WorldNetDaily, the RNC, and the mainstreaming of extremist ideas
Back when I was first blogging in 2003 or so I had a few civilized exchanges with Jon Henke, but we never could agree regarding my ongoing thesis at Orcinus -- namely, that ideas, agendas, talking points, and memes in general regularly migrated from the extremist right in America into mainstream conservatism. (This, as it happens, is also the core thesis of my book The Eliminationists.)
Sometime after I posted about the 380th example of this Henke stopped commenting (in apparent disgust) and I hadn't heard from him since.
But he certainly made some waves last week when -- clearly, and appropriately, disgusted by Jerome Corsi's bizarre piece in WorldNetDaily suggesting that President Obama was preparing concentration camps to round up and imprison his conservative critics -- Henke urged his fellow conservatives to disassociate themselves from WND in every way possible.
Henke continues to contend that the continuum between far-right wingnuts like the WND crowd and mainstream conservatives -- what I have described as "the transmission belt", with WorldNetDaily playing a significant media role for many years -- remains small indeed. That is what he did in his otherwise standup appearance on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC program last night.
That claim, of course, was massively undercut by Terry Krepel's follow-up reporting for Media Matters, which noted that "one of the organizations that has rented WND's mailing list is ... the Republican National Committee." With full screen shots.
Henke called upon the RNC to disassociate itself from WND, but they unsurprisingly have politely declined.
That's because, of course, the transmission belt is now the be-all and end-all of Republicans' current political strategy. The idea, much as it was in the 1990s, is to delegitimize Obama's presidency by whipping up the far right with unhinging conspiracy theories that spread into the mainstream as well. This undermining is then exploited by the "mainstream" Republicans in precisely the way we've just witnessed with the teabaggers' derailing of the health-care debate. It's deeply cynical -- not to mention dangerous -- but hey, it works.
As David Weigel's superb reporting afterwards demonstrated, the WND's pull within the Beltway Republican crowd -- and its ability to insinuate itself within the mainstream media, particularly on Fox -- is substantial indeed. Just ask Van Jones.
Henke obviously doesn't want to face up to the reality that it is his fellow mainstream conservatives -- you know, the people who should be standing up to this wingnuttery as unrepresentative of their movement -- who are actively enabling the most insane elements of the American Right. But then, he never has.
Anything and everything to destroy the social fabric and any organized concern for it.
Must hear clips from the work of the late Australian sociologist Alex Carey
CORPORATIONS AND PROPAGANDA
The Attack on Democracy
Part 1
Part 2
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I just saw that link to Alex Carey, Corporations and Propaganda, and lo and behold, it's to MY website!!! The intro to Carey's book is by Noam Chomsky, giving him good "cred" on the Left, and regardless of charges that people like him "hate America", Carey's study is completely accurate.
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If I am permitted ONE criticism to the story by Rachel, it's the unchallenged notion that there is an equivalence between Right and Left Conspiracy theory and paranoia. Please let me explain with a few examples.
There were Congressional hearings on FEMA camps in the 80s. Sen Jack Brooks, confronted Oliver North on Rex84 and FEMA concentration camps which he read about in the newspaper. North looked pissed, and a Democratic Senator Inyohe shut him down from asking that question in front of TV cameras.
Turns out that Reagan picked one Louis Giuffrida to create FEMA. Giuffrida wrote (wrote) about the possible need to incarcerate twenty-one million American Blacks in concentration camps, and so Reagan was prepping for that situation. Real. Never came down, unless you count Katrina in NOLA, but it was a very real plan.
This was related to plans for a real military takeover, including meetings with "law enforcement". They saw legit protest of grievances as "treason", this per one or more Reps/Senators when the facts finally came out and the reports were made public.
Bush actually revived those fears -- on the fringe right mostly -- by writing Halliburton a check to set up new FEMA camps and by passing several Executive Orders (EDICTS) which fundamentally outlawed dissent, particularly on the Iraq War.
1980s was NOT THE FIRST ATTEMPT at a fascist military takeover of America, ending democracy. Gen Smedley Butler, Commandant of the US Marines, exposed a plot for a military takeover of the US by right wing groups, back in 1933. This plot also had heavy corporate backing, from major Wall Street banks and law firms, National Assoc of Mfg, American Legion, and various "Christian Right" groups which were busy idolizing Adolf Hitler.
