Obama offends Christian Nation wingnuts

Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars

At Obama's inauguration, here's what he said:

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth

He's emphasizing the diversity of the American people as one of our great strengths. Everyone (well almost everyone) agrees with that. But he made one mistake, he said that we're a religiously diverse nation (which is factually true, check the latest polls). And that has the wingnuts up in arms.

They insist that America is a Christian nation (read: soft domionism). Well, what does that mean? It means that America has been and should continue to be governed under Christian (as opposed to secular) principles and it heavily implies that non-Christians aren't "true" Americans and should have no say in their own country. Nothing but historical revisionism (particularly about the founding fathers) used to fuel thinly-veiled religious bigotry and theocratic fervor.

Imagine people saying that America is a "white country" and that government should promote "white values". See the problem? Yeah, it's horribly racist and an attempt to abuse governmental authority to promote their narrow-minded, sectarian, racist ideology - a notion of "white values" that many white people would likely dispute. American theocrats have the same gameplan. And that's why they despise Obama's admission that America is a country of Muslims, Jews, Hindus, and nonbelievers in addition to Christians. They can't admit the diversity of American religious opinion because then they have to surrender the myth that America has always been and should continue to be based on their religion beliefs. Without the enduring myth of the Christian Nation, they cannot hold power.

Wingnut Daily went to town on this latest news, complete with links to other crazy wingnut sites. Here's one reaction:

A television commercial that aired in South Dakota by a group calling itself the Coalition Against Anti-Christian Rhetoric juxtaposed the audio of Obama's "no longer Christian" statement over images of the presidential candidate dressed in Somali garb and a picture of him with his hands rested below his waist while other politicians place their hands over their hearts during the Pledge of Allegiance.

"It's time for people to take a stand against Barack Hussein Obama," declares the voiceover on the commercial.

People will soon thank Bush

Denial isn't just a river in Egypt

Quite frankly, I'm sick and tired of the incessant whining from the Bush administration that their poor little feelings are hurt from all the totally unwarranted negativity surrounding their policies and vowing that history will someday vindicate them.

Rather than acknowledging their screwups and heaven forbid changing course away from disastrous policies, they play childish propaganda games with delusions of posthumous grandeur writ large.

In addition to Rice, Mrs Bush, Rove, and Rush Limbaugh have repeatedly played trotted out this argument. Even the Wall Street Journal is in on the act, likening disapproval of the Bush administration with outright disloyalty.

It's sickening.

Last year, Lieberman even had the gall to suggest that Bush will be remembered by historians as a great President. In actuality, a majority of historians surveyed consider him the worst President ever, with most of the rest placing him towards the bottom of the pile.

And here's what they had to say:

“No individual president can compare to the second Bush,” wrote one. “Glib, contemptuous, ignorant, incurious, a dupe of anyone who humors his deluded belief in his heroic self, he has bankrupted the country with his disastrous war and his tax breaks for the rich, trampled on the Bill of Rights, appointed foxes in every henhouse, compounded the terrorist threat, turned a blind eye to torture and corruption and a looming ecological disaster, and squandered the rest of the world’s goodwill. In short, no other president’s faults have had so deleterious an effect on not only the country but the world at large.”

I can hardly disagree. We've had the bailout disaster (unabashed corporate welfare at every taxpayer's expense), the flood of national debt that had previously been surplus, the global warming denialism, the Halliburton and Enron scandals, the monumentally screwed-up War in Iraq (and the outright lying leading up to it), torture, domestic spying, pushing abstinence-only sex ed, the endorsement of Intelligent Design Creationism, and spearheaded the crusade against gay marriage. And that's just for starters - there has been so much much fail in the past 8 years that it's difficult to keep track of it all.

History will never forgive these failures.

In just a few days, the Bush administration will finally be over. Good riddance.

The Shoe Terrorist

Originally, I wasn't going to talk about this, but apparently throwing a shoe at the President has suddenly become a big deal. Go figure.

