More Conservative Id

By Cernig

That "conservative id" that Fester wrote about recently is in full flow now. Via Glenn Greenwald and Sadly No! comes this particularly revealing glimpse into the conservative cesspool:

I am sick to death of black people as a group. The truth. That is part of the conversation Obama is asking for, isn't it? I live in an eastern state almost exactly on the fabled Mason-Dixon line. Every day I see young black males wearing tee shirts down to their knees -- and jeans belted just above their knees. I'm an old guy. I want to smack them. All of them. They are egregious stereotypes. It's impossible not to think the unthinkable N-Word when they roll up beside you at a stoplight in their trashed old Hondas with 19-inch spinner wheels and rap recordings that shake the foundations of the buildings. . . .

Here's the dirty secret all of us know and no one will admit to. There ARE niggers. Black people know it. White people know it. And only black people are allowed to notice and pronounce the truth of it. Which would be fine. Except that black people are not a community but a political party. They can squabble with each other in caucus but they absolutely refuse to speak the truth in public. And this is the single biggest obstacle to healing the racial divide in this country.

...you've just given life to the suspicion that black people in America are, and have long been, a fifth column -- unanimously hating the very country that has afforded the highest standard of living ever achieved by black people in human history. We're teetering at the edge of believing that you're a secret society, a massive collection of sleeper cells just waiting for your chance to do serious harm to the rest of us. You've made it possible for us to believe that. Because you're never outraged by what the worst black people do. Because you continue to make excuses for what should be inexcusable to everyone.

So far, the best the Right can come up with in defense of this racist screed is that it's just one blogger and he isn't Instapundit's favorite writer on that blog. No, seriously. That's it.

Meanwhile, in closely related news, neo-Nazi and white supremacist Hal Turner says he and Sean Hannity are good pals despite Hannity's claims to the contrary.

In my opinion, based on my first hand experience, I believe Sean Hannity is, in fact, a Hal Turner sort of guy. It seems to me that a big difference between Sean and me is that I am willing to say publicly what I think about savage Black criminals, diseased, uneducated illegal aliens and the grotesque cultural destruction wrought by satanic jews while Sean and many others keep quiet to protect their paychecks.

And Steve Benen points out that Obama's pastor is big news but McCain actively courting the endorsement of a bigoted megachurch preacher who espouses the idea that US foreign policy should be focussed on bringing about the biblical apocalypse by bringing all the Jews to Israel to be nuked...isn't. It must be an example of that moral non-equivalence the Right loves so much.

Postscript: And yes, I find Wright's views utterly abhorrent in broad and in detail. I find that Obama's long-term relationship with him is likewise highly questionable. I'm entirely unsurprised that Obama's Blair-style "all things to all people" schtick doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Still, on balance, I'd rather have him leading the most powerful nation on Earth than someone who actively courts those who advocate Armageddon. Friend of racists or friend of racists who wants nuclear holocaust...that's a no-brainer. It'd be nice to have a choice that didn't involve being friends with racists, though, and Clinton doesn't deliver that either.

Playing, Or Being Played?

By Cernig

Via Rising Hegemon, from whom I've stolen my post title, comes a fascinating and deeply disturbing tale of conservative manipulation of the Democratic nomination race, switching sides and feeding smears against both Clinton and Obama to keep the Dem circular firing squad going.

Wayne Barrat of the Village Voice dots his i's and crosses all the t's as he systematically and comprehensively documents how the Republican noise machine is trying to ensure it's chosen McSame faces a fatally weakened Dem oponent come November. They started with attacks on Clinton, switched to Obama when he showed signs of growing too strong, and are now ready to pitch in and undermine whichever candidate shows any signs whatsoever of winning a plurality of popular support.

Since few Democratic voters—theoretically—should be affected by anything this cabal has to say, its impact on the nominating process has been, at best, indirect. But the right's talkers have helped to shape the way the election is covered. And even if they've only affected the margins, it's precisely those margins—in states like Missouri, or in district delegate fights, or in the narrowing popular-vote contest—that matter. Perhaps the more important point for Democrats is why these drum beaters have been so universally on the same beat.

