How Far Will They Get? Torture Porn And The Jack Bauer Republicans

The article in today's  Crooks and Liars is one of the most disturbing things I have read in a long time.

It's sad how conservatives have been influenced by FOX's "24" and adopted Jack Bauer's persona all for themselves. The torture scenes seem to have seeped into their consciousnesses and made them believe that this is how all good Americans should handle impossibly dangerous situations. ... Check out the [below] video ... It's torture porn.

The extent of the torture and violence of 24 led the dean of West Point, U.S. Army Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, to visit the set of 24 last fall to:

...voice their concern that the show's central political premise--that the letter of American law must be sacrificed for the country's security--was having a toxic effect.

And now that "toxic effect" is taking hold in bold and almost unimaginable of ways.

Two former veterans of the Iraq war are running for congress. They both were fired from the military under charges of murder and torture of detainees.  And they've both made the charges the centers of their campaigns. 

The Daily Beast has labeled them Jack Bauer Republicans.


The Daily Beast:

Last week, Ilario Pantano won the Republican nomination in North Carolina’s 7th District...

... In April 2004, Pantano killed two unarmed Iraqi detainees, twice unloading his gun into their bodies and firing between 50 and 60 shots in total. Afterward, he placed a sign over the corpses featuring the Marines' slogan “No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy” as a message to the local population.   

His excuse was "self defense." Two unarmed men. 60 bullets. Self defense. Sidetrack: In the musical Chicago, one of the women on Murderers' Row explains her case: "I was carving up the chicken for dinner minding my own business when in comes my husband Wilber in a jealous rage. 'You been screwin' the milkman?' He was crazy. 'You been screwin' the milkman?!' And then that's when he ran into my knife. He ran into my knife ten times!" (The Cell Block Tango). 

Sorry, but the analogy was too good to pass up. 60 bullets can't be any part of a defense. It's just as ridiculous as someone running into a knife ten times. Both are the definition of overkill. And the sign only demonstrated his intense hatred for the people.

While Pantano says that he doesn't want his campaign to dwell in the past, the same cannot be said for retired Lt. Col. Allen West, running in Florida’s 22nd District to replace Democratic Rep. Ron Klein.

West was forced to retire from the Army and fined $5,000 after he admitted to apprehending an Iraqi policeman he suspected of planning an ambush, watching as his troops beat him, and then firing a gunshot by the Iraqi’s head in order to scare him into divulging information. West said the decision saved lives by preventing an ambush. But no plot was ever discovered and the policeman in question later told The New York Times that he had no knowledge of any attacks.

"... I made the decision where I sacrificed my military career for the lives of my men, ...I will sacrifice every ounce of me to be your next congressman."

Of course, Sarah Palin has endorsed West on her Facebook page claiming he served "with distinction." But she also pointed out (unwittingly) the scary part of his campaign: his popularity has garnered twice as much in campaign donations than the cash raised by Democratic Florida Congressman Klein.

The Rabid Right is becoming bold enough to promote military sadists to congressional seats. How far will they go next? Will these two actually win their respective elections?  Watch this video posted by Crooks and Liars and ask yourself whether or not you want a "Jack Bauer  Republican" to represent you in Congress.

Warning: it's not for the squeamish.

Then watch this newscast about 24 and its influence.

Cover Your Ears And Hold Your Stomachs: Ratchet-Voice Comes Back To California

Right Wing Watch has this to say about Lou Engle's upcoming prayer rally in Sacramento: 

On the tenth anniversary of that event, Engle is bringing The Call back to California as he seeks to build a "wall of intercession for the battle for marriage, as well as the battle for the sanctity of life" and unleash a "great, great Jesus movement" that will "literally be a wall that holds back darkness in our nation": 

There is a kind of musical instrument known as a ratchet that perfectly describes Lou Engle's voice: 

(wikipedia) A ratchet, also called a noisemaker (or, when used in Judaism, a gragger (etymologically from Yiddish: גראַגער) or ra'ashan (Hebrew: רעשן‎)), is an orchestral musical instrument played by percussionists. Operating on the principle of the ratchet device, a gearwheel and a stiff board is mounted on a handle, which can be freely rotated. The handle is held and the whole mechanism is swung around, the momentum causing the board to click against the gearwheel, making a clicking and rattling noise. Alternatively, smaller ratchets are sometimes held still or mounted and the handle turned rapidly by the player.