The latest news is that the Powers That Be are trying to tie this guy to terrorism. Seriously.

Apparently, this dastardly "assault" on the President was orchestrated by none-other than an anonymous freedom-hating and allegedly throat-slitting terrorist. Right. Because otherwise, no one would ever consider vocally displaying their anger and contempt of Bush's administration and its misadventures in Iraq. Seriously, the guy is universally adored in a country he invaded.

Pop quiz time - can you spot the terrorist?

And where did this whole terrorism thing come up from? Turns out it might have been coerced under torture:

He said he visited his brother in jail on Sunday and found him with a missing tooth and cigarette burns on his ears. Muntadhar al-Zeidi told his brother that jailers also doused the journalist with cold water while he was naked, Uday al-Zeidi said.

Thanks guys, that makes this whole incident so much better! So let me get this straight: you "liberate" a country to "spread freedom" and then when an Iraqi journalist exercises that freedom in an admittedly aggressive way (but on my side of the world, throwing a shoe at somebody is an extremely minor misdemeanor at worst) you torture the him and fabricate some terrorist connection. Basically, responding to an act of protest with torture and distortion, angering not only the Iraqi people (whose representatives vote on whether or not American forces stay or go) but also all Americans who value justice. What a disaster.

Broun: It's "One NationUnderGod"

Georgia Rep Paul Broun, or as he's more widely known- that Hitler guy- is here to tell us the proper way to say the Pledge of Allegiance: without any pause between the "one nation" and "under God" parts. Why? In order to emphasize that there is "no separation or implied separation between nation and God." Preferably, you should do it with a Bible in one hand and a burning effigy of the Bill of Rights in the other.

This might be purely coincidental, but it turns out that American politicians fail basic civic literacy tests even worse than your average American and it just so happens that one of the questions politicians failed more miserably the rest of us on was:

6) The Bill of Rights explicitly prohibits:

A. prayer in public school

B. discrimination based on race, sex, or religion

C. the ownership of guns by private individuals

D. establishing an official religion for the United States

E. the president from vetoing a line item in a spending bill

26.41% of citizens answered that question correctly, 21.24% of elected officials got it right (making for an I-can't-believe-you-hold-public-office score of 5.17%) and 100% of crazy theocratic politicians named Paul Broun are utterly clueless about it.

Playing to their strengths

Remember wayback when the election was over, Michelle Malkin gave the battlecry for conservatives to continue fighting for their beliefs (i.e. that crazy, often bigoted quasi-fascism that the public clearly doesn't want)?

"We stay positive and focused."

Yeah!

"We keep the faith."

Preach it, baby!

"We lock and load our ideological ammunition."

Right on, sister!

"....and shoot our fellow Republicans in the face."

Whaaa?

Well, apparently here's the beating heart of conservative values:



When the news broke that Palin was a complete moron according to McCain staffers who had to patiently coach her on the intricacies of basic geography and American civics, Michelle Malkin was angry. Not at the foibles of her own party for picking such an obviously unprepared veep, not at Palin for screwing the election, or even at herself for lavishing praise on a candidate who clearly wasn't cut out for the role. She was angry at the snitches.

Oh yes. Damn those McCain staffers! How dare they reveal unfavorable information! (Thoughtcrime via bad-fact) They are so getting outted and blacklisted by me and my goons as traitors to the cause. Full, internets-wide jihad - that'll learn 'em.

It's the funniest thing I've read all week.

Remember kiddies: loose lips sink ships!

(hat tip to Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Palin didn't know Africa was a continent

Seriously. Can't make this stuff up.

• she didn't know what countries were in NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement - that North American part is a pretty good hint)
• she didn't know that Africa was a continent, she apparently thought it was a country in and of itself
  
• she didn't accept coaching for the Katie Couric interview and got mad when that went badly
• she was hard to control emotionally, throwing temper tantrums (great qualities for a potential president)
  

And is it just me, or did the reporters step up the verbosity of their own conversation after finding out that Caribou Barbie was a moron? "Vetting process...truncated...vernacular...hail mary" Whaaaaa?