In every case, these rightwing mouthpieces have ignored their own previous overt race-baiting to accuse the Clintons of being closet racists, have ignored their own open misogyny to accuse Obamites of sexism and generally muddied the waters every way they could.

Limbaugh, Novak, Kristol, Bennet, York, Hannity, George Will - all have their gamesmanship exposed by this must-read column. They're all on the same page of the GOP playbook. It's the page headed "Divide and Conquer".

Read it, then think again about what Libby wrote the other day.

The Deep End Of The Republican Cesspool

By Cernig

Time for a dip in the Republican cesspool, as typified by B-list conservative website MitchNews. There you will find such gems of black helicopter crowd wisdom as this:

At the risk of being labeled a “conspiracy theorist”, it is plausible to me that the NAFTA Superhighway is only one link in the chain to draw Canada, Mexico and the United States together. If that is the intention, imagine what it will mean to have one entity that includes the corruption and poverty of Mexico and the socialist-inclined Canada. If you disagree with this description of Canada, consider that Canada has:

Banned the death penalty,
Imposed draconian restrictions on gun rights,
Adopted a national socialized medicine program,
Received military deserters and provided a safe haven for them, and
Legalized homosexual marriage.

If the Security and Prosperity Partnership program (SPP) and the NAFTA Superhighway come to pass, we will see multi-national corporations with government support seize large portions of American property, adversely affect our national security and damage our environment, all for the purpose of making their businesses more efficient and to enhance profits.

Do you wonder as I do why the president and so many members of congress, the media and business seem to be unconcerned about this unpublicized effort toward harmonization of infrastructure, laws and regulations of Canada, Mexico and the United States? Is the failure to protect our borders by the administration and members of congress a reflection of the expectation that one day we won’t have either borders or “illegal immigration” because anyone crossing our borders will be authorized to do so and borders will become unnecessary?

and this:

Barack Obama wants to be President of the World, starting with Africa, his home territory.

That also is where Kenyan cousin just lost his bid for that nation’s presidency. However, in the process, cousin had Obama’s cheerleading support from America.

That is so even though cousin was promising Kenya the wipe out of Christianity for Islam. It was the strict, legalistic Muslim version abiding by sharia.

Yes, Obama still has a warm spot in his black heart for Africa, then the entire world—poor nations bowing before his throne.

And who will pay The Boy’s bill for aiding the globe’s poor? Why American taxpayers, naturally.

Obama then yearns for his black groupies and white-know-nothing-about-issues whites to vote him to the Big House.

This really is the deep end of the conservative cesspit - the part where folk like Hagee hang out. Hate filled and conspiracy-minded, they're the ultimate representation of the Republican base, the very models of the 20-something-per-centers, the ultimate expression of the conservative id. And John McCain, like other conservative power-seekers before him, is actively courting them. Ugh.

As Apocalypse Tom at Liberal Radio says of this conservative id: "it is damn well not going to skulk in the shadows in this campaign. Make the genie – the fetid rot at the heart of today’s GOP – stand front and center and put on its show."

"Paranoid Impulses"

By Cernig

Oklahoma state legislator Sally Kern thinks Teh Gay is a bigger threat than terrorism:

"The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation, OK, it's just a fact," Rep. Sally Kern said recently to a gathering of fellow Republicans outside the Capitol.

"Studies show no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted, you know, more than a few decades. So it's the death knell in this country.

"I honestly think it's the biggest threat that our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat," she said.

The former school teacher has been a magnet for coast-to-coast condemnation, including a jab from comedian Ellen Degeneres, ever since someone posted her comments on the Internet last week. State police said they are investigating death threats against her.

Back home in the Bible Belt, though, the response has been mixed. Kern has gotten support from her fellow Republicans.

"I would submit to you that the vast majority of the folks in our caucus, particularly those who consider themselves conservative, stand with and support Sally," said state Rep. Randy Terrill.

...Kern, who is finishing her second term, has tried unsuccessfully to pass bills to rid libraries' children's sections of books that have homosexual themes. She told the group that school children are being indoctrinated by gay activists.