In Judaism, the gragger (or noisemaker) is used for the holiday of Purim. The gragger is used every time Haman's name is mentioned during the reading of the Megillah.

So Lou Engle really does have ties to Judaism!

Seriously, if you've ever heard this guy speaking from a stage, you would only hope that what he has isn't contagious and that includes his brand of holiness. Regardless of what he releases to the press, Engle hates gays to the point that he would rather kill them all than convert them, let alone tolerate them. Most evangelicals cover their loathing with a thin veneer of "love and concern" but not Lou. He's a Reconstructionist through and through and that raspy voice will bore into the brains of his audience (yes, even the ones who do have brains) and declare that YOU MUST BE CHRISTIAN in order to be considered worthy of God's love.

The proselytizing of the Christian Right has gotten out of hand. It is beyond preaching, beyond evangelizing, beyond moralizing. 

It has become threatening.

Just a thought.

Africa Still Looking To America To Go BACKWARDS!

From ALOT:
 

BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — A judge convicted a gay couple in Malawi Tuesday of unnatural acts and gross indecency after a trial that drew worldwide condemnation of this southern African country's colonial-era laws on homosexuality.

Blantyre Chief Resident Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa said the sentencing will take place on Thursday. The couple could be imprisoned for up to 14 years.

This should have been in the commerce section of the news. After all, homophobia is an export of the U.S.'s Christian Right. The latest cargo unloaded by Lou Engle in his recent visit to Uganda may be proof that uber-Christians are still taking to heart Rick Warren's motto: "Whatever It Takes."

Advice To The New Miss USA: Get Bodyguards

Not Exactly A Precious Prejean Moment

Right, Left, Middle and Just Plain Awful pundits are still burning the midnight oil as I write this. And I'm no exception. After all, we're still smarting from the bizarre fracas that was Carrie Prejean. This situation, however, is much more serious.

The reaction to Ms. Rima Fakih being crowned Miss USA is more like hysteria - on both sides. Ditto the reaction to Miss Oklahoma's remarks before being chosen as second runner-up. So which side is louder, more vicious, more vulgar?  

While the Left got in a few uncouth remarks, I'm forced to say that the ultra-Christofascist Right takes the prize in the remarks of one  Debbie Schlussel. Forget Fox News' comments about Miss Oklahoma's losing answer,  Schlussel has the real scoop on Rima because she's has ties to Islamic terrorism all over the place! Schlussle intimates that she and she alone has uncovered so much about Fakih that she (Schlussel) should be considered a hero.

 

From Fox News:

An unhappy crowd booed Miss USA judge Oscar Nunez when he asked Miss Oklahoma Morgan Elizabeth Woolard a question about Arizona’s immigration law on Sunday night’s pageant.

"I'm a huge believer in states' rights. I think that's what's so wonderful about America," Woolard said. "So I think it's perfectly fine for Arizona to create that law."

Think Progress:
– Fox News’s Gretchen Carlson complained that Woolard’s “informed opinion” may have cost her the crown, and said that Fakih may have won because we live in a “PC society.” [5/17/10]

The American Prospect:

The level of anger is just so plainly disproportionate to the matter at hand as to be self-implicating. These people aren't worried about terrorism -- they're offended by the idea of Muslims being integrated into the most mundane and banal aspects of American society. 
-- A. Serwer

Michelle Malkin is savvy enough to mostly cloak her freak-out behind horror over Fakih's politics (although she can't resist a dig at those "identity politics" people), while other conservative bloggers just go ahead and call her a terrorist. Professional Islamophobe Daniel Pipes combs the internet for other instances in which Muslim women have won beauty contests, and concludes there's some kind of "an odd form of affirmative action" going on. Because how could anyone choose a Muslim over a "real American" in a beauty contest?

 But she's a filthy Muslim/terrorist slut! whose crown was financed by a Hammas terrorist!

In The Case Of Rep. Mark Souder, Abstinence REALLY DOES Make The Heart Grow Fonder!!

And gets you the title:

BONEHEAD OF THE MONTH!

From TPM:

Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) had an affair with a part-time staffer named Tracy Jackson, Fox is reporting. Jackson played the role of interviewer for a Souder Web video show on the issues of the day -- including one on the value of abstinence.