Oh yeah, and conservatives want her as their candidate in 2012. It certainly brings to mind the saying, "Who's the more foolish - the fool, or the fool who follows him?"

There's another video with a lot more juicy news on her foibles (not knowing basic civics, complaining about being mishandled, threw paperwork at her handlers, answered the door in a bathrobe, a bit of a shopaholic, backbiting in the campaign, etc) but the downside is you have to watch Bill O'Reilly flail around trying to explain it all away as not really her fault.

And by the way, Elizabeth Dole lost. Whooo hoo!

The Conservative Reaction

The mainstream media applauded Obama's election into office. They went a bit heavy on the first black president thing, but that's understandable I guess. Still, it's a bad idea to see this guy purely in terms of race, as if his candidacy was nothing more than an attempt at a historic moment.

Normal Republicans seem to be taking this okay. A little disappointed perhaps, but not crushed by the news. That's good to know.

But how are the Real Conservatives of Real America taking it? For laughs I checked a few of the wingnut blogs and forums.

Bill O'Reilly seems to think that Obama is "indebted" to the "far left" now and will either spend money like crazy, ruining the economy, or cheese off his overlords. WTF. Bill is such an incisive political analyst, it's hard to imagine how such a brilliant guy is wasting away at such an overtly partisan smear machine like Fox News.

Michelle Malkin comes in with a 300esque "now we stand and fight!" post, explicitly denouncing any introspection on whether or not any conservative beliefs themselves may be faulty. Pure zombie mentality. I love it.

Bob Novak has a bizarre piece up that says that despite the clear victory, Obama doesn't have a mandate. O RLY.

The Spectator seems to think that America just sold away its freedom:

"Millions of Americans remain lion-hearted, decent, rational and sturdy. They find themselves today abandoned, horrified, deeply apprehensive for the future of their country and the free world. No longer the land of the free and the home of the brave; they must now look elsewhere."

Some nutbar school board member in Texas says that "Barack Obama is plotting with terrorists to attack the U.S." Wow. Just wow.
(hat tip to PZ)

Meanwhile, the Rapture Ready folks predictably seem to think this is a sign that the end is nigh and the USA is doomed, which is pretty much par for the course.

And last but not least, there are some people with serious mental problems in addition to a whatever political insanity they subscribe to, engaging the readers in nothing more than childish tantrums:

"Congratulations, moonbats. You finally have your revenge for being forced to look at all those flags after 9/11. This is a day of celebration for everyone hostile to America and the principles of individual liberty for which it stands. Enjoy it while you can."

Awwww, how cute.

Well, looks like same old same old from the conservatives. No riots today, just endless whining and distortion.




*UPDATES*

Ed Brayton has a bunch of good ones in the article and the comments. Check it out.

HJHOP does too. The conservative constitution sleuthing in particular had me in stitches.

The Weekly Standard has an absolutely hilarious piece up, accurately titled "We Blew It" (but omitting the key part: "And We Suck"). Thankfully, us leftists aren't to blame for the horrific disaster of the McCain-Moose ticket losing. Because we're all insane and therefore not responsible for our actions. Oh, and you leftists out there with kids are doing it wrong: "Nobody with kids is a liberal, except maybe one pothead in Marin County." ROFL.

The LA Times has a nice collection of Limbaugh and Hannity fail.

Five Public Opinions has Bill Muehlenberg's take on the election (he's the Australian version of O'Reilly I guess).

"As an example of the media bias, the coverage of the election yesterday was quite a spectacle. Both Australian and American media commentators were absolutely gushing in sycophantic praise, adoration and worship for the new Messiah-King. It really smacked of frenzied idolatry."

(translated: a lot of people liked the fact that Obama won but I don't. Bah humbug.) I love how being happy that your guy won on election night is somehow transformed into "frenzied idolatry". What a buffoon.

