oh, nevermind. There are days when I can't help thinking that writing is a hopeless endeavor. One can no longer convey thoughts using mere words. Even short, clear words are misunderstood. And even when I spend a great deal of time trying to arrange those short, clear words in a straightforward and comprehensible order, my intended meaning is still missed.

So, if writing no longer works -- how do we communicate ideas? Perhaps mass telepathy is possible...

Terry said...

I'm just a stickler for accuracy and minutia. I do appreciate your posts, and read every single one as soon as it appears in my RSS reader.

I read exposes of both left and right ideology - and everything in between - as well, especially when they police their own.

Joseph Cannon said...

"I'm just a stickler for accuracy and minutia."

I WAS accurate. But some people insist on misreading even the simplest language.

Anonymous said...

Great Picture of Republican Crazy Train.

2011 Republican Korporate Krazies Kontest:
http://republican-elephant.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/first-2011-gop-debate-between-corporate-owned-crazy-republicans.jpg

CambridgeKnitter said...

I strongly disagree with you on split infinitives. I hold with Fowler's Modern English Usage, which debunks the myth of the split infinitive. Could you really rewrite "To boldly go where no man has gone before" without the split infinitive and maintain the clear meaning?

Lea said...

My theory re: Christianist paranoia (and all other expressions of right-wing paranoia, in fact) is that we're dealing with the most extreme case of psychological projection I've ever had the opportunity to witness.

The fear of being rounded up and put into camps is, I guess, actually the expression of right-wingers' (repressed) desire to do exactly that to their leftwing counterparts. For the moment, of course, it's still unacceptable to express such ambitions forthrightly.

(This theory also seems to be highly applicable to expressions of conservative/Christianist homophobia.)

The way things are going lately, I wouldn't be surprised if those repressed desires don't come roaring into consciousness and then into mainstream discourse (see:Ted Nugent). And although there are those who would argue (particularly conservatives), I don't see any such florid displays of obvious mental illness on the left.

I find it a helpful way to understand many situations where conservative paranoia makes no objective, real-world sense. Which turns out to be pretty much every time.

Anonymous said...

You were quite the PUMA back in the day, Joseph, along with your friend Riverdaughter and among your group Viviano's video "documentary" We Will Not Be Silenced was and is the Bible on how the evil Obots punked the poor Hilldos and stole the nomination for the dusky usurper. Actually more like the Leuchter Report, utterly tendentious crap to anyone but Hillary deadenders.

Joseph Cannon said...
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Joseph Cannon said...
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Joseph Cannon said...
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Joseph Cannon said...

Anonymous 2:38: You are an idiot.

I was not a Hillary "deadender." Good god, do I really need to give this speech YET AGAIN? Am I doomed to give it the rest of my life?

I supported Hillary only because she was the only thing standing between Obama and the nomination, and because I thought that the Freeper-style campaign of lies against her proved that psychotic progs (of which you seem to be a prime example) could be every bit as irrational and revolting as are the psycho-conservatives one sees on Fox News.

As I said about seven zillion times throughout 2008, I wished Hillary had never run. I don't know why jerks like you cannot understand those simple words. Do you have a reading disorder?

Face it: I was proven completely right about Obama. He has been a Wall Street sellout. Most of the Kossack dunderheads now admit it. That man is the worst thing to happen to the Democratic party since Dealey Plaza.

Riverdaughter and I were never friends. To be frank, I have not had a friend of any kind in years, nor have I sought one. In fact, I have gone out of my way to alienate anyone who has tried to get to know me personally.

Since creeps like you tend to jump to all sorts of imaginary conclusions about who is conspiring with whom, I should make things very clear -- yet again.

Riverdaughter, Dakinkat and the other PUMA writers have never spoken to me voice. For the most part, we do not email each other. I admire Riverdaughter's writing style and have annoyed her with my suggestions that she should write a book. Frankly, if someone with her obvious talent is not going to do something productive with her time, I cannot feel so very sorry about her continuing unemployment, which she complains about rather too often.

I get the impression that she and the other the better-known PUMA writers never really liked or trusted me, since I do not share their worshipful stance toward Hillary Clinton and was never really part of their movement.

I have never seen the documentary "We Will Not Be Silenced" and thus cannot judge it. I have never had anything to do with Bettina Viviano. I don't know much about her. From the little I've heard, she does not sound like the sort of person with whom I would ever seek any kind of association.

Then again, you should understand that I associate with nobody. That's the best policy for a blogger. As noted above, even the most glancing hint of an alliance can cause assholes like you to presume all sorts of things that simply are not true.

I prefer to operate independently. That way, my words reflect only on myself, not on any larger group.

Are we clear now? FINALLY?

Gus said...

Joseph, my already know everything you wrote above is why I keep reading here. Your independence sets you apart from just about every other political blogger. Keep it up. I hope you don't have to keep explaining your own words to people over and over, but I suspect you probably will. The sock puppets will not be silenced, don't you know?