Likewise --- touchy subject, but it shouldn't be --- there exists vast evidence that 9-11 could NOT have been perpetrated by Arab Terrorists, not in that manner, some refutation has been voiced by professionals with not only cred but expertise. I'm thinking of the Architects group, for one, not nec'ly (Mormon) Dr. Steven Jones, but what the hey. At very least, even the 9-11 Commission cited layers of lies and coverups blocking their own efforts at an investigation (er, white-wash, typical of Lee Hamilton from BCCI ("Bank of Al-Qaeda"), October Surprise (Iran hostage conspiracy), and Iran-Contra conspiracy itself).
There's also historical precedent, which is little known. There were both denials and admissions of US (CIA-NATO-Atlantic Alliance) collusion with and direction of underground Italian Blackshirts (with ties to Mussolini) and other groups of Fascists in Europe, working with their Secret Police. These activities involved setting off terrorist bombings and other armed attacks in various public places, such as the infamous train station in Bologna, Italy which resulted in scores of deaths.
The terror bombings were widespread in Europe over a 40-year period, unclear how widespread, few people today are aware of these shocking facts, and many details are hidden forever. This was covered on BBC in the 90s, on the show Timewatch. Bombings involved the highest levels of Italian (and Belgian) society and secret police. (THINK: if all that is still kept a secret ...)
Per one convicted murderer, Vincent Vinciguerra, the purpose was blame the Left (Red Brigades) for violence, in order to push the common person away from voting for Left and Communist groups and to increase support for the Right, with their Law and Order platform and other Right wing agenda. Former President Aldo Moro was kidnapped and killed, and stuffed into a car "boot", supposedly by the Left. But this was after Moro started efforts to forge a powerful political alliance between centrist Dems and various legitimate Leftist political parties. His wife reported that Kissinger had threatened him, obliquely. Italian Pres. Burlussconi is a member of the P2 lodge who were the elites who directed the thugs.
This was in Italian Courts for some time. It's official.
CIA Dir Colby PARTIALLY confirmed US involvement. On that BBC show, Ledeen denied US involvement. (Remember Ledeen and Italy and Yellowcake rumors? Ledeen also turns up below.)
Operation Northwoods was a similar fascist PLAN for the US, to stage terror attacks in US cities with real deaths, to be blamed on Castro, signed by all the Joint Chiefs, which was never taken to fruition. The President and his SecDef rejected it as too extreme and too dangerous. Guess which President. Correct. JFK.
Regarding 9-11, we do not have to guess, because NUMEROUS neo-conservative and other right wingnuts (and some "Establisment Libs") promoted the concept of the NEED for a major terrorist attack on America, in writing.
Sure, we all know about Michael Scheuer telling Glenn Beck (who agreed with a light joke) that the ONLY HOPE for America was for Osama Bin Laden -- and only Osama --- to blow up a US city with a nuclear weapon. Jon Stewart covered that. We may also remember that in 2007 Stu Bykofsky had both Jon Gibson and Brian Kilmeade at Fox agree with him that America NEEDS another 9-11. Rumsfeld was even caught on tape in a similar offhand statement about a repeat 9-11.
That's bad enough.
However, that's post-September 11 rhetoric, that's after "everything changed".
What about before? Well, depending on how you count their "membership", some 150 Neo-cons stated that America needed a terrorist bloodbath "like Pearl Harbor" in order to terrify Americans and Congress into supporting their "long war" in the Middle East, for their absolutely vital project of protecting and extending US hegemony into the next century, creating a "new Middle East".
This does NOT just include PNAC, also AEI and other groups (Ledeen's book while he was at AEI described a future bloodbath as "lucky" and "providential"), but we must know that PNAC included at least one top Pentagon advisor (Richard Perle, Defense Policy Board) and a whole slew of neo-cons lobbyists and Iraq War promoters, who would later pick themselves (conventionally, Bush "picked them") to serve at the highest levels of the Bush cabinet, in Homeland Security and Defense.
Security and Defense: How IRONIC! Now if even a surface overview of these facts do not lead the reader to see the legitimacy of asking serious (yet unanswerable) questions about outright treason (not "name-calling" treason, the real deal) which includes cheerleading for and likely complicity in 9-11, then there's no facts that can.
When a person is heard plotting an arson job, and the fire occurs soon after, there is a category for that person: PRIME SUSPECT.