Rep Paul Broun of Georgia says that Obama is creating a Gestapo-like security force to impose a Marxist or fascist dictatorship. The stupid, it burns!

Some nutbag in a news site's comments section. Not as notable as the rest, but makes up for it with pure comedy gold: "We have experienced a coup today. And Communism won."

Change is Here!

Obama wins the election



McCain concedes



But judging from the boos, the Republican faithful aren't going to take this gracefully at all (cue "fallen nation" in need of God's merciful wrath). It wasn't too long ago that the Party had them frothing at the mouth with all sorts of crazy, and it's not like you can just cut that off now that the election is over.



How this plays out tomorrow is going to be interesting.

Are the Republicans throwing the election?

By now, most of us know how this election is going to play out. Even the nefarious Karl Rove predicts that Obama is going to win this with 338 electoral votes. (I'm predicting a more modest victory in the 310-320 range) So a lot of media focus has been on how the Republicans are going to handle this (answer: not well).

Canadian Cynic seems to think the Republicans are intentionally trying to lose this time around:

If I am wrong and this is the very best effort of the vaunted Republican machine, then I stand in awe of the nearly complete failure of their proven apparatus to gather and horde power, to massage and control the media and the message. Yes Obama is good and yes the Democratic party has done a good job but the Republicans just aren't this inept, disorganized and disinterested. The only thing that makes sense to me is that this is a fix.

I don't think that's the case. I think they genuinely tried, but failed in crucial areas. They definitely massaged the message when they could, but a lot of it what happened was simply out of their control.

• They didn't expect Obama to win the primary. For a while, Clinton was the odds on favorite. Obama had a tough uphill battle, and managed to pull it off. If Clinton had won the nomination instead of Obama, this election would likely be a heckuva lot closer.
  

• McCain was their best candidate. In the Republican primaries, McCain had the dubious distinction of being the most qualified and least insane guy there. He was up against Archangel Brownback, that 9/11 Guy (I think he's called Giuliani when he's not in a dress), Person-of-Faith Mitt Romney, Pastor Huckabee, etc. And even though he's distrusted in some quarters, he was able to convince enough people to get the nod. After all, in 2000 he did put up a decent fight against Bush.
  

• Their smear campaign against Obama didn't work. And they didn't have much to go on to begin with - Obama himself is pretty clean so they resorted to guilt by association and pulled out the crazy pastor to impugn his character and then when Obama explicitly rejected his pastor's craziness, they howled that mean ol' Obama "threw him under a bus". Then, they tried blatant appeals of racial bigotry, which definitely backfired on them. Finally, and we're really grasping for straws here, there was Joe the Plumber, followed by Tito the Builder. The Republican hate machine tried, they really did, but they weren't able to demonize Obama in a convincing way to most Americans. And in general, I think the American public is getting more and more resistant to these kinds of ploys. You can't just say 9/11 and expect people to soil themselves anymore.
  

• Any Republican candidate is going to have a tough time defending Bush policies. Let's face it, Bush isn't a popular guy right now. A lot of Americans really are fed up with these disastrous policies and want something to change. But any Republican candidate they pick is going to have to explain his votes for Bush policies while simultaneously trying to market himself as someone who's going to change things. McCain answered that challenge brilliantly: He's a Maverick Reformer who's going to bring change. What kind of change, I haven't the foggiest.
  

• McCain really screwed up in choosing Palin. What a trainwreck. It's obvious that this was a calculated move to win over former Hillary Clinton supporters, and it certainly helped him with the religious right. But her utter inexperience and numerous gaffes (not knowing what a Veep does, fruit fly research, questionable understanding of the 1st Amendment) alienated independents, galvanized democrats, and probably led to some of the conservative disillusionment with McCain. McCain clearly didn't expect his pick to backfire as much as it has.
  

