Arizona: The Right's New War Zone - Because The Right Wants War - ANY War!

Civil War. Culture War. Immigration War. Race War. Genocide. Regicide. 

Pick one...or all.

You'd think that George Bush's taste for war would have slated any hawk's thirsty aggression, but it seems that our American species of hawk is never really satisfied. We gave them Iraq and Afghanistan to drink from, but besides an enormous bloodlust, hawkish Right-wingers have a kind of ADD that affects their leaders and journalists: "Wars? What Wars?" When's the last time you saw FOX News carry anything substantial about the Middle East NOT involving Israel or Iran?

Come to think of it, have you ever known a rabid Right-winger who was not a hawk?  Maybe it's in the genes: close-minded aggression seems to ooze from their pores. They were meant to bark orders as well as take them. Maybe it's in their traditions (check out the elite all male Hampden-Sydney College to get a taste of the mawkish-but-hawkish preppy life that has managed to survive).

Arizona Do Or Die

Today's most fertile ground for aggression is, obviously, the southwestern state of Arizona. And the war zone's headlines for today were truly chilling: it's new "papers or else" law is old news. Now it has gone as far as banning ethnic studies and firing teachers who have heavy accents. And the Southern Poverty Law Center has discovered that the lawyer who drafted Arizona's new racial profiling law is himself part of an anti-immigration hate group. The group is, ironically, called FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform), but has nothing to do with fairness: some of its employees are registered members of the Pioneer Fund and various other white supremicist groups. The lawyer, Dan Stein, went head-to-head with Rachel Maddow, so it wasn't really a "fair" battle, and he came out looking very angry and on the "you're just trying to smear us" defensive. Maddow's  determination to get to what FAIR was founded upon is truly is awesome. Watch it below.

Battlecry for Texas: "Nullification First!"

Say what you will about the Right's "war fever, " it's systemic in some states. One year ago, Governor Rick Perry said this:

We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that? But Texas is a very unique place, and a pretty independent lot to boot.

But today's Texas-line-of-reasoning from the website, Texas Secede! is more cautious (but nonetheless sinister):

Right now, unlike any other time in US history, a nullification movement has taken hold — and is growing — in most of the US states, including Texas. This means there is a strong, public-centered, and legally-informed opposition to the bloated despotism reigning in Washington, and a growing intent to invoke the Consitution itself to tell both the White House and Congress that their "federal laws" are null and void wherever they cross the line drawn by the Tenth Amendment.

A Rasmussen Reports poll found that 48% of Republicans in Texas favored secession. Polls of the nullification movement should prove to be even more enlightening.

Righteous Assasination

Lately, the rhetorical weapon espoused by the new "social conservatives" is anything but conservative: Republicans are calling President Obama everything from "monster" to "Anti-Christ." Ministers have openly prayed for the death of Obama and Supreme Court Justices as well. Name-calling, however, is probably the most cowardly weapon of choice for today's Right: when violence actually does ensue, they conveniently (and ludicrously) look the other way. The fact remains, however: rhetoric can kill. Today's legal minds have a name for the results of purposely inflamatory speech: righteous assasination.

"I am dedicating my life to the death of Obama and every employee of the federal government," the posting said. It ended with a call to arms: "This is war. Join me. Or don't. I don't care. I'm not laying down anymore."

This message was posted on Craiglist under the heading "Obama Must Die" by one Brian Dean Miller of Dallas, Texas (what is it with Texas?) He later stated that it was "fiction" but the Secret Service has not treated it as such. His mother has stated that Brian suffers from depression.

And on Twitter, several weeks ago, self-styled conservative blogger Solly Forrell openly called for the assasination of Obama, but then backtracked immediately to correct the act. 

Both threats were supposedly based upon the authors' disapproval of Obama's efforts on healthcare reform. Neither of them had read anything about the reform bill except from posts by right-wing activists. 

If You Don't Like 'Em, Deport 'Em, Or ...

By now, everyone knows that the American Family Association's Bryan Fischer wants to see every Muslim in the U.S. deported (including ones who are U.S. citizens), but he has also come out with a statement that Arizona's new immigration law is ...Biblical. That's right. God has sanctified it:

Arizona's governor Jan Brewer explained to Greta Van Susteren this week that she signed this bill into law because, as governor, she has a responsibility to protect the safety and security of Arizonans. You can't get any more biblical than that.

Now, use of the Bible as a weapon in warfare is almost as old as the Bible itself, but like incendiary rhetoric, it's very cowardly. Simply put, it's a don't-blame-me-blame-God defense against critics of aggression. The problem that humanity now faces: the Right's religious battalion has been exporting its aggression to Africa. The "kill-the-gays" bill of Uganda has emboldened Pat Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice to assist Zimbabwe and Kenya in re-drafting their constitutions. In the matter of abortions. As in no legal abortions even if the mother's life is in danger. 

And The Greatest Weapon of All: FEAR

As early as next week, the House Education and Labor Committee will start debating a bill that could do permanent damage to American liberty as we know it. Under this bill, the government will order businesses, including religious ones, to stuff their personal beliefs and hire gays and lesbians--even if the organization considers the lifestyle immoral. .... At the very least, it will force people out of business. At its worst, it will bully into silence every American who disagrees with homosexual behavior.

                                 - from "The War To ENDA All Wars" by Tony Perkins, President,                                            Family Research Council

Tony Perkins may have made his mark upon English literature with such awful-pun-headlining, but he is still considered by the Christian Right to be its knight in shining armor. In fact, his image will probably be immortalized on the side of a mountain (does it matter which one?) depicted as the valiant St. George slaying the dragon (Barack Obama). His daily missives have been full of sturm und drang about everything liberal, everything Obama, everything homosexual. And he knows that abject fear is the best source of donations. His acolytes, however, are even more virulent (and ultimately more violent?): Bill Donohue, Bryan Fischer,  Peter LaBarbera,  Janet Porter, and the ever-hoarse Lou Engle. 

What happens when unabashed Reconstructionists and Right wingnuts who are waging war with the rest of the world get together? They usually stand in front of government buildings and scream at them and the people who are in them (in this case , the backdrop was the Lincoln Memorial - go figure). They then ask God to rain down fire, brimstone, frogs, locusts, pestilence and anything else vial enough to make the American public go ape-sh*t with awe. They look like idiots, but we must always remember that they are very dangerous idiots who love war, need war. 

The clip below is very revealing: they might be "repenting" of sins like electing a Muslim to Congress, but it's clear that they won't repent of the abject hatred for anyone who disagrees with them. BTW - two things marred the event: poor attendance and poor MSM coverage. We'll see who inflates the numbers first.

And so it is: the Right is at war. Their enemies: all liberals, all immigrants, all homosexuals, all Muslims. Their current battle sites: Arizona, Texas, Washington, the entire Middle East, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda. Their rhetoric, their fervor, their money will create more wars.

Sad.

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