The fact that it was reported by Fox News is ridiculous enough, I guess. When you're so stupid in your hypocrisy that even Fox has to show it... Anyway, stay tuned.

Bring Forth The Gays! Bring Forth The Jews! And.. RELEASE THE KAGAN!!

  

Below the thunders of the upper deep;
 Far far beneath in the abysmal sea,
 His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
 The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
 About his shadowy sides; above him swell
 Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
 And far away into the sickly light,
 From many a wondrous grot and secret cell

 - from The Kraken, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

OK, I got the idea for the title from Jon Stewart's take on the Right's reaction to the nomination of Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. Watch it below. He is, as always, spot on. Any fan of fantasy and science-fiction films is familiar with The Kraken, a mythical beast of the sea sometimes physically depicted as a giant squid. The Right takes Kagan's nomination as an  attack, directly hitting its "left" flank in the culture war.

But the Right seems confused in its counterattack: lesbian? no experience? anti-military? Harriet Miers? Intelligence? As Stewart put it: "She's a recordless entity with no paper trail."

The comparisons to Harriet Miers are, of course, ridiculous: Miers committed THE public relations suicide of the decade when she said of George Bush, "He's the most brilliant man I have ever met." So much for judgment. She also received her law degree at Pat Robertson's Regent University, so you could pretty well determine the direction of her  stances, especially concerning gay rights. Anyway, after her fifteen minutes, she was put back in her cage for two years, during which she was constantly  pressured by Johua Bolton to resign. She now works for the Dallas law firm known as Locke Lord Bissell Lamp, Liddell.  

Any comparisons come from desperate Right wingnuts or people who get their news from Fox. 

We Fear What We Don't Know

The Judicial Crisis Network is just coming out with an ad requesting that the Obama administration make every effort to make all of Kagan's records (and thoughts) from the Clinton administration public. They are obviously scared of what they don't know. That's understandable. What's not understandable is taking a "pre-emptive strike" stance by unleashing a video that calls into account her limited experience and her stance against military recruitment on college campuses. The latter is akin to a tempest in a teapot. Her knowledge of the Constitution and American law are never questioned. Neither are her presentations to the Supreme Court as Solicitor General.

The Intelligent Lesbian

The moment I saw a picture of Elena Kagan, I thought "Well, this will be interesting." Afterwards, I was struck by her impressive background and realize that Tony Perkins had a right to be afraid of her: she might become the most intelligent of the justices. Say what? An intelligent President picking an intelligent SCOTUS justice?  Horrors!! OMG! She's a shorter, stouter Rachel Maddow! What will become of us!

So with the looming passage of ENDA, the Christian Right has come forth in battle armed with the question of moral fitness: Elena Kagan is gay and she'll swing the Supreme Court towards acceptance of gay marriage and gay rights in general. It makes no difference that Kagan has already been quoted as saying she does not believe that the Constitution supports gay marriage, but the mere possibility that she might be gay makes her totally unfit in their eyes. And any position that she has taken is skewed toward the far left:

"As the Harvard Law School Dean, Elena Kagan tried to bar the military from recruiting on her law school's campus during the height of the Iraq War based on her opposition to the federal law restricting homosexuals in the military. 

"...Ms. Kagan's incredibly hostile view of the military suggests she is out of touch with mainstream sensibilities and obedience to the rule of law. President Obama promised a nominee committed to the 'rule of law,' but, instead, he appears to have nominated a hard-left activist to the Supreme Court.

Of course, Bryan Fischer of American Family Association is apoplectic:

... [They want] an activist on the bench, a crusader, and knows that a homosexual judge will tilt the playing field on behalf of the legalization and social endorsement of sexually aberrant behavior.

The day a homosexual is elevated to the bench, the end will have come for the principle of sexual normalcy, the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution. That's too big a price to pay.

So left, center-left, center, center-right? Like a chess player who can't make up his mind, the Right is all around the board with Kagan. The problem the Right has is that some of their clan support Kagan's nomination: she has been sympathetic to the woes of big business. The Court might find itself in  the position of deciding regulation or deregulation of businesses like British Petroleum, so the fate of the environment can rest in Kagan's decisions.

And then there's Pat Buchanan's take on the nomination: not enough African-Americans on SCOTUS and too many Jews:

If Kagan is confirmed, Jews, who represent less than 2 percent of the U.S. population, will have 33 percent of the Supreme Court seats.