"We're not teaching facts and knowledge any more, folks," she said. "We're teaching indoctrination, OK, and they are going after our young children, as young as 2 years of age, to try to teach them a homosexual lifestyle is an acceptable lifestyle."

In the same speech, she said gays are "infiltrating city councils" across the country.

"It spreads, OK, and this stuff is deadly and it's spreading and it will destroy our young people," she said. "It will destroy this nation."

Kern has refused to back down from her statements but says she's not gay-bashing. I suppose she means in the actual, literal, clubbing-people-to-death sense.

Kudos to Captain Ed Morrisey for refusing to condone this kind of hate speech, writing in his new venue at Hot Air that Republicans "at some point have to distance themselves from those whose paranoid impulses lead them to these extremes." I admire Ed's writing a lot and even when I don't agree with him (often) I commend his general integrity. We can all be guilty of emotionally playing to the peanut gallery now and again, but Ed tends to do it less frequently than most.

So far, at least, his Hot Air commenters are broadly in agreement with him. I suspect he'd have had more disagreement if he had called out those who believe that liberals or immigrants or Islam (not just the extreme terrorist's version) would like to "destroy this nation" as having just as much a case of "paranoid impulses". But, thankfully, bashing gays, Jews or blacks simply isn't as acceptable as it used to be even in conservative circles. Some progress, at least. One day, the GOP will be dragged kicking and screaming into the Century of the Fruitbat.

Update Oh dear. Five hours later and Ed's comments thread has gone rapidly downhill as the AirBags weigh in. For instance:

Over the millennia, history has not been kind to homosexuals, but they keep trying hoping to come up with a different result.

It is said by psychiatrist that people who do that are in the throes of insanity.

I can agree with the statement that “homosexuality is a greater threat to America than terrorism.”

Today, terrorists are not invading the social fabric of our society such as our legal system, political system, and school system, just to name a few.

As in every past society that was plagued by homosexuality, a day of reckoning will come and it will not be a pretty sight. Just ask IRAN.

and:

It doesn’t matter if you believe that now or not…the point is you know when you sin and you know that it is wrong.

Yes I do think the teachings of God should be a dominant force in politics if only to prevent us from instituting sin as our law.

I do not believe that there will be a perfect government until Christ returns after the Great Tribulation.

I wonder if Ed's regretting his move yet? Maybe not - after all, these are the kind of mouthbreathers who run the GOP down here in Texas.

Issues have divided Americans into Republicans and Democrats; my cousins, after decades as ardent churchgoers, have segregated humanity into those who have accepted Jesus and those who have not. In their view, President George W. Bush has been born again in Christ, Senator Obama hasn't, and, as Trudy Hester, my father's brother's daughter, tells me in her beautiful new home on her immaculate, multi-racial street, "It's people like us who know the difference."

Their faith is infinite and inflexible; an election year adds the dimension of patriotic duty and temporal influence. Trudy's husband, Frank Hester, is the Treasurer of the Republican Party here in Fort Bend County and a Precinct Chairman in Missouri City, population 60,000. Trudy and Frank serve as Election Officials on voting day. (Back in Maryland, so do I.) Frank is likely to be a delegate to the Texas Republican convention in June. They are the Religious Right personified, with a two-car garage and a one-way view of candidates and candor.

I ask them about the African-American Democrat who is likely to be on the November ballot, and the patently false yet prevalent rumour that he is an adherent of Islam.

"I believe he could be a Muslim," cousin Trudy says.

"You hear and you read things," Frank nods.

You certainly do.

Racism lives, misogyny thrives and the GOP is laughing

By Libby

Anyone who thinks that racism in this country was eliminated when they eradicated Jim Crow laws or waved the magic wand of affirmative action should watch this video where a black reporter is viciously attacked by a white family for doing her job. This is why I find Geraldine's Ferraro's dismissal of racism so abhorent and as Keith Olbermann pointed out in his Special Commentary last night, Clinton's slow renunciation of Ferraro's remarks made it look as if, "you are now campaigning, as if Barack Obama were the Democrat, and you… were the Republican."

