Ingraham and O’Reilly joke that MSNBC and
liberal blogs are responsible for attack on Army recruiting center.

Yesterday, “[a] 23-year-old man upset about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan opened fire from his truck at two soldiers standing outside a military recruiting station here on Monday morning, killing one private and wounding another.” In response, conservative talker Laura Ingraham suggested that websites and news outlets that have been critical of the war in Iraq were responsible for the obviously horrible attack. Her guest Bill O’Reilly seemed to agree with her tongue-in-cheek reasoning:

INGRAHAM: Are we now going to look at the websites that he frequented to see if he was on some of the crazy left-wing anti-war websites, Win Without War, George Soros-funded websites, DailyKos, all the crazies. … The way they are reporting on the George Tiller murder, all of talk radio was responsible for that. … Did he frequent MSNBC, did he like to watch it? [...]

O’REILLY: Since they have been unrelenting in describing their country as a torture nation, I’m sure that set this muslim guy off to kill one and wound another of our military and I’m sure that’s NBC’s fault. Look, the absurdity of this is beyond the pale.

Listen to a compilation here:

These commentators weren’t criticizing O’Reilly and groups like Operation Rescue simply because they are opposed to abortion. Many right-wing activists used words like “murderer” and “killer” when they criticized Tiller’s abortion practices. O’Reilly, in particular, sent his producers to ambush Tiller and said that anyone who didn’t “stop” Tiller would have “blood on their hands.”

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Ingraham and O’Reilly: MSNBC and
progressive blogs are responsible for attack on Army recruiting center.

Yesterday, “[a] 23-year-old man upset about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan opened fire from his truck at two soldiers standing outside a military recruiting station here on Monday morning, killing one private and wounding another.” In response, conservative talker Laura Ingraham suggested that websites and news outlets that have been critical of the war in Iraq were responsible for the obviously horrible attack. Her guest Bill O’Reilly seemed to agree with her tongue-in-cheek reasoning:

INGRAHAM: Are we now going to look at the websites that he frequented to see if he was on some of the crazy left-wing anti-war websites, Win Without War, George Soros-funded websites, DailyKos, all the crazies. … The way they are reporting on the George Tiller murder, all of talk radio was responsible for that. … Did he frequent MSNBC, did he like to watch it? [...]

O’REILLY: Since they have been unrelenting in describing their country as a torture nation, I’m sure that set this muslim guy off to kill one and wound another of our military and I’m sure that’s NBC’s fault. Look, the absurdity of this is beyond the pale.

Listen to a compilation here:

These commentators weren’t criticizing O’Reilly and groups like Operation Rescue simply because they are opposed to abortion. Many right-wing activists used words like “murderer” and “killer” when they criticized Tiller’s abortion practices. O’Reilly, in particular, sent his producers to ambush Tiller and said that anyone who didn’t “stop” Tiller would have “blood on their hands.”

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AIPACs Congressional Friends Begin Pushback

You knew it was too good to be true and not going to last. Ben Smith has the story, as AIPAC’s friends in the House begin their due diligence. ?My concern is that we are applying pressure to the wrong party in this dispute,? said Rep. Shelley[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://www.taylormarsh.com/2009/06/02/aipacs-congressional-friends-begin-pushback
/

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Rachel Maddow Show: Frank Schaeffer on How Hate
Speech Leads to Violent Acts

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Rachel Maddow talks to author of Crazy for God Frank Schaeffer about the murder of Dr. George Tiller. Schaeffer apologized for his and his father's role in contributing to the death of Dr. George Tiller in his article at The Huffington Post How I (and Other "Pro-Life" Leaders) Contributed to Dr. Tiller's Murder. From the article:

In the late 1970s my evangelical pro-life leader father Francis Schaeffer and Dr. C. Everett Koop (who soon become Surgeon General in the Reagan administration) went on the road with me taking the documentary antiabortion film series I produced and directed ( Whatever Happened to the Human Race?) to the evangelical public. The series and companion book eventually brought millions of heretofore non-political evangelical Americans into the antiabortion crusade. We personally also got people like Jerry Falwell, Ronald Reagan and countless Republican leaders involved in the "issue."

In the early 80s my father followed up with a book that sold over a million copies called A Christian Manifesto. In certain passages he advocated force if all other methods for rolling back the abortion ruling of Roe v. Wade failed. He compared America and its legalized abortion to Hitler's Germany and said that whatever tactics would have been morally justified in removing Hitler would be justified in trying to stop abortion. I said the same thing in a book I wrote (A Time For Anger) that right wing evangelicals made into a best seller. For instance Dr. James Dobson (of the Focus On the Family radio show) gave away over 100,000 copies.

Like many writers of moral/political/religious theories my father and I would have been shocked that someone took us at our word, walked into a Lutheran Church and pulled the trigger on an abortionist. But even if the murderer never read Dad's or my words we helped create the climate that made this murder likely to happen.

[....]

