speakingcorpse writes:

What is anti-Semitism today? I don't know, but here is at least some evidence of my developing theory that modern anti-Semitism involves attacking everyone who criticizes Israel as anti-Semitic. (Remember that the majority of voices in Western media that are critical of Israel are JEWISH voices.)

Read here about how Tony Blankley (of the Washington Times) has attacked George Soros (with Sean Hannity's enthusiastic agreement) as "a Jew who figured out a way to survive the Holocaust," and as a Jew who "blames the Jews for anti-Semitism." What exactly does this mean? That Jews who did NOT survive the Holocaust, who instead were brutally killed, were the only REAL Jews during the Second World War? And that their deaths are to be celebrated because they have been redeemed by the foundation of the holy state of Israel? That is what this means. And I'm afraid that this way of thinking is related to the American fetishization of the Holocaust, to the American insistence that it is THE genocide in human history, to the American idea of Israel as an inherently good cause to which Christians ought to give their "help," to the building of an American Holocaust museum on the Mall (as opposed, say, to a slavery museum).

speakingcorpse writes:

In his new book, "Big Russ and Me," which celebrates the life of his uneducated, complacently stupid, casually cruel, bloodthirsty, reactionary, and pathologically boring father, television wiseman and terrorism advocate Tim Russert remembers how his father's perspective on things helped him to rise above the small-minded controversy over the murder of 4 student protesters at Kent State University during the Vietnam genocide.

Charles Pierce (a regular writer for the Boston Globe and a regular contributor to Eric Alterman's blog) alerts us to this important episode in Big Russ and Me. The spawn of Big Russ remembers protesting the murders of the students, and getting into an argument with counter-protesters, who felt that the murder of the four students was a good thing, and that the slaughter of millions of Vietnamese was a cause for singing and dancing. Little Russ, until this point in the gripping narrative, has thought that by protesting millions of deaths, he is on the side of right; but then he thinks of his fascist, necrophilic father and remembers that there are two sides to every issue. At John Carrol University, where Little Russ is enrolled for an "education," a group of students has lowered the American flag to half-mast in honor of the slain students; another group of students has raised the flag, in the belief that the deaths of the students is not something to be mourned, but to be praised as fulfilling the highest purposes of the United States. Little Russ confronts the students, but then he has a change of heart: "Why," he asks himself, "are we arguing about this flag? It belongs to all of us. Four students lost their lives, and I'm sure the guardsmen who shot them feel awful. They're kids, too. Why are we fighting about this when we should be in the chapel praying for the dead students, the guardsmen, and for our country."

Big Russ's example has taught Little Russ that those who celebrate the murders are in fact Americans, too, and have as valid a perspective as his own. The murdered students deserve prayer, but so do the murderers (because they feel bad; and if they did not kill the students, who would have? Somebody had to do it). The place to be now, Tim realizes, is not in the streets, trying to make a difference, trying to save lives, trying to take a stand on matters of life and death, but in the chapel, praying.

The lesson for today is obvious. We should not protest the deaths of our Iraqi victims, nor should we protest the torture being done in our name. We should pray for our victims, and we should also pray for the torturers, and for Donald Rumsfeld and Stephen Cambone, who, even as I write this, are sodomizing each other with chemical lamps while wearing women's underwear on their heads. And pray for Tim Russert as well. Even if he is guilty of a moral (if not criminal) atrocity every time he opens his mouth, even if he is infinitely more repulsive and guilty and perverted than Charles Graner, Tim is still an American. He and I and all of us share the same flag.

The flag stands for torture, and it stands for us. No amount of protesting will undo this fact.

The Gallup Poll. May 2-4,2004. N=1,000 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3 (total sample).

"In your opinion, is the death penalty imposed too often, about the right amount, or not often enough?"

5/04

23 Too Often

25 About Right

48 Not Enough

4 No Opinion

I have an idea for how the death penalty could be administered more "often." Each of those 48% of Americans who think the death penalty (aka "the ultimate punishment") is imposed "not often enough" could volunteer to execute themselves. A poll could be conducted to ascertain whether this select group would prefer to die via

a) beheading
b) being thrown out of an airplane
c) buried alive
d) hurled into glacial crevasse or "moulin"

President Bush, who has already been executed, could show some real leadership on this issue, urging his fellow Christians to hurl themselves into the "moulin" for the love of Christ...

How can so many people allow themselves to be complicit in such an obvious, obvious evil? How many of those 48% do you think have thought for two fucking minutes about what the death penalty is?

Chien: want to volunteer? I charge you guilty of crimes against humanity, Jesus Christ, and America. Be a good citizen and step up.