"Black man running" is a meme the "leading lights" of the wingnuts are happy to embellish and promote, lest the electorate develop color blindness. As TBogg discovers, they wasted no time making hay with this latest imbroglio.

For those keeping score at home:

If Democrats, miscegenation aficionados, and other fellow travelers elect a black President, that would set race relations back decades.

But if he were a Republican that they could vote for, why racism in America could officially be declared deader than Strom Thurmond because they would have proved that they can move past their deeply ingrained distaste for people of the dusky hue.

I'm glad to see Clinton finally decided to "renounce and reject" Gerry's comments. She should not be seen as even remotely condoning such inappropriate language and Ferraro should be ashamed of herself, not only for her original comments but even more so for her subsequent defense of her indefensible remarks. This line is especially galling.

“Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white.

How many times have we heard this from the right wing extremists? For myself, I've lost count and the idea that Obama is enjoying some kind of advantage by running for office while being black is not only absurd, it feeds the racist tendencies that I thought the Democrats were trying to rise above. This kind of rhetoric reduces the race to a trivial contest about which is worse, sexism or racism. Both are are equally harmful and it serves no greater good to attempt to elevate one or the other as the "worse" problem.

I just wish everybody would take a deep breath and try to remember our common foe is the GOP and only by working together will we defeat the party that is destroying this country bit by bit, unnoticed, while we cater to a media narrative that loves to focus on bickering over minutia.

From The "Religion Of Peace" Files

By Cernig

Here's one you won't find the Malikinites hyping.

STOCKHOLM - The head of a Swedish newspaper has received death threats after publishing a drawing of the devil defecating on Jesus, he said Tuesday.

"I have been exposed to various threats ... and I have interpreted several of them as death threats," said Ola Sigvardsson, editor in chief for Ostgota Correspondenten daily.

He said one person had left a message saying he wanted to see the editor's throat slit and that "if no one dealt with it, then Jesus would do it".

The drawing, published March 1, was part of a poster for a punk festival in Linkoping in southern Sweden. Shortly before the festival began, municipal employees pulled the poster off the city's information boards.

Sigvardsson decided to publish the drawing because he saw the removal of the poster as an act of "censorship".

"It was our duty to tell what happened, and to do it we had to also show the image," he said.

Sigvardsson has filed a complaint with the police. No special security measures have been put in place for the editor, though police are taking the threats seriously, said police inspector Mats Allard.

I half expect hordes of rightwing trolls in comments telling me why this is any different from religious nuts of an Islamic persuasion sending death-threats to cartoonists who depict Muhammed in unflattering style. But the simple truth is that every religion, and plenty of non-religious ideological positions, attract nutcases who will happily threaten and kill for their own pet cause. It's part of the human condition.

The land of the free.......

The New York Times has a story on the prison population of the United States. 1% of the country is served time behind bars and many more are relegated to third class status because of previous interactions with the criminal (and occassionally justice) system:

Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Who is IOZ has a sobering take on this that is worthwhile to think about on a couple of levels.

I want you to consider, the next time you read some New York Times mouthpiece yammering about an "increasingly authoritarian Russia," or about the repressions of this or that state in the "Muslim world," that a person is more likely to be thrown in jail in the United States than in Saudi Arabia.

Past a certain point of near universal crime (rape, murder, robbery etc), crime and punishment are what societies make them to be. Fearful and insecure societies will have lots of both, while confident and strong buy-in/high social capital societies will have a bit less.

The United States as a whole is fearful and insecure and split along some standing fault lines of collar, race, class, and religious belief, fearful of an other. This fear has been exploited in one way or another to cement political power within this country since the Mathers ran Roger Williams out of Massachusetts and down into Rhode Island. This fear is what fuels the war on some drugs used by some people at some times instead of treating drug usage in the same manner as alcahol usage --- available to adults and the proscriptions are against behaviors fueled by that drug use that endangers others such as drunk driving instead of enjoying a couple of cold ones on your front porch on a warm June night. Fear of the other and fear of the cities containing the other fuel this binge of prison building. And it has been politically profitable for the relevant actors despite being an aggregate disaester.