I wish more "truthers" were capable of stating their claims in proper historical context, without sounding 'unhinged' and without evoking the "Illuminati" and taking into consideration the unfortunate ignorance of most Americans re history. With what we now know -- and Neiwert writes about -- about Prescott Bush and the Nazis, and GHW Bush with Nazis in his "ethnic outreach" group, which I also have on my site, it makes more sense to ASSUME that September 11 was a coup by the Right and by the M-I complex, than to be skeptical of such claims. There is a long-standing documented pattern of attempted fascist takeovers in America and our "allies", and a "Reichstag fire" by "enemies" is simply a predictable method that works.
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me-oww!
I think it's hilarious that the first source link on your website is to WorldNutDaily, the same right-wing propaganda source under examination in this piece by Dave.
Regarding 9/11, I could go on, but frankly, I don't care about arguing with you people anymore. Besides, I don't need to since everything has already been said and troofers don't come up with anything new.
There is the aforementioned www.911myths.com, and these:
Engineers: http://www.implosionworld.com/wtc.htm
A comprehensive overview: http://wtc7lies.googlepages.com/home
More links: http://forums.randi.org/local_links.php?catid=18
There isn't much reason to do anything more than point you in the right direction. All you have to do is read and understand, but for some reason you don't. Your current beliefs will come to nothing; it's up to you to correct them.
David Weigel's stuff is the bomb (most of the time)
WND = World Nut Daily
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
That’s our new 21st Century patriarchal reality.
A good example is Palin's first mention of the death panels and then Grassley repeating the same idea. The republicans could for a while depend on he religious right but lately some of them are walking away from the insanity. So now the republicans have to court the insane people and play along with them or else they have nothing left.
Beck is going after Sunstein (spelling?) tonight saying that he would give rats the same rights as humans have and if a rat is in your house the police would come, inform him of his rights and appoint an attorney for him. Fox better calm Beck down or else I see a law suit coming their way and it won't be brought by a rat.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Glen Beck what would they do if that was take from them?
Probably go back to BillO from whence they came.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Billo' Hannity, Malkin . . etc etc
. . . a new series of Bum Fights videos?
if we could determine what went into Palin's decision to talk about death panels. Specifically, who she was talking to amongst party leadership in the days leading up to the decision to discuss in publicly.
..try to disassociate himself from the far-right? The RNC, as far as I'm concerned is the far-right..and always have been.
On the one hand, I'm glad *someone* on the right is at least doing a little halfway bit of *something* about this...
But I have to admit I'm a little annoyed too, by Henke's insistence that we 'haven't gone after the 'Truthers''.
I haven't seen a Truther taken seriously on the websites I frequent in... well years. Probably 2004 was the last time. Everyone since then who's popped up with such comments has generally been slammed back down in short order.
Trying to equate the Democrats and the left in-general with Truthers is... well ludicrous. Whereas unfortunately the right and the Birthers, Deathers, and Campers... well Henke said it himself, around 2/3s don't want to mess with it - some because they genuinely believe it, and many more because they view the craziness as a tool.
*blah*
I give him some credit that he at least see's there is a problem. Conservatives NEED to believe that both sides are equally as bad and thats why he brings up a far left fringe group that no one pays any attention to.
When angry, count four, when very angry, swear.
-Mark Twain-
The "truther" movement lost its media appeal after the 2004 election. There wasn't any need to report on it anymore after Bush got re-elected. Even then, it was never systematically used by the Democrats as a tool against Bush. Remember, the "birther" movement of the day for the Republicans was the swift boaters. The Republicans have always legitimized the crazies on their right, simply for political gain, in a way that the Democrats never have.
Mike Burns
http://www.disorderlyreport.com/
the fact that the official explaination for 911 is a lie, and the American people have not been told the truth of what happened that day? Seems pretty important to me.
If you really wanted to know the truth about what happened eight years ago today, you would read this website: http://911myths.com/
I think 911myths.com did an EXCELLENT job at two tasks. They ripped apart outlandish and shaky conspiracy theories about 9-11. They shot holes in weak ideas and utter nonsense.
They also cherry-picked outlandish and shaky conspiracy theories about 9-11. They used a sampling of lunatic ideas and plausible but half-baked ideas, based on their own agenda of disputing 9-11 skepticism.
