WADI KHALED, Lebanon — Using horses and mules to carry their possessions, Syrians crossed a shallow river Monday to reach safety in Lebanon with tales of a “catastrophic” scene back home: sectarian killings, gunmen carrying out execution-style slayings and the stench of decomposing bodies in the streets.

The president levied new sanctions on Syria already, but until now the Arab League has not acted. The Financial Times reported two weeks ago that

Pressure is mounting on Arab governments to take a stance against Syria’s brutal crackdown of the popular uprising at a time when western states are adopting initial sanctions to isolate the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

The Arab League played an instrumental role in facilitating the international military intervention in Libya, with its call for a no-fly zone. But while the US targets figures in the regime with sanctions and the European Union prepares similar measures, the League has issued only a general statement saying peaceful protesters in Arab states deserved “support, not bullets”.

Assuming the Arab League acts, Russia and China will need extra-convincing in the Security Council. Let us not even discuss the problem of asking either great power to contribute a damn thing to the effort. The Nakba Day demonstrations at the Israeli border have only complicated the picture; to be sure, Facebook had more to do with them than Damascus, but Obama couldn’t find a better week to give a speech about American policy in the Middle East.

On the other hand, culture warriors — for whom Israeli lawlessness is a kind of pornography, and whose Omega Code-vision of the Middle East allows no room for a Palestinian state — are sure to react to the speech as a sign of End Times. We’ve seen the birther meme rise and fall lately, but the Obama-as-antichrist story has been waiting in the wings — and the sheer amount of 2012 apocalypse speculation I hear these days is mind-boggling.

Perfectly reasonable people express the conviction that “something” is happening, that the world is spiraling towards a reckoning. They cite earthquakes and wars and talk about the president as if they aren’t sure which side he is on. Yes, I live in a churchgoing part of the country; I have lived through more End Times disappointments than I can count. But if there is something different this time around, it isn’t the certainty of Revelation but the conviction I hear in their voices.

No matter what the president actually says, expect the John Hagee crowd to go apeshit. Expect to hear plenty about it between now and 2012. Forget Park Place and Hawai’i public records — the new meme for the wingnuts is that Obama’s policy will destroy/threaten Israel, even if it doesn’t. Politics begins at the water’s edge, they say.

]]> http://www.osborneink.com/2011/05/obamas-middle-east-speech-guaranteed-to-give-culture-warriors-a-conniption-fit.html/feed 2 http://www.osborneink.com/2010/03/faith-based-president.html http://www.osborneink.com/2010/03/faith-based-president.html#comments Wed, 31 Mar 2010 23:00:20 +0000 Matt Osborne http://www.osborneink.com/?p=2846 Continue reading →]]>

The president gets prayers by Blackberry every day:

The morning devotional is sent each morning via email by White House faith director Joshua DuBois, the Associated Press reports. Obama said he called the daily prayer a “wonderful practice,” adding that it had started during his presidential campaign.

So this is not new, and that is the point of telling people now. Obama is gradually working at the foundations of a negative meme by consistently behaving in the opposite way.

Are these politicians so frightened of offending anyone in the Tea Party-Glenn Beck base that they would rather fall silent than call out its extremist elements and their enablers? Seemingly so, and if G.O.P. leaders of all stripes, from Romney to Mitch McConnell to Olympia Snowe to Lindsey Graham, are afraid of these forces, that’s the strongest possible indicator that the rest of us have reason to fear them too.

The FBI also raided a “Christian” militia group. From the Hutaree website:

We believe that one day, as prophecy says, there will be an Anti-Christ. All christians must know this and prepare, just as Christ commanded. Luke 22:35-37, And He said to them, “When I sent you without money bag, knapsack, and sandals, did you lack anything?” So they said, “Nothing.” 36, Then he said to them, “But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one. 37, “For I say to you that this which is written must be accomplished in me: ‘And He was numbered with transgressors,’ For the things concerning Me have an end.” This clearly states the reason for the training and preparation of the Hutaree.