Furthermore, it does not look like anyone has a strong incentive to change the basic structure of the criminal (justice) system on non-harmful crimes. We know America's prisons dual serve at great fiscal and treatment opportunity cost as back-up mental hospitals, we know that prisons are an amazing place for soft criminals to gain a graduate level education to become hardened criminals as there are few/no viable alternatives to employ their skill sets legitimately if they have a felony conviction, and we know that most prison costs are borne by state and local governments which will be facing a quadruple fiscal whammy in the next couple of years. There are viable diversion, and prison reduction programs that produce very low recidivism rates, very high human impacts, and do so at a third of the cost of a year in prison and yet these will not be funded. Instead prisons will continue to be built, guards hired, and state and local budgets stretched ever thinner as a nearly uncuttable cost continues to increase.

They Wouldn't Have To If They Were Clean

By Cernig

From The Politico - "GOP fears charges of racism, sexism"

Top Republican strategists are working on plans to protect the GOP from charges of racism or sexism in the general election, as they prepare for a presidential campaign against the first ever African-American or female Democratic nominee.

If they didn't do it, they wouldn't have to worry about it. There, that's clear enough, right? (Hey Bill, are you listening too?)

But no - what the GOP means is that they're trying to figure out what codes they can use and exactly how far they can sail to the edge while still preserving a modicum of plausible deniability.

They've already worked out what the code words are for being an unreconstructed racist misogynist who doesn't know which side of the line is which - it's to be called "undisciplined messaging".

Stand Up Christian Pretend-Terrorists

By Cernig

The New York Times has an article today alleging that three speakers to an Air Force Academy conference on terrorism to tell cadets about how they used to be Islamist terrorists have turned out to be evangelist Christians lying about their pasts.

Nicole Bell at Crooks and Liars writes:

This story just reeks of propaganda and a sneaky agenda. The article mentions that these consultants were paid in part from private donations, and it would be interesting to know just who that is, because I have a feeling that would make clear the agenda working here.

Meanwhile, Steve Emerson, head of The Investigative Project on Terrorism and self-proclaimed expert, has a long and rambling diatribe about the allegations at National Review today, in which he repeatedly calls CAIR out for alleged ties to funders and supporters of terrorism but doesn't say dick about the truth or falsity of the NYT's allegations themselves. Methinks he doth protest too much.

Sharia Fearmongering

By Cernig

There's been a lot of Islamophobic mouthbreathing over the Archbishop of Canterbury's comment yesterday that Sharia Law in the UK is "unavoidable". British politicians and pundits on both sides of the pond have picked up on the bare bones of the story and fallen over each other to demand the Archbishop's resignation or to complain that this would be the "thin edge of the wedge".

But all he actually said (see the BBC's original story) was that Muslims should have the same option to choose a private court (using Sharia Law) for civil disputes as Jewish Brits do. Indeed, Williams said he was fully aware of how draconian full Sharia Law can be:

He stresses that "nobody in their right mind would want to see in this country the kind of inhumanity that's sometimes been associated with the practice of the law in some Islamic states; the extreme punishments, the attitudes to women as well".

...Dr Williams noted that Orthodox Jewish courts already operated, and that the law accommodated the anti-abortion views of some Christians.

"The whole idea that there are perfectly proper ways the law of the land pays respect to custom and community, that's already there," he said.

People may legally devise their own way to settle a dispute in front of an agreed third party as long as both sides agree to the process.

Muslim Sharia courts and the Jewish Beth Din which already exist in the UK come into this category.

The country's main Beth Din at Finchley in north London oversees a wide range of cases including divorce settlements, contractual rows between traders and tenancy disputes.

So why the outcry over a reasonable call for parity? Well, mostly it seems to me because Islamophobia is the new anti-Semitism and politicians are appeasing such "Protocols of the Elders of Islam" rightwing conspiracy theorists as long as their Blimpoid bigotry goosesteps to a nationalistic beat.