They avoid most of the more credible points made by qualified engineers, such as the "Architects" group at ae********.org or the nano-surface engineer at 911research.wtc7.net or Civil & Structural Engineers at 911-engineers.blogspot.com.
Almost nobody mentions, or describes in clear detail, the points I made above, which include historical precedents of agents of the US Gov involvement in terrorism and treason.
"They would never do it"? Nixon added an estimated 30,000 Americans to the death toll in 'Nam, and countless Asians, simply by having Kissinger sabotage the 1968 peace talks. Three thousand is a drop in the bucket when it comes to fascist dreams and foreign policy.
Sometimes they congratulate themselves on "tough decisions". That's a code word for VERY UNPOPULAR and often criminal or undemocratic actions which could result in imprisonment or worse. Extending the Vietnam War was a "tough decision" for Nixon -- but apparently it was not too tough for him. Nixon has links to American fascism going back to Allen Dulles (who was the corporate liaison for Nazi business in the US), and links to Prescott Bush, and worked with McCarthy who rose in defense of Nazis who executed American POWs at Malmedy.
There is much reason to believe --- even setting aside many "trutherisms" --- that 9-11 was a similar "tough decision". However, it was not so tough or so secret that various neo-con groups were afraid to publish statements through their public relations outlets and lobby groups describing the NEED for such an event, prior to the actual events.
I call this the "Strike America First" policy, accurately presenting a mockery of the charge of "Liberals" having a "Blame America First" policy, or "hating America". What could be more hateful than WANTING your own country attacked and WISHING to see thousands (or millions?) of your fellow innocent citizens die horrible deaths, for political advantage. That's the precise definition of "terrorism" as well.
More comments above.
...yelling at her to ask Henke what the hell the difference was between WND and Fox News during the course of her interview with him.
economically that someones going to come along and tell people what they have to do. And people will fall for it.
he's weak. And the GOP doesnt care. all they want is to win, and clearly at any cost. even the truth is trampled if it gets in their way. and boy does it ever!
of bad behavior. It's also bad for big business.
They need the volunteer grassroots organizing power of WND's base readers.
Acorn meet Generation Joshua, these kids already know that ACORN is the evil tool to spread an atheistic NWO.
Porter's organization is connected with NCPPR through Project 21, and that is part of the money trail that funds the astroturf-like articles at WND. WND readers have no clue (generally) that they are being recruited by people astroturfing them.
Here is Senator Coburn's testimonial to how they were crucial to getting him elected.
From article:
Senator Coburn:
They were our grassroots. They were the key. Generation Joshua was the most successful thing I've ever seen in politics, and my hope is that it'll continue.
the money be it obvious or otherwise is what counts.
Health care protest teabag party hot dogs and pop for the kids.
Whens the left going to get it?
They don't know Porter gets money from NCPPR (much of it used to specifically recruit blacks - read the sourcewatch page)
The foot soldier's think they are doing it for God.
You do realize Generation Joshua, is a functional and legal PAC too right? They endorsed Huckabee last time, even though the director (then) of HSLDA didn't know or agree. When he objected, he was booted. Expect a WND, HSLDA, grassroots organization in 2012 for Huckabee.
Michael Farris, who took over HSLDA, is heavily using it as a PAC, voter-registration organization, and grass roots political organization. It was supposed to just monitor and protect the legal right to homeschool. Mission creep in the extreme. He is a true believer though in a hard-right Christian take-over of the country. Not everyone is an astroturfer. This is one case where a well-connected Republican got forced out by a "true believer". This is the grassroots behind Huckabee.
This may be a bit off topic, I'm not sure. But I was just watching the ravings of Beck and an idea hit me. Beck is trying to start his own political party. He's tonight ranting against the right and the left. He's trying to be the man these poor folks turn to, to hear the truth and for protection from whatever he feels they need protection from. I think if the republicans were smart, they would sit back and allow him to do this. He would soak up all the crazies and then they could perhaps get the independents who walked away from them back again.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
not sit back and let Limbaugh, Beck, etc etc do their thing?
than two sides to everything. Maybe there needs to be more than two parties. Maybe the two parties that we have now, and that includes the Democrats, are really both just as corrupt as the other, and both work for the same puppetmasters. Just because one party is wrong or bad, it does not automatically make the other party or their position right or good.