Angry speech has become the norm in American religion from both the right and the left. Words are spoken which -- when taken seriously -- lead directly to violence by the unhinged and/or the truly committed.

Schaeffer addressed the hateful rhetoric from those like Bill O'Reilly during the interview and O'Reilly's unwillingness, unlike Schaeffer, to take responsibility for his words.

Schaeffer: And when you look at what happened to Dr. Tiller, there's a direct line connecting the rhetoric that I was part of as a young man and this murder. And so people like me are responsible for what we said and what we did and the way we raised the temperature on this debate out of all bounds. And so when O'Reilly talks about the fact that these people of the far left are against Fox or against him or trying to muzzle debate, he's telling a lie.

I am not a member of the far right. Until I voted for Barack Obama in the last election I was a lifelong Republican and I am still pro-life. I also believe abortion should be legal, but I agree with Barack Obama when he says we ought to find ways to help women, help children, give contraceptives, sex education to lessen the number of abortions. I think abortion is a tragedy. But I also think that pretending that you can call abortion murder and Tiller the baby killer, etc., etc., etc. and that these words don't have an impact is crazy. So this is what helps unhinge a society, talking like that. And I apologize and I will apologize again. I am sorry for what I did.

I commend Frank Schaeffer for speaking out and bringing some sanity to the conversation and acknowledging how the right has hijacked the religious community for political gain, and just what the consequences of that political decision have been.

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Gay Rights Update - Early June 2009

Nevada has become the 17^th state to allow gays either the right to marriage, civil unions, or to recognize the rights from other states. The law goes into effect on 1 October, and grants domestic partners almost all the same rights as married couples.

The votes were an override of the Governor's veto. I've previously described Gibbons as "a plagiarist, bribe recipient, potential sexual assaulter and kidnapper", so it's nice to see how large the smack-down was: 

The Assembly voted 28-14 to override Gov. Jim Gibbons' veto of a domestic partner bill, said Kathy Alden of the chief clerk's office.

The Nevada Senate overrode the the governor's veto 14-7 on Saturday.

That's 2:1. NICE! 

In related news, a prominent Republican has come out in favour of gay marriage, albeit on the state level. Still, this is the Prince of Darkness himself.  

video details and more

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The Daily Rant -- Abortion Terrorism Edition

Irony of ironies.

I may be too upset to write a decent Rant?. (Yesterday I was actually too busy to Rant? about this; something involving a screwed-up gas valve on a not-quite-year-old water heater, a plumber, and no hot water all weekend.)

First, I am of course upset at the murder of Dr. George Tiller. (I have colleagues who will be getting the bullet-proof vests out of their closets; I don't work at the "clinics" so I'm kind of under the radar.) That it seems to have been a single vigilante looney-tune---Scott Roeder's ex-wife is on record as saying that while he didn't think he was insane, everybody around him did, and his family evidently concurs---does not mitigate the collective responsibility of the anti-abortion spokespersons who call abortion "murder" and doctors who do abortions "baby-killers".

I am sick and tired of the smarmy, hypocritical, butter-wouldn't-melt-in-their-mouths comments from the Religious Right. "Abortion is murder", "Tiller is now finding out that Jesus was right and he was wrong", "He deserved what he got", "Tiller the Baby-Killer" (Bill O'Reilly, naturally)...but "Of course, we don't advocate violence." Randall Terry is, predictably, the worst: "He was a mass-murderer and, horrifically, he reaped what he sowed." But he also said the "pro-life" movement bore "no responsibility" for the killing.

I call bullshit.

Is there a moral difference between ordering someone killed and merely setting up the rhetoric and instigation for such a murder? Yes, but those who instigate or promote such a murder by their rhetoric have always been considered partially culpable, if not as much as the person who did the deed.

History is full of such examples. Part of what made the story of St. Thomas Becket so compelling was that the king whose intemperate outburst (and Henry, like all the Plantagenets, was prone to intemperate outbursts) "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?!" (or words to that effect) precipitated Becket's murder actually did public penance for the deed in high medieval fashion (barefoot, hairshirt, and was flogged by the monks, the legend goes). To reference another era about which I know a little, the last part of the otherwise excellent film Michael Collins aggravates me, because it implies that Eamonn DeValera actually ordered Collins' death. I doubt that very much. What DeValera did do is misrepresent Collins' partial win of Commonwealth status (independent but still swearing a mostly symbolic loyalty to the British Crown) for Ireland as Collins' end point, rather than a stopping point on the way to full independence, start a civil war over it, and make Collins' death inevitable in the context of the Irish Civil War and DeValera's demonizing rhetoric. Dev probably didn't order it as a "hit"; but he is responsible for putting the circumstances in place.

The same goes for O'Reilly. And Dan Holman of Missionaries for the Preborn Iowa: "I don't advocate it, I don't support it. But I don't condemn it, and I believe that what he [Roeder] did was justifiable." (Link to the full CNN interview; it's appalling reading.)