Meanwhile, over at Pajamas Media, Roger Kimball is using King Henry II's words which were interpreted as a command to assassinate a previous Archbishop of Canterbury as a headline, then with weasel words hidden in the article takes them back - sort off:

I certainly would not wish to have the question “Who will rid us of this troublesome priest?” answered as Henry’s question was answered. But where Becket faithfully served his church and was savagely punished for it, Rowan Williams loses no opportunity to besmirch his Church and is lavishly praised for his perfidy.

There will continue to be more outrage directed at Archbishop Williams for suggesting parity of rights for Jews and Muslims than there will be at the US art critic and ideologue for sailing so close to a call for the assassination of the clerical head of the Church of England. That's your appeasement right there.

A Liberal Among The Lizards

By Cernig

If you read one piece of metablogging today, make sure it's (new contributor at The Crone Speaks) Ravenavital's excellent retrospective of her year among the "lizards" and "freepers" of the the extreme right-wing blogs Little Green Footballs and Free Republic.

A year ago, I embarked on a dark and frightening journey. I began monitoring the Free Republic and Little Green Footballs, two of the more well-know right wing blogs. I felt like Frodo, unsure of what Ring Wraiths or other dangers I might encounter. Would I emerge as the political equivolent of a Stepford Wife? Would my ‘97 Buick suddenly sport a “Freedom isn’t Free” bumper sticker? Would I inexplicably develop an affinity for jingoistic country songs? Maybe this was a bad idea. I’m a bleak sort anyway, and who knows how long my Klonopin prescription would shield me.

My goal: get some insight into the Bizarro World of political blogging, go through the Looking Glass and venture forth into EvilLand.

Researching posts, I end up reading LGF in particular with reasonable frequency. I have to agree with Ravenavital's feeling, that an encounter with LGF's commenters is like "picking up a wet towel on your laundry room floor during earwig season." I've also seen everything else she describes - gay-bashing, hypocritically denouncing Muslims for woman-hating while wallowing in their own mysogeny, the bigotted and racist not-all-that-codewords, a vast and overweening Liberal Derangement Syndrome. She's braver than I am, I couldn't stomach it every day for a year.

German Conservatives' Immigration Card May Backfire With Voters

By Cernig

The BBC is reporting that Bush ally Angela Merkel may have problems coming, with state elections showing how nest year's federal race may be run.

German voters are voting in two state elections, in Lower Saxony and Hesse.

Opinion polls suggest Angela Merkel's party, the conservative CDU, may lose its majority in Hesse - a politically and economically important state.

The current governor of Hesse, the CDU's Roland Koch, is running for a third term in office.

Mr Koch has provoked a storm of protest with calls for tougher sentences and the deportation of what he called "young criminal foreigners."

Mr Koch is known as the "crown prince" by conservatives.

But his campaign, which has focused on crime and immigration, has recently alienated many voters.

According to the latest opinion polls, support for the ruling conservatives has dropped, paving the way for a victory by the Social Democrats (SPD).

Professor Hajo Funke, a political scientist, says the conservatives' anti-foreigner campaign may have backfired.

"If Roland Koch wins, it will have effects not only for this election, but for the next state elections and the next federal elections," he told the BBC.

"Because then you will have a different CDU, with more foreign hatred, with more national conservative elements - in the party, and in the strategy."

Parallels with the US are obvious, where hardline conservatives are absolutely determined that the Democratic nomination contest be framed as race-based and that the coming presidential fight be framed as who will best keep the brown people from America's door.

Let's all remember one thing that's been proven time and again over decades. It doesn't matter what party sign they hang around their neck - if they're banging on about race wars and fear of foreigners, they're conservatives.

The Bigots And Heath Ledger

By Cernig

Rupert Murdoch's News International gets a little schizo whenever it plays to different sensibilities on both sides of the Atlantic. It's very different stances on the war in Iraq (US- good, UK - bad) show this to good effect. But so does its playing to its customer base when it comes to gay issues.

Exhibit A, John Gibson of FOX radio and cable TV in the US:

comments made by Fox host John Gibson on his radio show, soon after the death of actor Heath Ledger, that appeared to hint that the actor was gay.