He probably got the idea from libs and progressives who are mulling it over. That would make it a threat. A true believer with a messiah complex. This is going to be amusing.
i have been waiting for smart COHERENT people from the GOP, [yes, there are many] who have good ideas, but are drowned out by the reichwing wackos that used to be totally on the fringe, but now are mainstream, to stand up to these blowhards.... Jon Henke. has stated what i as someone who knows that the GOP, before raygun, was a party that used to be more like libertarians, than the mouth of the south. the GOP has been hijacked and it will take the smart thinking young GOP to take it out of the dirt, where they are..... you cant win elections with 25% of x-tian whites in the south, and the poison they spew.... if palin is the best the GOP has, they are screwed.....
I don't think they were hijacked. I think they turned to the right wingers because they needed their votes. Example look who bush played to in his first run. Rove even told him he needed these people. So okay, now they have them and some of the more sane ones have walked away and become independents. The republicans are left with this albatross hanging around their neck and they don't know how to rid themselves of it or even if they should. Without the albatross, what would they have right now? The sooner they can figure out a way to seperate themselves from the right wing fringe the better they will be. Now would be an excellent time for them to begin, if it isn't too late for 2012. Let Beck take the lead with the fringe and lead them into back under the rock.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Right-wing bat sh*t for brains mongrels should know their enemies. It is the right wing GOP that believes in illegally detaining, wiretapping w/o oversight, and taking a crap on the constitution; not the liberals, progressives and independents. What a bunch of morons.
And this is what Beck is doing. He's telling these same insane people who their enemies are. He is telling them it is government in general. He is telling them the govt is destroying their country. He's pointing out that it happened under bush and now Obama. He is basically telling them that he is the only one they can or should trust.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
The government is supposed to be, legend has it, of, for, and by the people. Well, that's not true, as it is entirely owned by corporations. So one could truthfully say that the corporate controlled government of the US is destroying the country.
I did not know until recently, that Beck is evoking the ghost of Willard Cleon Skousen, an ex-FBI agent so deluded that J. Edgar Hoover and team dismissed him as a fringe nut.
Skousen tried to claim strong credentials at the very top of the FBI, and as an expert on communism, but these were all lies.
A Rear Admiral named Ward who Skousen tried to recruit told the FBI that Skousen impressed him as an ‘unprincipled racketeer in anticommunism’ who is ‘money mad’ and who is doing anything and everything to exploit the subject ... of anti-communist hysteria.
FBI claimed Skousen hurt the FBI's more legitimate attempts at thwarting real attempts by Moscow to harm the US or to advance their plans. (Considering Stalin, that would not have been too pretty.)
So this CROOK from the John Birch Society, who Hoover debunked and refuted and rejected, that's who Glenn Beck is lionizing and promoting.
David Neiwert covered this on Ornicus, just as I was reading a website by "Ernie1241" who got some 400,000 pages on the far right fringe from FBI records, some 2000 pages on Skousen alone.
This is not just silliness. They are determined to win. Skousen's solution for "communist subversion", i.e. normal American liberal democratic principles, was the takeover by a totalitarian govt, led by their Christian Right faction and groups (which was, of course, very anti-Christian in reality).
Warm up those leftovers for you?
all of those policies of the Bush administration, and in some cases strenthening them.
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That's absolutely true. Obama went to Bush before the first bailout of Wall Street and said "Tell me what you want and I'll sell it", or similar.
That's more corporate-fascism, corporatism, etc. That's an extreme extension of the (socialist?!!) bailout of the Savings and Loans by Poppy Bush in the 80-90s, continued by Clinton, after the S and Ls were looted by not only the management/owners but, according to Pete Brewton, looted most heavily by the Mafia and CIA.
However with Beck and that crowd and Fascism, you ain't seen nothing yet. They've COMPLETELY MISREPRESENTED the cause of the ongoing economic crash as "liberalism" instead of rampant looting of trillions by Wall Street, and the engineered outsourcing of jobs.
By blaming the poor, weak, minorities, etc. and "subprime mortgages", instead of blaming the Captains of Capital and their Derivatives casino and pre-planned pre-orchestrated bailouts, they are setting up all the pins for a vicious fascist backlash against ALL forms of Liberalism, including the Enlightenment and the original American system. Think El Salvador under Aubisson and Duarte, perhaps, or Chile under Pinochet. I hope not, but I know that this is their ultimate wet dream.