Conveniently not included is Luke 22:38: “The disciples said, ‘See, Lord, here are two swords.’ ‘That is enough,’ he replied.”

Rich is essentially recognizing what I warned about one year ago. Now, I’ll make a second prediction: the mutterings among the tea party demographic will commence. My next gun show will feature at least one addled personality telling me the Hutaree, who were apparently planning to attack Muslims, were no danger to anyone. Right-wing radio will catch fire; denunciations of Teh Obamanon™ will use the same language aimed at Clinton from 1993-1995. We may even hear the term “jackbooted government thugs” used again.

And someone, somewhere will take it as a sign to begin the apocalypse.

Of course, inevitably there will be claims of an “inside job” and a “false flag” operation. There always are. The Samsara of Wacky does not permit any sort of introspection that might tear a hole in the paranoid universe.

Two swords are never enough. A dozen swords are not enough. There is no limit to the rationalizations of an apocalyptic mind.

Beloved brethren and sistren, I posted this here one year ago today:

Without delving into an argument I’ve been having for decades, this is an example of how the very globalization wrought in the name of American values can wreak changes that frighten people who hold those same values. We have changed the world, and now we will either change with it or be changed by it.

The wacky right doesn’t get this. Republicans don’t get it either. Nor do they understand just how fundamentally they have changed the country’s course away from their ideology. And it will only get worse, because Obama ‘gets it’ in a way that no previous president has. These discussions about internationalism will grow more common in the next three years. On top of global currency, add a global energy grid and even global government. As we approach 2012, the Last Stand of the Culture Warriors will raise the stakes amid an atmosphere of Mayan calendar nonsense and End-Times paranoia. For a preview of Republican strategy, watch Glenn Beck.

Via Huffington Post this morning:

Glenn Beck: I’m not standing out on the street corner with signs or anything, but there are plenty of reasons to be concerned. There are wars going on in Iraq, Afghanistan; there’s the war on terror; genocide in Africa — and more people have been killed in warfare in this century than at any other time in history. Wars are a big sign to look for, plus there is a major shift towards one-world government.

America’s blatant move towards socialism has caught the eye of the world, especially those who love the idea of a one-world government. They think this could be their opportunity to achieve their goal, and they are attempting to cash in on socialism’s current favorable public view.

The sad part is they are succeeding. The world views the European Union as a wild success and other leaders want to emulate the EU. Why do you think that Obama had such huge crowds in Germany? Because he thinks like they do.

Newsmax lists one sign of the coming apocalypse:

Globalism
Satan shall “deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth,” and shall “gather them together” to encircle and attack Israel.
– Rev. 20: 7-9 The expansion of the European Union; NAFTA and global economics; a U.S. economy flirting with socialism and the election of an internationalist president in Obama. (Emphasis mine)

And why not? He’s obviously in cahoots to cut the US nuclear arsenal in half with Russia’s. Even though 1500 nuclear weapons are more than enough to end civilization as we know it, this deal somehow makes the world more dangerous.

Meanwhile, the president obviously means Israel harm because he isn’t budging on his demand Israel stop building in East Jerusalem. Throw in some birther nonsense and you have the outline of another “authority” quoted in the article: Tim LaHaye.

It strikes me that we need a new “end times” theology; Glenn Beck has been left behind. Right wing lunatics of every kind have been left behind. If we’re ever to install a future worth having, the apocalypse-mongers have to be marginalized.

Hold out a hand. If they choose to stay in the past of their imagination, let them. And whenever this meme comes up, we must all hammer it down with prejudice: “I HAVE SEEN THAT MOVIE.”

BECK: He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America — you don’t take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical? Really? Searching for something to give him any kind of meaning, just as he was searching later in life for religion.

Meanings of barack and derivations: to kneel, to bless, to invoke blessings, to sanction, to be blessed, to enjoy or find pleasure or delight, to ask a blessing, to seek a blessing, to be praised, to be sublime.

A bierka is a pool or small pond, which is a sacred item in desert cultures. Check the Old Testament and you’ll find that Hebrews had some harsh treatments for anyone who poisoned a well; it was considered a crime against humanity.

