Now the right-wingers want to blame military-recruiter slayings on liberals
By David Neiwert Tuesday Jun 02, 2009 11:00am
There was another horrible shooting yesterday, this time in Arkansas. And this time, the motive appears to have been a hatred of the American military for the Muslims who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan:
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — 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, the police said.
... In a lengthy interview with the police, Mr. Muhammad said he was angry about the killing of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan, Chief Thomas said. Previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, Mr. Muhammad told investigators that he had converted to Islam as a teenager, Chief Thomas said.
Chief Thomas said investigators believe that Mr. Muhammad acted alone. He seemed to be familiar with the Army recruiting office because it was not far from his home, the chief said, but might have been on the prowl for anyone in uniform.
“I would say he was looking for any and all targets of opportunity that happened to be military,” the chief said in a telephone interview. “That may have well been the first place he found.”
This is, of course, a horrific case, and no one in their right minds would celebrate it.
Yet naturally, the right-wingers -- still feeling the sting from having been held culpable for their inspirational role in the assassination of Dr. George Tiller on Sunday -- have decided that this is all the fault of liberals. As usual, Michelle Malkin is leading that particular parade.
There's a significant difference, though, in this case and the Tiller murder: No one on the left is celebrating this or wishing that the recruiters had had a chance to make their peace with God before being shot. No one is trying to justify it by suggesting that the recruiters met a just fate.
And most of all, while there are smatterings of fringe leftists who hate the military and regularly demonize military recruiters, they exist entirely on the margins. There are no liberal commentators -- particularly not cable-news-show anchors -- who demonize soldiers as "mass murderers" or "baby killers," or suggest they should be "taken out", let alone suggesting that citizens might want to take violent action against them.
You certainly can't say that about right-wingers and their feelings about abortion-clinic operators.
And besides: Wasn't Malkin complaining Sunday about "Those who have jumped to score political points before Tiller is even buried"? Physician, heal thyself.
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shit is beginning to hit the fan.
Wonderful.
that pretty much sums it up.
Remember when there used to be universal disgust and outrage over any form of violence...feigned or otherwise.
The universal idea of the "rule of law" has been politicized in this country.
Sad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0aW8IXdAjA
your humor is ill timed my friend.
.
LIE-CHEAT-STEELE
The "NEW" G(no)P
.
Seems these two recent shootings have two things in common, guns and insanity.
I'd say religious fundamentalism as well.
anti war,progressives,muslims etc. to me
and kind of a "see I TOLD you we couldn't trust American Muslims" thing too.
And when they say American Muslims...they mean black folks.
The article states that he'll be tried with 15 counts of terrorist acts, once for each bullet fired. How does that compare to Dr. Tiller's murderer? Hypothetically, would a disgruntled vet or estranged ex-husband, whose last name was not of Muslim origin, also be charged as a terrorist for the same vicious act?
I wonder.
Ugh. It's like the air is poisoned.
Don't expect a real investigation into why
Let's see, the GOP starts two and unjust wars simply to feed their greed.
They take advantage of a national tragedy with they did nothing to prevents (some might even say allow to happen) in the first place.
They kill a couple of hundred thousand people.... then are surprised that some people are upset?
This is very different from the right wing extremists killing innocent people. Remember, the GOP is at war with muslims. They want their oil. People notice something like that.
When right wingers kill in the name of the GOP they do it out of ideology, ignorance and blind fear.... often they use bigotry as an excuse.
People are noticing that as well. That scares the hell out of the republicans. They don't want do be pointed out as criminals, or as supporters of crime and murder in the name of greed, even though they know they are.
There's an old saying: "thou dost protest too much". Meaning, the guilty are almost always trying to scream loudest and put the blame on the innocent so they can get away with their crimes.
Question on point of fact: Were either of these soldiers recruiters; were either of these soldier targeted by name, or as recruiters in general, on any nationally disseminated liberal talk shows?
Or as converaturds will argue, "What liberal talk shows?"
across the aisle, it is thought of as a 'defect of chararcter" that we don't push these issues to the brink
Hope this isn't a duplicate post...for some reason, my last post did not show up.
This morning, I read an article about this killing on the Daily Beast. Some commenter wrote in that he/she now guesses that Dr. Tiller is more important than William Long, the soldier who was killed in this incident. That commenter also asked if there would be coverage today of how Keith Olbermann was responsible for this murder because of his "rants against the military."