Ken Auletta in the New Yorker ("Big Bird Flies Right," 6/7/04, not online) has some great news about public television: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is stacked with Bushies, Bush has rejected Daschle's recommendation for the board, PBS's "Now" will no longer be funded after Bill Moyers leaves in November, and--best of all!--PBS will feature new programs hosted by Tucker Carlson (yes, that's not a typo), Paul Gigot (editorial page editor at the WSJ) and fucking Michael Medved.

Also, on "Sesame Street" this fall, look for Oscar the Grouch to give up his curmudgeonly ways and re-join the community after accepting Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior.

Dawkins writes:

On Memorial Day at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, George W. Bush "saluted all those Americans who had given their lives in military service." He laid a wreath and "acknowledged the 'great costs' of the war in Iraq." He said that the veterans of wars past and present would "carry with them for all their days the memory of the ones who did not live to be called veterans."

(Bush was introduced by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who got a round of applause from the crowd and responded by saying "Wow." Bush thanked Rumsfeld for his "great leadership.")

Then Bush read from a letter written by Pfc. Jesse A. Givens to his wife and children, to be read in the event of his death. Private Givens, of Springfield, Mo., was 34 when he was killed on May 1, 2003, when his tank fell into the Euphrates River after the bank on which it was parked collapsed.

Meanwhile, on that day in Iraq, two American soldiers died. They joined the legions who have died for Bush.

Bush seems to love these deaths of soldiers. He seems to revel in these "ultimate sacrifices."

Perhaps he believes that the blood of slain soldiers sanctifies his heart, cleansing it of sin, in the way that the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed his heart of sin. Perhaps he believes that these soldiers pay the ultimate price with their blood so that he, their humble servant, might be free of sin.

Perhaps he believes that God so loves him that he gave not only his one and only Son, Jesus Christ, but that he gives him one or two or maybe even three or four American soldiers to die for him each and every day, that if he merely believes that their sacrifice was noble, and for the causes of freedom and democracy, he shall not perish but have eternal life.

Perhaps he believes that each soldier who gives his life for him is Christ, slain and risen, for him. Each day a soldier dies for him, he's born again in the blood of the lamb. Each day for him is Easter.

How can a man for whom Christ dies anew each day not feel the power -- the wonder working power -- in the blood of the Lamb, and not strive to feel that power again and again, so that ever more young Christs might die for freedom, and democracy, and for him?

He is clearly our most Christian president ever.

Dawkins writes:

Calling all AmCoppers: Let's build a crowd!

Tuesday, June 8, 2004; 7pm
Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Triangle
1972 Broadway at 66th Street
212-595-6859

The one and only David Brooks will be on hand, "live" and in "person", to read from and discuss his latest "book": On Paradise Drive.

I called the Barnes & Noble and they said the reading/discussion will take place in the event room on the third floor of the store. Getting there at 6:30pm should be plenty of time to get a seat.

I say it'll be fun to show up and see what happens!

Who's coming?

Bush is an Iranian agent.

From MoveOn:

Without a paper ballot, there's no way to know if our votes are counted correctly. Also, computers are vulnerable to malfunction -- how often does yours freeze up?

It's time to take action to protect our votes. Join our call for Voter-Verified Paper Ballots, at:

http://www.moveon.org/protectourvotes/

From Scats:

"We must make clear to the Germans that the wrong for which their fallen leaders are on trial is not that they lost the war, but that they started it. And we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy."

- - Robert L. Jackson, Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunals

A friend of Scats reviews the Brooks book:

I am glad that David Brooks has such faith in this country that he can look at the middle and upper-middle classes, draw from them a perfect picture of an ugly America where nearly soulless people are driven like insects by unconscious desires, and still retain his belief that our aspirations and ideals are so noble that nearly anything we do is an expression and fulfillment of those ideals. Someone needs to retain such generous love. But I question the picture he's drawn of America as uncentered, rootless, complacent, worshipful of technology, bound to the desire for self-fulfillment.

In the message, dated early Tuesday afternoon, Luke Bernstein, coalitions coordinator for the Bush campaign in Pennsylvania, wrote: "The Bush-Cheney '04 national headquarters in Virginia has asked us to identify 1,600 `Friendly Congregations' in Pennsylvania where voters friendly to President Bush might gather on a regular basis."

In each targeted "place of worship," Mr. Bernstein continued, without mentioning a specific religion or denomination, "we'd like to identify a volunteer who can help distribute general information to other supporters." He explained: "We plan to undertake activities such as distributing general information/updates or voter registration materials in a place accessible to the congregation."