There are other nouns based of the root barak: blessing, benediction, bounty. There is a negation meaning “misfortune” or “bad luck.” There are several parts of speech made from the root: when an Arab needs congratulations, you should say mabrook.

This information comes from from my taxpayer-supplied copy of the Hans-Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, which still smells of Kuwaiti sand.

Glenn, I understand your problem: you are a clown with a circus. You are forced to top yourself each and every weekday. Every morning, you must pray to god for inspiration to top the boiled frog episode. This would just be entertainment if not for the fact you serve a rotten agenda: to rally racists, idiots, lunatics, and otherwise good Christians to the banner of the Republican Party.

Not that I mind; you’re helping to marginalize your own side. But along the way, you’ve stolen the act of every wacknoggin in the history right-wing media from Alex Jones to Father Coughlin, and now you’re channeling Jack Van Impe. You never know what the hell you’re talking about because your reading list consists of John Bircher paranoia, Atlas Shrugged, and — apparently — Hal Lindsey. Not a far stretch for someone who believes in golden plates and spirit-wives, I know — but still, it would all be fine except for the part where you constantly fill the heads of millions with this kind of dangerous garbage.

Glenn, you’re pandering to religious extremism and invoking the culture wars somewhere they absolutely don’t belong. I get the timing, because religiosity is hot: first there was Brit Hume, then Rush Limbaugh, and of course we have the highly-questionable testimony of Tim Tebow’s mom coming up in the midst of the f***ing SuperBowl this Sunday.

But this is really, really dangerous. You are telling your cult of worshipful know-nothings that the president serves the dark side, and by doing so you encourage very un-Christian divisions. Fear and hate are the tools of darkness. The truth is that YOU serve the dark side, Glenn. Your entire line of attack on Obama is psychological projection, like when you call Obama a “racist” and then pander to racism.

In fact, as long as we’re on the subject of things you project, consider your employer’s cozy relationship with the Chinese communist party. Hey, look — I connected YOU to actual, living, breathing, non-imaginary commies in one step — and without a chalkboard prop to make people think I maybe know what the fuck I’m talking about.

As long as I’m on a roll: the president might have changed his name to Joe Wilson or Bobby Jindal; but he instead chose to keep his birth name “not (as) some assertion of my African roots … not a racial assertion. It was much more of an assertion that I was coming of age. An assertion of being comfortable with the fact that I was different and that I didn’t need to try to fit in in a certain way.”

Get that, Glenn? Barack Hussein Obama kept his name because America is already enlightened enough to vote for a black man with a funny foreign name. Which just goes to show that you’ve already lost. The most you and your colleagues in the wingnutosphere can hope to accomplish is to make it as likely as possible to come to violence — just like the fight against progress did in the 1860s and 1960s.

Oh, which reminds me of one other thing: I’m sick of you pretending to know what “progressive” means. You’ve filled up endless hours of airtime with horse manure about a movement you don’t understand one tiny bit. I’ve done a better job of explaining the history of the progressive movement in a five-minute rock video than you have done in your entire career:

We’ve all been in those mind-numbing, stomach-churning, sleep-inducing conversations with people whose brains seem to be smaller than their mouths. They’re always endlessly long, painfully agonizing and hopelessly futile. I’d attempt to get past the screeners and tell you all this myself, Glenn, but it would be pointless. Just grow the hell up, you stupid racist bastard.

H/t to Simon Malloy at Media Matters

Mr. Estes, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of aggrieved comments about the bit where you address a black man as “boy,” “son,” but it was the last line of your epistle that caught my attention:

I sure as hell don’t want to think my president is the enemy in this final battle. (Emphasis mine)

This emphasis on “final battles” betrays you as an End-Timer. You have struck a trifecta here: authoritarian paranoia, religious clash-of-civilizations rhetoric, and Teh Stupid™.