The Republicans didn't throw this fight, they lost it. They lost it because they had a really hard fight starting out, they weren't able to control the message, and because the McCain camp shot themselves in the foot on several occasions. It may be tempting to look at this with an air of overconfidence and mock their impotence, but considering how close this election has been after 8 years of such vile and loathsome rule, it's a testament to their power that it has been this close. But 4 years from now, they'll be back to try again, and next time, they just might win.

Dick Cheney endorses McCain

If that's not the kiss of death, I don't know what is.

Hagan responds to Dole's attack

Her campaign finally responded to the ongoing furor over Dole's bigoted attacks ...almost a month later. Geez, glad she got back to us on that before election day.

A lot of bloggers have already weighed in on this (Friendly Atheist, PZ, Atheist Ethicist, Poly, etc) so I'll be brief:

It does tick me off that she pulled a Mitt Romney and when attacked for not being religious enough for office (a concept that alternately amuses me and scares the heck out of me), she had a golden opportunity to call Dole out on her bigotry, but failed to do so, calling the attack "slander" and "pathetic" and going through a laundry list of her godly virtues, presumably to wipe away the atheist taint in people's minds that the attacks have generated. (Mitt Romney did much worse than that by endorsing the very bigotry he was attacked with, declaring that "we need a person of faith to run this country")

It's a missed opportunity for Hagan to stand up for us demonized atheists to be sure, but it wasn't terrible. But reading some people's reactions, they make it sound like she spit on Charles Darwin's grave or something. Call me overly charitable, but methinks some people are reading too much into it and taking offense where there probably isn't any intended.

Not a Hard Choice

The McCain and Obama camps in a nutshell:



Sarah Palin on fruit fly research, decrying the horrendously wasteful spending of studying fruit flies to help combat autism. Heaven forbid.

McCain is no better, complaining about the "pork-barrel" nature of spending money on an "overhead projector", in reference to a planetarium projector. WTF.



Obama, demolishing the "real America" rhetoric.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out which ticket is the better choice.

It's a battleground state. Literally.

Geez, voter intimidation is going on like crazy.

From tire slashing, to death threats for yard signs, to burning yard signs, to window smashing, to harassing folks on the way to the polls, and even a dead bear cub - this election is turning real ugly real fast, and a lot of the really nasty incidents are occurring right here in North Carolina. And it's obvious that a big motivating factor here is race.

This is a long-time red state that might swing for the first time in ages this election, and we have large populations of both rednecks and black folks and a sordid history of racial tensions. With that kind of recipe for disaster, things are going to be nuts around here come election day.

Edited to add - It's so bad that even Al Jazeera is covering our country's fundamentalist right-wing nuts, which has got to win some kind of award in irony.



hat tip to Stupid Evil Bastard

Palin Presidency

Sarah Palin's the best thing to happen to political humor since Bush. The jokes practically write themselves. The fark thread on the topic is priceless.

Elizabeth Dole is so not getting my vote

The weird thing is, I never even heard of Hagan until Senator Dole lashed out against her for *gasp* consorting with atheists.

Well, the latest salvo has my blood boiling. Not only is there reprehensible fear-mongering (atheists apparently want to destroy Christmas), but she did hit pieces on two of the most amiable bloggers in the atheosphere, the Friendly Atheist and Daylight Atheism. As far as I know, neither of them actually live in NC, so they can't let her know the error of her ways on election day, but I do, and I'll be waiting at the ballot box.

And lastly, who the hell does she think she is to dictate "North Carolina values"?? WTF. She didn't even start living in this state until 2001, and she didn't live here for 40 years prior, even though she was born here back when we still had ironclads. She's a North Carolinian in the same way that Hillary is a New Yorker. And she sure as heck isn't an adequate spokeswoman for our "values". Even though North Carolina is a red state (think Jesse Helms), we're not all xenophobic country bumpkins and we aren't all scared of atheists. In fact, some of us are atheists ourselves, and this atheist is sick of politicians pandering to religious bigotry to get elected.