How utterly absurd. Keith has never ranted against the military. He has ranted against the Bush administration and their policies....Bush et al who receive top Secret Service protection. Tiller was a private citizen who had no protection.
There is no comparison. These GOPers are plain nuts. It's ridiculous.
They can't tell right from wrong.
The DHS report was dead right for a change.
In their minds, apples and oranges are identical because they are both round and both called fruit. I'm sure the AP, FAUX "News" and the other usual culprits will buy into this but ultimately, it's just another nail in the GOP coffin. People have a lot more tolerance of hate than they do of stupid apparently.
she's got to be the biggest hypocrite with a blog. Scratch the "with a blog" part. Everything she attacks people for is the exact same thing she has done one time or another during her entire career. I did love the time when she was on with tweety and accused Kerry of shooting himself. He made an idiot out of her. Come to think of it, that was the last time I've seen her on anything other than a right wing show.
Sadly there are so few of them.
don't do well out of their biomes, do they? These usually consist of lots of hot air, lack of oxygen and bitter herbs to eat. I could never listen to a thing she says because I'm too fixated on the fact that you can consistently see the whites above and below her eyes. She's mental.
In every photo of her I've seen, her face is contorted with rage and hate. It makes me happy that I'm not going through life so I can hate on people
Usually I make an inappropriate comment about finding her hot because she's so crazy and then apologize in a humorously self-deprecating way.
But not anymore. She's a karmic black hole.
Good for you Rupert. Come toward the light.
Move away from the bunny boiler.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgLj9lOwk
From Wikipedia: Sanpaku references the belief held by some that the visibility of the white of the eye between the iris and the lower eyelid is a sign of physical and spiritual imbalance.
How coincidental that SarahPAC, inc., has arrived at the exact same opinion (link).
Seems it's all another liberal media conspiracy, keeping Tiller in the news, but hushing the recruiting office shooting. Yeah. That's it.
Excuse me, I've always had this awkward skin blemish whenever something is said that is so embarrassingly stupid and, at best, half-baked by GOP jagoffs. It hasn't been an issue before but now that I have an official status, I have to be concerned with public appearances. Some no-sense repug luddy-duddys appear to be tall and handsome, others live in the outskirts of the electrical field for all the reasons you probably know by now. For those who wish to grow tomatoes, a fertile and rich field of compost is provided free of charge - just keep watching/listening and attain a Zen state off non-thinking. Of course, some of these partisan hacks would sup with any demonic presence, sharing a pot of beans with the man behind the GOP plan and listening to whatever ideas surface. There is still a time when the halo shine of a street light shimmers in the muddy waters of a curbside gutter, where most repug "ideas" forment.
Filth is something that some would distinguish one Repug from another. There is also the keen edge of a razor. Then again there is the filthy razors edge that divides them all. Them all? Only a few. But amongst the "best" (meaing most out of touch) of them there is a well oiled machine that ticks out the tempo of wasted existence. A Sartreian existence that extinguishes the flame of porcelain ewers whose portraiture of a fin de sicile wears too much makeup and too little serge. A cosmetic compass directs their energies toward a slick cold Antarctica of pointlessness, smooth as elephant snot or some primary essence that is not unlike the tallow of fatted calves, given some tight hosiery and a push up bra, which they tend to find attractive.
I can barely keep in touch with what you folks call reality. Perhaps I should brush up on "Peter Pan". The razor-blade banister of relaity awaits your flaccid and pock-marked buns as you reluctantly slide into the present. How else can I say it.....peanut butter is sticky, but butter is slick. Make of it what you will. Such is the question of the cosmos. Something that Carl Sagan would ponder after many a toke on the Betalguze pipe, thoroughly tamped with Brillo Pads and ignatious rocks. But whether youse guys deal out a Tarot hand of deadly Knave's swords and Medusa mendacity, or divinely seek the wisdom in the tea leaves of your bitter brew; there betwixt the nether naves of ecclesiastical perversity and the blandishments of insurance underwriters; there in a mirror reflection of your true soul we find the uber toad.
Dial 911 and wait for the ambulance.
Dude - put down the crack pipe and back awaay...SLOWLY.
Jim Morrison--is that you?
Eat paint chips or play under powerlines as a kid?
Just a couple of days ago I noted the dangers inherent in peddling theories of collective guilt, e.g. the notion that practically everybody who ever condemned late-term abortion was somehow an "accomplice" in the murder of George Tiller.