Mr. Estes, it may surprise you to learn that permanent wars and clashes of civilizations are not in the role of the commander-in-chief as envisaged by the founders; the Constitutional articles do not contain such a job description.

Indeed, it would seem to me that in the age of nuclear weapons and wackaloons bent on starting Armageddon, pursuit of domestic tranquility would rather put the making of peace in his job description. And it is with those wackaloons that you stand, Mr. Estes.

The 9/11 hijackers thought they could initiate the End Times that Tuesday, and folks like yourself have been itching to meet them there ever since. Your fear is palpable in the letter, but so is your excitement. You want the end of the world and don’t care how many get hurt in the process.

For there is one thing notably missing in your piece, Mr. Estes: a description of how surging any number of troops into Afghanistan leads to victory. How can America win if our “partner” elects himself Mahmoud Ahmedinejad style? And since there are practical, logistical limits to how many troops we can support in Afghanistan, how do you propose we reach anything near the troop levels that counterinsurgency manuals recommend?

I see no answers, only fear and loathing.

Greece is “collapsing,” Beck claims, because a “communist invisible committee” has a “foothold” in the country. But there’s been a communist party in Greece since 1918. Beck also refers to Greek riots that began in 2008, and fizzled in January 2009, as if they were ongoing today.

The point here is not so much that Beck is making shit up as he goes, but that he’s imitating a particular style of nonsense-peddling. Jack Van Impe has been peddling this same crap for two decades:

Context is everything: Michele Bachmann said those words when arch-birther website World Net Daily asked if she would ever run for president. It’s a wingnut puff piece: the interview is jam-packed with every variety of fringe wingnuttery. Bachmann is a True Believer in Teh Crazy™.

Here she is telling an audience how God “called” her to run for office:

Can we stop it with the “Obama is not God” and “false prophet” nonsense? The wingnuts are the ones who think their politics are heaven-inspired.

Bachmann’s “call” from God began (predictably) with her kids’ homework:

Bachmann, a federal tax litigation attorney before serving in elected office, told WND that she is “first and foremost a mother.” In the late 90s, the mother of five and foster mom to another 23 children through the years, grew concerned about what her foster kids were bringing home from the public school.

“Through the Goals 2000 program, the federal government was pushing knowledge, facts and information out of classroom study, substituting them with a study of attitudes, values and beliefs,” she said, “but not necessarily the values that moms and dads would like.”

The actual “goals” of the Goals 2000 Program:

• Pre-K education for all.

• Raising the high school graduation rate to 90%.

• Reading, math, science, civics, foreign languages, economics, arts, history, and geography education.

• Reclaim global leadership in math and science.

• Adult literacy so Americans can meet the challenges of global competition and be good citizens.

• Getting drugs and guns out of school.

• Continuing education for teachers.

• Getting the parents involved.

Bachmann used the evangelical message-machine to remove Minnesota from participation in these goals — until cooler heads prevailed, anyway. In the world of Wing Nut Daily™, this is cause for effusive praise.

Presumably, Bachmann was upset by the part of the curriculum where students are asked to identify with children from another culture and religion. Like, say, Hawaii. We can’t have the kids think of other people as human.

One by one, the Wing Nut Daily highlights Bachmann’s stands against abortion, death panels, and compact flourescent bulbs. It’s a perfect storm of Teh Stupid™. In fact, Bachmann has something to say about Teh Stupid™:

“In some ways, it’s an honor, because it means that I must be effective. Otherwise, they’d be ignoring me,” Bachmann told WND. “The other side seems to have two tricks that they pull out of their bag: the Republican is stupid, or the Republican is crazy. … It’s straight out of Saul Alinsky’s ‘Rules for Radicals’: they identify their target, then try to marginalize their target.”

Alinsky’s rules seem rather prescient:

RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)

Michele Bachmann is ridiculous. But as we’ve learned at our cost in this decade, giving ridiculous people political power pretty much guarantees disaster. So I’m proposing a constitutional amendment:

Anyone who submits to a Wing Nut Daily™ interview is ineligible to be president, no matter how good their birth certificate looks.