Gibson used the occasion of the 28-year-old actor's death to crack jokes about the actor and play clips from his most notable film, Brokeback Mountain. The remarks from the radio host seemed to make insinuations about the actor's sexuality.

"Maybe he was a weirdo, I'm thinking about it right now," Gibson said on his show.

Gibson also played a memorable line from Ledger's most notable film, Brokeback Mountain, and said, "Well, he found out how to quit you.

"Heath Ledger died, and I'm sure people will be upset," Gibson continued. "All you "Brokeback Mountain" fans who want to give Christine a call, she'll be happy to talk to you."

Exhibit B, Sky News, the UK's version of FOX, reporting on plans by Westboro Baptist Church to show up at memporial services for Ledger in the US:

A controversial church described as a "hate group" has said it will protest at Heath Ledger's memorial service because he played a gay character in Brokeback Mountain.

The Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church - which has previously said they wished a million people had been killed in the London terror attacks in 2005 - issued a statement saying the Australian actor was "now in hell".

"WBC will picket this pervert's funeral, in religious protest," the group said.

"God hates the sordid, tacky bucket of slime seasoned with vomit known as Brokeback Mountain and He hates all persons having anything whatsoever to do with it.

"Heath Ledger is now in Hell, and has begun serving his eternal sentence there."

...The Westboro Baptist Church has been classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Centre, which monitors extremist activity.

It is the same church which Sky News investigated in 2005.

They revealed to Sky's US correspondent Robert Nisbet their views on the London July,7, 2005 attacks.

Clearly, they know their demographic - and in the US at least it's a very prejudiced one. But one wonders whether the homophobes on the Right will manage to condemn Phelps' nutters as they should or whether in this case they will look the other way, tacitly agreeing with a man who has said similiar things about killed US servicemen.

Laying Down With Dogs

By Cernig

I've been deriving some quiet amusement from the way in which Islamophobic American rightwing bloggers have been under fire over the last couple of weeks from their kissing-cousins at Europe's neo-nazi groups. Having spent so long telling Europeans that they should beware the Islamic menace - something these groups rightly took as code for "hate the brown people" - people like Little Green Footballs, Jawa report and Jihad Watch are under fire from European Belang-ites and BNPers. After pointing out that the neo-nazis' attendant anti-semitism is too rich even for their Muslim-hating blood, the U.S. wingnuts are now being called "leftists" and worse. The potential irony of the situation is too rich. What's a Zion-supporting white supremacist to do?

I wonder what Islamophobe guru Mark Steyn would say about it all?

Morocco - 6 Men Jailed Over Cross-Dressing Party

By Cernig

Hey Rudy G, don't go anywhere near Morocco:

A Moroccan appeal court on Tuesday upheld the convictions of six men jailed for homosexual acts after video images of a man dressed as a woman dancing at a party sparked street protests and a police investigation, lawyers said.

The six were arrested in late November after rumours spread that a party they had held in the northern town of Ksar el Kebir was really an illegal gay wedding.

The national press pounced on the story, and Islamist groups condemned what they saw as an attack on public morals and demanded an official investigation.

Hundreds of angry residents marched through Ksar el Kebir to demand "justice" and put pressure on the authorities to hand out harsh sentences.

The six men were found guilty and given jail sentences by a lower court last month. They had all pleaded not guilty.

The appeal court upheld a 10-month sentence against the party's alleged organiser, identified as F., for homosexuality and the illegal sale of alcohol, defence lawyer Mohamed Sebbar said.

The five others had their jail terms cut to between two and four months from between four and six months, he said. All six had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Note there's no proof of the alleged "crimes" other than one guy in a frock.

Were this Iran, I find myself thinking, faux-outrage warmongers like Malkin would already be on this one like flies on horseapples. Iran has a truly shabby human rights record, it's true, and one that should be loudly condemned by the world, but what they do turns true protest at such a record into just more ammunition in the ongoing campaign to demonise that nation and pave the way for public acceptance of attacks.

But Morocco?

Morocco has been designated a major non-Nato US ally by President Bush, in recognition of the country's support in the US-led war on terror.
The category also includes Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, and pro-western Asian nations.

The designation is expected to make it easier for American companies to sell arms to Morocco.