It surprises me not at all to see that the hyper-nationalist Right is now marketing its own version of this insidious idea targeting critics of the insane wars begun under the last administration.
This kind of thing is, literally, virulent and impossible to contain. And it never works to the advantage of one side or the other.
If we're going to avoid a descent into Bosnia-style civil violence, we really need to reject theories of collective guilt. The alternative very well could be a spiral of violence that would make the Balkan wars of the 1990s look like a slap-fight.
but the problem of actually doing that is that the right wingers will never let go of their theories of collective guilt angaist 'liberals' for pretty much everything. And also in the case of the Tiller murder there really is no doubt that it was motivated by ultra right wing extremist talk.
For the comparison to be valid, I would need to see years of organized left-wing media calls for military recruitment centers to be declared illegal and to be shut down, along with the requisite labeling of recruiters as murderers because their actions led to US casualties. Then, I'd need to see that, at some point, the left-wing called for citizens to take matters into their own hands if the authorities fail to shut down the murderous recruitment centers.
When someone provides this background, THEN I'll entertain comparisons of the media's role in Tiller's assassination and in this recruiter murder.
Mohammad my ass.
the right-wingers created the atmosphere that lead to this shooting also. It wasn't 'liberals' who illegally invaded a non-agressor Muslim nation and slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians which led to this young mans anger and violence.
dear god, please protect me from those who believe in you.
My son was 17 years old when he saw the recruiter. He was very troubled and doing poorly in school until he was diagnosed with
bipolar disorder and was given medication; he went from a D average to straight Bs in about two months time.
THEN the recruiter told my MINOR son to stop taking his medication (without my knowledge) or he couldn't be enlisted.
My son did as he was told, returned to risky behaviors and ended up severely beaten and in jail.
When I complained to the recruiter he claimed that he didn't know what I was talking about.
When I complained to his superior I was asked,"What's the matter - don't you like your freedom?"
Needless to say, nothing was ever resolved - but I didn't shoot anybody either.
Sad story, but was your straight-B-earning, 17-yo son enlisted when he went off his meds and got into trouble? If not, why was your civilian son taking such guidance from his recruiter instead of his family and doctor?
Sorry, but based upon what you posted, I'm not convinced that the recruiter was the primary issue here.
My nephew signed up for the Marines in HS. after that, they had him nearly every weekend, special little field trips to malls to testify, witness, recruit more, and fun stuff, like paint ball excursions, video gaming, all sorts.
Chances are, this kid was being courted in this manner. It most likely wasn't him taking that advice from a recruiter on the first visit. These kids are groomed.
Adolescents are not generally known for their strict obedience to parents here in the good ole US of A.
The recruiter was his adult "buddy" and if you read miss_kitty's reply just below or above - well; there it is.
This adult official of the Navy betrayed the trust of my son and his parents.
If you do not understand this, it speaks only of your rabid pro-militarism.
Negligence law suit there to me. You'd probably have to sue on your son's behalf if he's still a minor.
When did a self-loathing anchor baby become a mouthpiece for the GOP? What turned her into a whore?
BTW, the GOP treasures self-hating minorities who love them more than they love themselves.
The GOP is like "SEE!!! Even THEY hate themselves!"
Fuck the GOP!
See: Alan Keyes
Money?
...do a nutjob body count.
They have a new talkingpoint. This'll deflect attention from Dr Tiller.
Then there's this gem from Malkin:
"I wonder if the Justice Department will send marshals to beef up protection at recruiting centers — especially given the past targeting of military centers on campuses and elsewhere across the country."
In her rush to apply cheap sarcasm to the Obama administration she has shown her true ignorance towards our heroes in the military.
doesn't the Army have their own security force? I'm just sayin'.....
they're called MP's...
Christ is she stoopit.
problem, MP's don't have authority off base, except under certain circumstances. Ever hear of posse comitatus?
TJBB.
is that lefties, progressives and libs are the last people to strike an 'I'm gunna get me a gun' pose.
Was it not a guy who opposed the war for RELIGIOUS reasons? Hardly the venue of a godless commie filthy hippie type.
However, the morons who have taken over the right (face it, they've gone past 'right' and 'conservative;' 'nutted up' is the only way I can really describe this class of people) will never let facts get in the way of a fabulous smear job -- it's all the pathetic dears have left.
Wow, you make it sound as if they just got bukaked.