You're behind the curve Henke. The most glaring example of what you object to was John McCain selecting one of these extremists for his running mate. So worry not. Enough members of your party crossed over because they saw this craziness last fall.
The people of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage." J.K. Galbraith
I bet McCain will go to his grave regretting his choice of Palin. She took him down into mud from which he can never recover. For the rest of his life he has to defend her due to his decision to proclaim she was ready to be vice president and even president of this country.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
call me crazy, that's ok, but McCain was a ringer from the getgo. There is no way ANY Republican could win after Bush, the fall guy for global war and disaster, intentionally destroyed America, so they let McCain have a chance to be in the limelight, probably more money too.
McCain acted like a ringer, every bit as much as John Kerry acted like a ringer in 2004. Palin was certainly a "dark horse" but she's much more than stupid. Palin's mentor, the ever-patriotic Joe Vogler (as probably everyone here knows), was promoting secession for Alaska and seeking support from the Islamic Republic of Iran, our "enemy" at the time.
Palin's heavy backers included the Council for National Policy, a collection of Christian totalitarian fascists put together by "Left Behind" author Tim LaHaye, which played a role in the slaughter of 200,000 Guatemalan peasants in the 80s under a colleague of Pat Robertson named Gen Rios Montt, and which has ties to the World Anti-Communist League, which is a collection of fascists from America, Germany, Italy, E.Europe, Japan, Taiwan, and S.Korea, etc.
One website suggested that Al-Qaeda is the Middle Eastern wing of the World Anti-Communist League, which makes perfect sense, considering that the Afghan Muj got heavy support from the Christian Coalition and had three lobby groups inside the Heritage Foundation offices.
Did Kerry ever mention members of the Bush admin who had been prosecuted (and I think convicted) for secretly and illegally giving weapons to Iran, for another illegal covert operation, the Contras? (Lee Hamilton helped cover that up for Reagan and Bush. Damage control.) Kerry could have even mentioned the related October Surprise Conspiracy, which Dems buried but Robert Perry investigated and unveiled, arming Iran via Casey and Bush and CIA to get them to KEEP the hostages until after the Reagan inauguration.
Did Kerry ever mention that his Kerry Commission attempted to prosecute members of Bush Seniors admin, re-hired for Bush Junior's admin and up to the same tricks, for collusion with the "Bank of Al-Qaeda" aka BCCI? BCCI was involved in terorrism, arms trade, narcotics, and held accounts for CIA, Oliver North, the Medellin Cartel, and radical Islamist groups.
No, Kerry was silent on those matters. He allowed himself to be defined by his opponents.
That's what I call a "ringer", unfortunately, since I actually campaigned for John Kerry based on what I had learned about Bushco by that time.
It's not Obama that I support per se, but the very idea of Liberalism, in it's fullest sense, and the very idea of democracy.
And for those goofs who say "we're a Republic, not a Democracy" and that "two wolves and a sheep" meme, tell them that a Republic is a SYSTEM of government, with a legislature and representatives. On the other hand, democracy means a style of government where the voice of the People is what determines policy. The Republic of Iran and the Republic of North Korea are also republics, but they are not democratic. "America" stands for democracy inside a republic.
(And where do they get off complaining about "mob rule"?)
Today, America is a plutocracy, rule by the wealthy set, protected behind their legalistic corporate veil, and by the tax-free foundations they front and use to play politics and astroturf. It's not that "failure of democracy leading to totalitarianism" they cry about, it's a corporatocracy exercising the shallow pretense of democracy.
And tell them, "neo-liberal" is not "liberal". It's lassez-faire "free market" totalitarianism, it's NAFTA and GATT and the WTO and it's a false doctrine protecting the wealthy plutocrats from criticism and from democracy.
Our Founders all but outlawed the form of "corporation". They had experience with that --- the British Crown Corporations, the East India Company, the Boston Tea Party, the American Revolutionary War. Now humans hiding behind corporate forms rule OVER mortal human beings.
I predicted 3 yrs ago that the American Right would destroy itself and all that would remain would be the extremist in the party. When I tried to explain that to my right wing friends they just laughed at me. They are not laughing now. They are concerned that they no longer have a political party and they are correct. That's why I have to giggle when "pundits" predict double digit losses for the Dems in 2010'. The minorites and the youth of this nation will keep the Republicans on the outside looking in for years to come IMO. The more that the extremist come out, the farther those two groups will move away from them and that will surely benefit Democrats in the near term.