The US is also expected to sign a free-trade agreement with Morocco later this month.

Ah well, that's different.

Much Ado About Bigotry

By Cernig

Over on the Right today, much ado is being made about an op-ed by the Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, in that last bastion of colonialist Blimpism, the UK's Daily Telegraph.

Here's what the Bishop actually wrote:

there has been a worldwide resurgence of the ideology of Islamic extremism. One of the results of this has been to further alienate the young from the nation in which they were growing up and also to turn already separate communities into "no-go" areas where adherence to this ideology has become a mark of acceptability.

Those of a different faith or race may find it difficult to live or work there because of hostility to them. In many ways, this is but the other side of the coin to far-Right intimidation. Attempts have been made to impose an "Islamic" character on certain areas, for example, by insisting on artificial amplification for the Adhan, the call to prayer.

But the Telegraph turns what is difficult into what is violently opposed in it's own version of the Bishop's words.

Islamic extremists have created "no-go" areas across Britain where it is too dangerous for non-Muslims to enter, one of the Church of England's most senior bishops warns today.

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester and the Church's only Asian bishop, says that people of a different race or faith face physical attack if they live or work in communities dominated by a strict Muslim ideology.

There are and have been veritable no-go areas in Britain. Brixton, Toxteth, Riddrie and Easterhouse all spring to mind. None are Moslem ghettos - they are ghettos of poverty, both white and black and mostly Christian. I've felt more secure in the affluent predominantly-Muslim Pollockshields area of Glasgow than I ever felt in Ibrox or Parkhead. But these are not what the Bishop is talking about - and he doesn't seem to be talking about violent Muslim no-go areas in his op-ed either.

The Bishop - who as a Catholic who converted to Anglican still finds himself on the conservative end of the spectrum and opposes ordination of gays or women while apparently being fine with already-ordained same-sex paedophiles continuing to be members of the clergy - is actually upset at the idea that the Anglican Church might be disestablished rather than at any supposed violence.

Not only locally, but at the national level also the establishment of the Church of England is being eroded. My fear is, in the end, nothing will be left but the smile of the Cheshire Cat.

Which would be the separation of Church and State widely recognised as one of the great innovatory benefits of the American constitution. But on this, the Right remains silent, preferring lurid Telegraph second hand reporting which supports their own bigoted wishes that Europe have a problem, and that that problem be a Muslim one.

Look, Over There!

By Cernig

Shorter Bruce Bartlett - I'm going to talk about the Democratic Party's racism in the long-ago to distract from the Republican Party's racism in the here-and-now.

Look, over there - an albino donkey! Just don't look at the big white elephant behind you!

Is it just me or does it seem like a case of bartlett, one of Reagan's domestic issues advisors, protesting too much about that infamous Reagan speech? Did he write the "state's Rights" line or something?

And exactly how did Ron Paul feel about such matters when Bartlett was working with the then congressman back in '76? Enquiring minds want to know.

Four Horsemen Outrage

By Cernig

Recall when I posted a link to videos of the "Four Horsemen" - the four most talked-about proponents of atheism today - that I said Republican heads would explode?

Oh what fun it is to watch it happening in comments at Michelle Malkin's Hot Air, after her colleague Allahpundit posted clips.

Merry Christmas or other appropriate religiously-based holiday to all who wish one, from a pagan who had a Cool Yule and who has more than a sneaking sympathy for atheists who are the latest causus belli de jour for the rabid religious Right.

The Four Horsemen On Video

By Cernig

Imagine that the four authors who have received most media attention for their writings against religion - Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens - produced a 2-hour video of them discussing "the tough questions about religion that face to world today" and proposing "new strategies for going forward".

Now suppose that prceeed from the sale of this video will go to the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Security Trust.

Now imagine conservofundie heads exploding as they try to decide whether to hate the atheism or love the donations to their favorite anti-Islamic European.

Luvverly.

Could a Democrat win Utah in '08?

by shamanic

If Huckabee goes after Romney's Mormonism and ends up the nominee, is it possible that the Democratic nominee could win Utah in 2008? Discuss.