Check the last few blogs about the assault weapon ban and other gun ones. There are quite a few where the libs are stating they either have or are going to get guns.
"It's all the pathetic dears have left."
Nu uh. They have guns. Lots of guns. Oh they also have Jesus on their side.
Now maybe conservaturds can see why in most anti-war talk, progressives talk about supporting the troops (they're not mutually exclusive), and just want to bring them home.
The message sent then was that protesters hated the soldiers for going to Nam (completely ignoring the fact of the draft), and all we really wanted was to bring the soldiers home. It was the government that we hated. The SDS is still here. Now they are called the GDS--Geezers for a Democratic Society.
I can't repeat it enough. She is a shill. Snake oil salesPerson. Whore, whore, whoring for the GOP. Goddamnit I'm so mad I'm spitting out cherry pits in the sanctuary!
Stop dating cherries.
It's a fruit version of miscgeneation.
Stop it now, I'm getting aroused.
All we are missing so far is he hated and /or wanted to kill jews.
Trying to put heat on anti war,muslims etc.
Bottom line, there are two more people dead tonight who shouldn't be. Senseless deaths all.
and so sad. Violence doesn't solve problems, it creates them.
"Mr. Muhammad will be charged with one count of capital murder and 15 counts of terroristic acts, one for each person who was hit or endangered by the shots he fired. Thirteen people were in the recruiting office at the time."
I don't understand this. He only shot two people and they were outside the office when he shot them. If we use this logic, the guy who killed Dr Tiller put all the people in the church in danger and should have numerous charges of terroristic acts placed against him as well.
The more charges he is charged with the more guilty he is
absolutely right PoP!
It is exactly the thing that would happen in a fascist nation. The officials go beyond reason just to make a show point in the prosecution towards one of the "official enemies" of the day.
In a banana republic, the trial becomes a symbol and a showcase, not a fair a reasonable process as in a nation of laws.
WTF? Do they ever require any evidence when they make ridiculous claims? Not at all. As long as they can point the finger away from themselves their agenda is met.
Oh, I misread he article, seems one soldier was killed and he other wounded. My bad.
Looks like more religion-based violence to me.
There were no eye withesss,Just some guy who seen a black SUV with tinted windows?
There's a significant difference, though, in this case and the Tiller murder: No one on the left is celebrating this or wishing that the recruiters had had a chance to make their peace with God before being shot. No one is trying to justify it by suggesting that the recruiters met a just fate.
I'm sure there will be a few such comments from certain extremes who consider themselves to be on "the left", and a few more inflammatory comments from cloaked RW trolls. These will be latched onto by Bile O'Really, Goon Berk, and the like as proof of liberal complicity. After all, a few fringe nutbars buried in lefty blog comments are EXACTLY THE SAME as flagship talk show hosts and syndicated bloggers on the right.
The irony is, they really are.
that luck does not run eternal. She will become irrelevant.
Or not!?
And this time, the motive appears to have been a hatred of the American military for the Muslims who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan:
So...the military has a hatred for the Muslims killed? So why would this guy shoot them? Are you trying to say that the SHOOTER hated the military?
FOR GODS' SAKES. You people are supposed to be WRITERS.
Isn't it, the alleged motive "The shooter/killer that had (a hatred of the American military for the Muslims who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
not just "the military has a hatred for the Muslims killed?"
What are you attempting to point out? Please
Shia, Sunni, Wahabi? They kill each other.
Tue, 06/02/2009 - 14:22 — Truth_Critic
Was an attempt to understand Excelsior's comment... for the record. :-P
Re: What are you attempting to point out? Please
gramatical form the idea should have taken?
I know I didn't have any trouble understanding what David was saying. If you take the sentence as a whole the idea seems clear. Only by taken only a portion of the sentence does it get as cloudy as you suggest. Granted though it was a somewhat unwieldy sentence, something I'm frequently guilty of myself.
Well I thought the phrasing was cumbersome and potentially ambiguous, but in context the writers intent was clear, and I certainly didn't feel compelled to waste my time and readers' by complaining about it.
Of course, me posting this comment undoes all that.
♪♫♪♪♫ ♪♫ ♫♪♪ ;-)
I am deeply saddened to hear about this shooting. It's been one depressing year, hasn't it --the economy, torture, shootings, etc. But, what I think some of the right wing commentators forget is the shooter would have no reason to murder a military recruiter in the first place if Bush hadn't made the choice to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. The policies of the Bush administration caused this act to happen. Every time the US tortures someone or a bomb accidentally kills innocent civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan our military men and women are at greater risk for acts of violence like this. This incident should be a clear signal that the policies that have been enacted for the past 8 or so years have made our military personal and our nation not safe.