So there we have the Right's precise, well-informed, analysis of Elena Kagan's nomination to SCOTUS: she's a too-intelligent, military-hating, allegedly lesbian Jew who never saw the inside of a courtroom. 

Hey, that's better than Scalia, isn't it?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Release the Kagan
www.thedailyshow.com

George Rekers Vs The Nashville Flood: The Media's Decisions

Which is more important? 

We all have our passions ...

and they must be made known.

Anderson Cooper has HUMANITY. Janet Porter hawks DOMINION over everything,   Lou Engle SANCTIONS UGANDA and Tony Perkins' favorite words are CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION. With me, it's HYPOCRISY.

But on his CNN program, Anderson Cooper 360,  taught me a valuable lesson: good journalism concentrates on the truly important things. At times, those things may seem frivolous, even salacious, but they are important for people to know.

As I watched his fervor in relating what the city of Nashville was going through and the determination of its people to immediately help one another to recuperate and rebuild, I realized that he was doing what he believed should be done: tell the rest of us about the whole story no matter how horrendous or tragic, mawkish or even numbing it may seem. By now, everyone knows that Cooper loves being in the middle of the conflict or disaster: his coverage of Haiti continues even though some news sources have dropped it all together. Cooper's coverage, however, does not go for the sensational, but instead earnestly attempts the real. 

I covered the George Rekers scandal from the moment I read Wayne Besen's account. Wayne's report came immediately after the Miami New Times piece (within one hour, actually) and I submitted mine to OpEdNews within the next several hours. I looked anxiously for any other news sources. Over a period of 24 hours, I found only Joe  Jervis   (Joe.My.God), Alvin McEwen (Huffington Post), and Stephen Colbert. The Miami New Times gave updates, followed immediately by first-hand interviews by Joe  Jervis. I waited another 12 hours and discovered Jay Leno, Craig Ferguson, Rachel Maddow, and Joy Behar along with continuing updates by Besen and Jervis  upon which I wrote another piece and submitted it to OpEdNews. However, I was getting frustrated. I must have googled "George Alan Rekers" a thousand times in 24 hours, almost always coming up with nothing (yes, there was a small interview with the gay online magazine, Unzipped, but it wasn't publicized very well) Then I found out that Rekers' rentboy, Julien, acquiesed to an interview on Anderson Cooper 360. 

I was definitely anxious to see how the scandal and the rentboy would be treated. I was not let down: the story was told in a very straightforward manner, Julien was treated with respect and Cooper's ending included the formal statement by the Family Research Council. Yes, it was fair and balanced (ahem). 

Watching CNN's other stories impacted me in a way I had not expected: Cooper and CNN gave as much time and attention to Rekers' story as they did to the looming epidemic in Haiti and the murder of UVA student Yardley Love. And while the reporting was done in several different styles (Julien's interview was with CNN's Randi Kaye), each report was given its own impetus ... and its own stature among the rest. The message was clear: this was an IMPORTANT story and people should know about it. The focus was not placed entirely on Julien. That would have been too tempting for any other newscast; instead, the focus was on Rekers and his hypocrisy. 

And here I thought that only a few investigators and late-night comics considered it newsworthy.

Of course, other people (namely people like Tony Perkins and James Dobson) will put down CNN and Cooper because they consider anyone placing them in a bad light (or under a microscope) to be "anti-Christian." Janet Porter will point out that it's another reason  why America's Christian community should have "dominion" over the media. Lou Engles will try to blame Julien and all gays. And Pat Robertson will say, well, ah, something stupid.

Joe Jervis thought that CNN's coverage of the scandal (including Lucien's interview) was a disappointment and that Rachel Maddow's comments rocked. I liked both: Cooper 's job was to present the news while Maddow's job was to analyze the news and comment on it. 

Inmany case, the story is now "world class" thanks to sound investigative reporting. BTW, FOX "News" has not covered it. Go ahead and google it. Go to Fox's website and search. Unless it has done something between the time that I'm writing and the time you're reading, I'll venture a guess that you will find ... nothing. 

It doesn't matter, really. You know that FOX will end it with their (now) ubiquitous, but lame piece of political philosophy: "Blame Obama."

Just a thought.