Jerome Corsi did not suggest that Obama was preparing concentration camps, as this post suggests, but he merely stated the fact that the camps currently being built under the $385 million contract given to KBR are of the exact type that some people think could be used as camps for political dissidents, such as happened in Nazi Germany. With all the power that the Bush administration gave to the executive branch and which Obama now retains, and the COG plans in place, it is not unrealistic to think that at some point the US could begin to go down the path that Nazi Germany did. I think sensible people should discuss this.
Man snooder, you nailed that one. They WILL be coming for dissidents. You better erase your hard drive immediately, just to be on the safe side. You are exactly the type they are looking for. "Some people" have witnessed the construction of these camps. You should be very afraid. Maybe you'll be okay, but I wouldn't take any chances. Go underground as soon as possible.
I would guess that many people have witnessed the construction of these camps, and that a lot of people are even employed in the construction of them, since KBR has a $385 million contract to build them.
You say that "camps" are being built now. Do you have any evidence for this? All you have mentioned so far is a contract to be ready to build emergency housing on short notice. Have you read the contract?
"Some people think could be used"? That's pretty weak. What people think this? And why? As we see with Fox "News", the line "some people are saying" is a way to legitimate false or distorted information. Avoid it.
For years, David Neiwert has been reporting on how "the US could begin to go down the path that Nazi Germany did". He does a good job of reporting and explaining this process, and I recommend his major online series.
One of the key points he makes is that fascism relies on average citizens getting paranoid and looking for scapegoats. They are also fed conspiracy theories, to rile them up. Be careful about buying into these "concentration camp" conspiracy theories, lest you become what you oppose.
core thesis at Orcinus and the book Eliminationists is misleading because it fails to note that most of the ideas, agendas, talking points, and memes in general that regularly migrate from the extremist right in America into mainstream conservatism, actually originate from government and intelligence agency and foundation funded propaganda and provocatuers, such as the FBI, the SPLC, and the ADL, and the Ford Foundation. This helps to push the agenda of a tiny elite and is not representative of any group of Americans of any significant size, if any. In other words, the "extremeist right" barely exists, and to the extent that is does, it is run, controlled, and in some cases founded by the government and foundation funded groups. The constant harping on this subject by those such as the author only serve to further this agenda and cause division among people.
?
It's not the people pushing these ideas through special interest groups and the media who are causing the problems, it's authors like David who are shining a light on them who are causing all the problems. Makes perfect sense.
So our best bet is to stay ignorant and stay happy.
Poplawski, the Holocaust musuem guy, and a few others? Sure, that is terrible that these lunatics murdered people. But you can count them on one hand. To suggest that this is some kind of movement or huge, problematic, growing ideology among Amercans is ludicrous. So yes, people that constantly talk about it and hype it are a problem.
The complete hijacking of a meaningful debate on healthcare reform could be considered a problem. Oh, and it just happens to be the one that is the subject of this posting. Surely, you don't believe that the search for a better way of providing healthcare has gone very well over the past few months?
of 'right-wing extremists' and 'radical hate-groups' that the author, and the SPLC, and others are always talking about. I'm not talking about the health care debate, unless you are suggesting that 'radical hate groups' have something to do with the health care debate. The subject of this post is 'mainstreaming extremist ideas'.
But, where I live many, many candidates for political office at all levels of government explicitly pander to this demographic. This demographic will show up, they are organized, and the confrontation and radical statements on the campaign trail get much press.
What do you see as the solution then to getting candidates who are desperate for name recognition from being the ones in the vanguard of giving them recognition?
I also assume you are not part of the homeschool movement then?
When you say that either the government or non-governmental groups have created these far right ideas, what are your sources for this claim?
Are you saying that the John Birch Society was a front-group? That segregationist thugs were just paid actors? That the 1960's Minutemen were rogue FBI agents? That the Klan and the neo-nazis are actually Jewish anti-fascists? That the "Patriot Movement", the Order, Posse Comitatus, the Montana Freemen, the "sovereign citizens", the current Minute Men, and the Christian-supremacist movement are all shills for the Ford Foundation? Was Tim McVeigh an agent of the Stonecutters? Are the teabaggers, birthers, deathers, and KahZetters products of the liberal blogosphere?