On a personal note, I hate it when "conservatives" try to tell progressives that we are anti-military. My "conservative Christian" aunt tried to tell me that I don't support the military because I don't support the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan knowing full well that my brother currently serves in the Marine Corps --he has been to Iraq twice and will probably be going to Afghanistan-- while none of her kids (all right wingers and pro-War) serve in any branch of the military. I tried to explain to her that the military does what the politicians in DC tell them to, and my issue is not with the military but with the policies that politicians enact. She didn't understand that and told me she was sorry she hurt my feelings. However, she was still going to speak the "truth." Some people wonder why I am so anti-organized religion. It is because over half of my family are Christian fundamentalists. When you deal with "Christians" on a frequent basis that tell you that you somehow don't support your own brother, you lose faith in any kind of organized religion.
I'm quite sure, as maybe you are... that your plight is not uncommon.
Keep on... Keeping on :-)
It was said that he went to go hear some Marxist speaker, and when he left someone asked what he thought, and his response was "I am not a Marxist".
I bet if Jesus were to hear some of these Christians, he'd have a similar reaction that Marx did.
this post is a tad bit binary, "liberals and right wingers." "smatterings" of soldier haters on one side. celebratory abortion killers on the other, your post is too tit for tat.
I feel very not "fringy", yet think the military is an immense pile of shit set upon the world and should be disposed of post haste. I also think abortion is a terrible choice for anyone to make and I think there is not enough done in this country to reduce the need to have to make such a choice. That said, the choice should be there. As any real conservative should understand as its a woman's womb and she can rent out the space to anyone she feels and evict anyone she doesn't feel so inclined to welcome. It is not governments place.
We are a secular society the covenants of some distorted and woefully inapplicable religion should be enjoyed as comic relief not debated by a pack of retards for the rest of us to endure.
Why this murder is a terrorist act and the murder of George Tiller is not? Because one prays to Allah and the other prays to Jesus. I'll bet Jesus is throwing up right now.
:-)
Amended: I almost forgot... √ IMHO
Well I always thought Jesus looked rather bulimic on some crucifixes.
I wish this site would stop referring to these conservatives as the Right, far right, and right wingers because that just makes them think, in their warped, tiny brains that they are right, as in correct, which we know that most definitely are not.
Better terms for these cretins are wingnuts, conservatives, capitalize it if you must, republicans, christianists, extremists, radicals, terrorists, nuts, wrong wing you get the picture. Calling them the "right" is conterproductive. I see this term used on corporate teevee, and it makes me cringe. I hope liberal blogs stop using the word because language matters.
1) Nobody is celebrating the death of a military recruiter. We may not want military recruiters coming into our high schools, but we certainly don't want to see them dead. Whereas a lot of anti-abortionists are popping the bubbly over Tiller.
2) Nobody is cheering for the Muslim Extremists. We may not agree with the wars our military is fighting or might not like the fact that civilians are being killed, but we don't wish harm on our own soldiers.
There is no comparison. The anti-abortion extremists believe killing doctors is necessary. The Muslim extremists believe killing Americans and U.S. soldiers is necessary. The Left and the Liberals don't believe in killing anyone.
trying to pin this one on us, I do wish we were paying as much attention to this as we are Dr. Tiller.
All terrorist attacks need to be condemned. Loudly.
can take the blame for this one too - they're the ones who advocated torture and humiliation, which gives this shooter a "motive." Once again the reich-wingers are trying to spin this into a shoot-the-messenger scenario. Reporting on the torture issue was done in a responsible manner, while the rhetoric aimed at Dr. Tiller was clarion call for the crazies.
I'm not overly worried about the neoCons getting mileage out of this, however, given that their wingnut base (less than 25% of the electorate and shrinking every time a Malkin or an O'Reilly or a Coulter opens its mouth) is the only segment of the population that still looks upon these charlatans as "credible." I honestly believe that unlike most election cycles, the next mid-term will actually see an increase in the Democratic majority, thanks to a ratcheting up of the craziness from these loons.
logic, liberals are responsible for the shooting of Tiller. They advocate legal abortions giving the shooter a "motive".
to fit your ideology.
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