The e-mail message was provided to The New York Times by a group critical of President Bush.

Weird: I wonder which "group" this was. It appears that anyone at all could have submitted the message for the Times' perusal; in fact, a "friend" of AmCop received this message (and receives all the Bush campaign mass-emails). Is it that easy to get a story on the front-page of the Times--just forward them the goods? Now that it has its hands on this hot scoop, maybe the Times wants to start paying closer attention to other things the Bushies have been saying in their campaign emails...

Brooks says:

A few weeks ago, The National Journal, the highly respected and highly expensive Washington policy magazine, asked a dozen distinguished and politically independent economists to grade the Bush administration's economic performance...

As a group, the panel gave the Bush team a B-plus for short-term fiscal policy, a C-minus for long-term fiscal policy, a B for regulatory policy and a B-minus for trade and international economics. These aren't the grades that win you a Rhodes scholarship, but they're not too bad.

A C-minus for long-term fiscal policy is "not too bad"? This must be a corollary of Brooks' assertion from March that

The people who succeed most spectacularly, on the other hand, often had low grades. They are not prudential. They venture out and thrive where there is no supervision, where there are no preset requirements.

I wonder if Brooks' celebration of mediocrity stems from the fact that he himself is possessed of a middling intellect, and long ago decided that since he would never be able to distinguish himself thinking and writing for a humane audience, he could achieve "success" shitting and regurgitating for an audience of coprophagics?

"No preset requirements." Amazing. He just strings words together, one after the other...

The treatment of the detainees in Iraq was far from an aberration. They, too, were treated like animals, which was simply a logical extension of the way we treat prisoners here at home.

Column.

Kind of amazing to see this on the front page of the WaPo. More good work from Milbank

From Bush, Unprecedented Negativity
Scholars Say Campaign Is Making History With Often-Misleading Attacks

By Dana Milbank and Jim VandeHei

It was a typical week in the life of the Bush reelection machine.

Last Monday in Little Rock, Vice President Cheney said Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry "has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all" and said the senator from Massachusetts "promised to repeal most of the Bush tax cuts within his first 100 days in office."

On Tuesday, President Bush's campaign began airing an ad saying Kerry would scrap wiretaps that are needed to hunt terrorists.

The same day, the Bush campaign charged in a memo sent to reporters and through surrogates that Kerry wants to raise the gasoline tax by 50 cents.

On Wednesday and Thursday, as Kerry campaigned in Seattle, he was greeted by another Bush ad alleging that Kerry now opposes education changes that he supported in 2001.

The charges were all tough, serious -- and wrong, or at least highly misleading. Kerry did not question the war on terrorism, has proposed repealing tax cuts only for those earning more than $200,000, supports wiretaps, has not endorsed a 50-cent gasoline tax increase in 10 years, and continues to support the education changes, albeit with modifications.

Scholars and political strategists say the ferocious Bush assault on Kerry this spring has been extraordinary, both for the volume of attacks and for the liberties the president and his campaign have taken with the facts.

You've probably seen this already, but it's just too good not to post:

Bush Keeps Saddam Gun at White House

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A handgun that Saddam Hussein was clutching when U.S. forces captured him in a hole in Iraq last December is now kept by President Bush at the White House, a spokesman confirmed on Sunday.

Time magazine, which first disclosed the gun's location, said military officials had it mounted after it was seized from Saddam near his hometown of Tikrit last year, and soldiers involved in the capture gave it to Bush.

The magazine quoted a visitor who had been shown the gun, which is kept in a small study off the Oval Office where Bush displays memorabilia. It is the same room where former President Bill Clinton had some of his encounters with former intern Monica Lewinsky.

Bush shows Saddam's gun to select visitors, telling them it is unloaded, both now and when Saddam was captured, Time reported.

"He really liked showing it off," Time quoted a visitor as saying. "He was really proud of it."

White House spokesman Jim Morrell said, "The president was proud of the performance and bravery of our armed forces and was honored to receive it on behalf of the troops involved in the operation."

As featured in a recent Ed Gillespie RNC email:

Play Kerryopoly Today!!!

Roll the dice and travel around the Kerryopoly board from his house in Georgetown to his private plane, the Flying Squirrel. Play now and see if you can afford to live like John Kerry does.

Click Here To Play!

I really think this could be an incredibly effective tack for the RNC propaganda machine to take. Make this a debate about *which candidate is richer*! Contrast Bush's humble origins and lifelong striving to earn his way in the world with John Kerry's robber-baron-like lifestyle! Let's roll!