Rhetoric like that, though they deny it, gives someone obsessed in the anti-abortion movement, like Roeder or Eric Rudolph, the "moral" justification to murder and still consider himself a "good Christian" and a martyr for "the cause" when caught...not to mention the whole "Army of God". I don't care how "holier than thou" an asshole like Randall Terry pretends to be: he is still culpable. Dante would have put him in the sixth bolgia of the Eighth Circle of Hell: the Hypocrites. Yeshua ben Yoseph had a few things to say about such folk as well: "whited sepulchers" I believe is the usual translation of the term he used.

May their pricks and balls wither and drop off.

Read The Full Article:
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=24999

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NY-23: Obama Tabs Veteran GOP Congressman For Key
Security Post

Well, this is kind of interesting:

Representative John M. McHugh, a Republican congressman from New York, will be nominated by President Obama to be secretary of the Army, according to officials, as the administration continues to reach into the ranks of the opposition for executive appointments.

McHugh is the ranking minority member of the Armed Services Committee, and his upstate New York congressional district includes Fort Drum. His voting record has been right-of-center, but not fringe: Progressive Punch rates him as the 23rd most progressive member of the GOP caucus.

This is the latest in a series of Republican appointments by the President, who just last month tabbed Utah Governor Jon Huntsman to be ambassador to China.

The open seat which will be created by the McHugh appointment will be filled via special election, presumably in the early Fall. The district is, on the surface, a swing district. Barack Obama carried the 23rd district by a five point margin (52-47). But George W. Bush carried the district twice. Also, the region housed within the lines of the 23rd district has not elected a Democrat to the House in around a quarter of a century.

It, of course, is too early for declared candidates, but the good folks over at Swing State Project already have some candidate names being bandied about.

Aside from the intrigue of (possibly) picking up another House seat, there is one nagging annoyance about this announcement. Progressives could easily be forgiven for having a little visceral reaction to another key national security post being delegated to a Republican.

McHugh may prove to be an inspired choice, but there is no better way to perpetuate that shopworn Cheney-esque meme that Democrats can't be trusted with national security than repeatedly refusing to trust a Democrat with top-tier national security positions.

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63% of Pennsylvanians Want Specter to Face
Democratic Primary Challenger

Despite Ed Rendell's best efforts to push Joe Sestak out of the race, he isn't backing down. Sestak was on ABC's TopLine with Rick Klein trying to position himself:It would be disappointing [if] the Washington political establishment of my party --[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://firedoglake.com/2009/06/02/63-of-pennsylvanians-want-specter-to-face-democ
ratic-primary-challenger/

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Traditional Rabbi Appalled As "Salute To Israel"
Parade Degenerates Into Arab-Bashing

One hundred thousand people marched in the annual "Salute To Israel" parade in New York on Sunday and apparently it turned into a hate-fest. Rabbi Sidney Schwarz of Potomac, Maryland writes about his reactions to being part of a Jewish assemblage in America in which participants sing "all the Arabs must die." Read his piece here. Is it any wonder that Israel's rightwing supporters here are feeling so uncomfortable in Barack Obama's America?

"Then a band launched into a rousing rendition of Am Yisrael Chai. I spent more than 25 years as an activist for Soviet Jewry. This was our theme song signaling solidarity both with the history of our people and with all those oppressed Jews in the world whose cause we championed. A group of young men in their 20's....were right in front of me dancing in a frenzy. But they alternated the verse that meant ''the people of Israel lives'with 'all the Arabs must die.' It rhymed with the Hebrew. Given the way all joined in, it was clear that this was not the first time it was sung.

"I leaned over to a young man who was next to me, also wearing a kippah and tzitzit. I nodded at the dancers and asked: 'Does this song bother you?' He looked at me with a suspicious look and replied: 'This is Zionism.'"

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Traditional Rabbi Appalled As "Salute To Israel"
Concert Degenerates Into Arab-Bashing

One hundred thousand people marched in the annual "Salute To Israel" parade in New York on Sunday and apparently a post-parade concert in Central Park turned into a hate-fest. Rabbi Sidney Schwarz of Potomac, Maryland writes about his reactions to being part of a Jewish assemblage in America in which participants sing "all the Arabs must die." Read his piece here. Is it any wonder that Israel's rightwing supporters here are feeling so uncomfortable in Barack Obama's America?

"Then a band launched into a rousing rendition of Am Yisrael Chai. I spent more than 25 years as an activist for Soviet Jewry. This was our theme song signaling solidarity both with the history of our people and with all those oppressed Jews in the world whose cause we championed. A group of young men in their 20's....were right in front of me dancing in a frenzy. But they alternated the verse that meant ''the people of Israel lives'with 'all the Arabs must die.' It rhymed with the Hebrew. Given the way all joined in, it was clear that this was not the first time it was sung.

"I leaned over to a young man who was next to me, also wearing a kippah and tzitzit. I nodded at the dancers and asked: 'Does this song bother you?' He looked at me with a suspicious look and replied: 'This is Zionism.'"

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