'Cause that's the biggest crock I've heard of all week.
Evidence means something, Snooder, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
The ideas of the Republicans and the Right Media and Blogosphere ARE grassroots eliminationist and far right ideas that are less 'fringe' than many realize. Neiwert's "transmission belt" is valid, IMO.
However, if Snooder is talking about the "Liberal Establishment", the Rockefellers and Ford Foundation and others with historical examples of links to and leadership by the CIA and by quiet pro-fascist elements (Truman accused the CEO of Standard Oil of outright "treason" for backing the Nazis with chemicals and oil and money), there's a case to be made that this upper tier offers clandestine support for the far Right as well as "liberal" causes like hospitals and libraries.
I've seen reports on the Left that the Klan included a lot of FBI agents. I also learned, beyond dispute, that top dog Neo-cons Richard Perle and Dick Cheney (and probably others) are members of Rockefeller's and Brzezinski's Trilateral Commission and CFR.
I saw Cheney at an awards banquet on YT thanking David Rockefeller for allowing him to serve as President of the CFR, Cheney laughing about keeping this secret from his constituents in Wyoming, and I was sent a 2008 membership list for the TLC by one of their secretaries (I phoned them up). The list includes Richard Perle and Dick Cheney as members of that group of wealthy "liberal" elite banking, corporate, and intelligence types, from around the planet, despite the public repudiation of Cheney et al. by Zbigniew Brzezinski, Obama's unofficial advisor.
So they cannot be THAT far apart if they belong to the same elite organizations.
I think that's pretty extraordinary evidence, pretty simple too.
Right Wingnuts ALSO refuse to believe that George Soros helped bail out Bush's Harken Energy, or that Soros was a big investor in the Carlyle Group (along with Poppy Bush and Bin Laden's brother Shafiq and some CIA jerks like Frank Carlucci, and Bush's lawyer James Baker who blocked a "9-11 Families" civil suit against the Saudis, etc.), and they refuse to believe that Soros' "Open Society" institute functions as a CIA-related front for neo-liberal capitalism, alongside the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and USAID. They apparently believe that this billionaire currency speculator is really a Birkenstock-wearing hippie who backs every Left liberal dream, simply because he funnels money to the Democratic Party.
However, the mainstreaming of JBS and Skousen propaganda, which you hear repeatedly without attribution, not by the obscure John Birch Society, but by the very mainstream Fox Network, is much to be concerned about, because a good portion of the public eats it up, especially as their paychecks shrink.
By using incendiary words like radical, dangerous and un-American, the Republican Party necessarily promotes division and unrest among the electorate. This constant litany of fear has always been an important part of their strategy. The unseen consequence of this fear mongering, however, has been that those individuals and groups that are paranoid and hateful about issues that don’t really have anything to do with conservative ideology have attached themselves to the Republican Party. By embracing the idea that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, they have created a golem that is eventually going to destroy them.
Mike Burns
http://www.disorderlyreport.com/
thats always calling the Republicans 'radical' and 'dangerous' and 'extremist' as they do in this post? The division and unrest and the litany of fear is an important part of both of their stategies, on behalf of their mutual masters above them. It is this that people fail to realize. Its a rigged game, like pro wrestling. Both parties are bought and paid for by the same promoter, like a Don King fight.
is that the camps that are being built and are said to be for 'disasters or emergencies' could just as easily be used to hold political dissidents. So the camps are the same, and they exist. All that is unknown is what they will eventually be used for.
"the camps are the same, and they exist"
Where? What is your source for this information? What makes you think that source is reliable?
Are you sure that you aren't being shown pictures of normal prisons, hoodwinked by someone trying to make a fast buck off of you?
Certainly it's important to inform the public about lies and distortions, but must the liberal talk shows spend every waking minute on FOXTV-Republican nutcases? Could they not use that precious air time constructively by examining progressive efforts by members in Congress or in the White House who are actually working for the people and not for the corporations? Why can't we learn more about the Democrats than about the Republicans?
Obama has driven Republicans to the point of desperation, and in their desperation, they've turned to a force they don't fully understand, an underlying rage and confusion directed at a changing world around them.
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Birthers-Campers-Deathers
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Starve the WAR Beast...
... Feed Americans.
How would one ever tell her to "stay classy"? She is one of a kind.
Wing Nut Daily ?
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