Poll: 9/11 caused by US gov, Israel

Today is the 7th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, and it's irritating to see that apparently significant portions of many countries still favor conspiracy theory version of events.

36% of respondents in Turkey, and 30% in Mexico believe that the U.S. government staged the attacks. Yeah, apparently some folks at the Pentagon thought it would be fun to blow up the Pentagon. Makes perfect sense.

Meanwhile, 43% of respondents in Egypt, 31% in Jordan and 19% in Palestine think it was Israel. Let's think about this: jews decided to blow up a financial building in New York City, the city with the largest jewish population in the entire United States. Uggh.

I remember when 9/11 happened. I actually had read a lot about Al Qaeda beforehand because of the devastating embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and then-President Clinton's retaliatory airstrike on a suspected terrorist camp in Afghanistan, so after the second plane hit, I had a pretty good guess of who would pull something like that. And since they had already attempted to bomb the WTC in 1993, it wasn't too hard to put two and two together.

Sadly though, much of the world still clings to denialist fantasies about these events, including some American citizens. And that's sad, because easily mislead citizens can be easily lured to support bad policies. The Bush administration and Republican legislators capitalized on the confusion by suggesting that Saddam Hussein and 9/11 were somehow related, and succeed in deceiving a surprisingly large percentage of voters.

And now that we're poised for another election, with its own share of sabre-ratting, another outbreak of misinformation and denialism could usher in another disaster.

Why I Weep for Democracy

The great thing about popular government is that the people get the leader that they want. The horrible thing is that the people get the leader that they want.

The way the system works, the candidates have to compete for the smallest common denominator in order to clinch a victory.

And here he is:



Or, as the BBC puts it, the redneck vote.

The great, befuddled masses of America, yearning to elect the world's most powerful leader as if it were American Idol vote. Oh rapture. And marching to the polls with some seriously underthought and inadequate beliefs, anxious to impose them on everyone else.

The article has an excellent summary of exactly what beliefs they'll try to vote into office this fall:

"Belief that no law is above God's law, not even the US Constitution."

And we've seen how well this has been working so far - abstinence-only sex ed, creationism (and attempts to blot out actual science education), marriage denied to homosexuals, etc. And the great thing about the "God's law" bit is that any social engineering disaster can be justified by appealing to God's will, no matter how wrong the call is or harmful the consequences. And since these opinions are presumed to come directly from God (rather than the fallible people who actually came up with this stuff), it's a showstopper for debate or even doubt that such policies are feasible. So, there's simply no reasoning with such ardent crusaders, they simply will not stop until their puritanical notions dominate both government and society as a whole, and they don't care who suffers as a result.

"Hyper patriotism. A fighting defence of native land, home and heart, even when it is not actually threatened: ie, Iraq, Panama, Grenada, Somalia, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Haiti and dozens more with righteous operations titles such as Enduring Freedom, Restore Hope, and Just Cause."

Essentially, believing that just about any war is justified as a "defense" of America, even if it isn't. We've seen that with the Iraq War. A repeat of the experience would be disastrous.

"A love of guns and tremendous respect for the warrior ideal. Along with this comes a strong sense of fealty and loyalty. Fealty to wartime leaders, whether it be FDR or George Bush.

And we saw this unconditional "loyalty" during Iraq, fawning over a guy in a flight suit for his photo op and cheering on the carnage as the casualties mount. That's not fealty, that's insanity.

"Belief that most things outside our own community and nation are inferior and threatening, that the world is jealous of the American lifestyle."

Good ol' fashioned arrogance and xenophobia. Us Americans mostly really do have great living standards compared to much of the world, but only an idiot would say that our way of life is superior in every possible way to every other country on the planet. Our influence in world affairs is massive, but we simply can't live as though the rest of the world is beneath us. We have to work together to build a better world, not hide from it.

I'm really not looking forward to this year's elections, and I made the mistake of bringing it up with people. A black woman said she was voting for Obama because he's black, and later on that day, a white man said he was voting for McCain because he's white. Go USA.