Month: October 2010

Jihad Is Coming To America Via Wall Street

Posted by on October 23, 2010 at 3:37 pm. 1 Comments :

Ever since 9/11, you can’t be too careful with regard to national security. Our enemies are clever, persistent, and devious. After all, they managed to plant one of their own in the White House without a birth certificate.

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney was fond of saying that our Muslim adversaries hated us for our freedom. And it’s a good thing he was there to respond with a brilliant defense: Take away all our freedoms and they will like us again.

But the threat has not subsided. Over the years numerous clandestine assaults have been perpetrated in an attempt to catch us with our guard down. Without courageous heroes like Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs, we might never have even known we were under attack. Here are a few examples of the catastrophes we avoided due to the vigilance of American paranoids…I mean patriots like Geller:

  • The Mosque at Ground Zero.
  • Islamic Crescent and Star in the 9/11 memorial in Pennsylvania.
  • Nuclear Security Summit Logo Contains Crescent and Star.
  • Missile Defense Agency Logo Contains Crescent and Star.
  • The pro-Muslim NASA.
  • Terrorist Scarves.
  • Campbell’s Halal Certified Soup.
  • Muslim Family Day at Six Flags.

Geller was at the forefront of all these battles. But there is a new threat looming from an unexpected source that is not yet on Geller’s radar. While most Americans of the Tea Party variety are loyal supporters of our friends on Wall Street, the admiration may not be reciprocal. A new television ad from JPMorgan Chase reveals that they too are a part of the Islamic Jihad against America. If you listen closely to the music in the background you will hear the dulcet strains of Cat Stevens, known today as Yusuf Islam. And notice that the name of the ad is “Change.” Where have we heard that before? This is just one more example of how Shariah Law and Islamicization is creeping into the heart of American society and culture.

The enemy is insidious. Some of their plots are barely noticeable to the untrained freedom-fighter. Unless we fight to preserve our values, everything we hold dear will be consumed by these religious tyrants. Thank God we have people like Pamela Geller to protect us and enlighten us with their vision. She has not yet turned her sights on the threat from JPMorgan, but I’m sure that she and her lieutenants are hard at work on it. God Bless the USA.

Shameless Right-Wing Hypocrisy On Media Funding

Posted by on October 22, 2010 at 2:52 pm. 23 Comments :

There has lately been an excess of rage expressed over a couple of charitable donations by George Soros. Both NPR and Media Matters were beneficiaries of Soros’ generosity. These are both media-related entities that play no direct role in politics.

But the same rightist critics of donations don’t seem to have any problem with Rupert Murdoch giving millions of dollars to overtly political enterprises: the Republican Governor’s Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That money is used to buy ads against Democrats on Fox News, so the money Murdoch donated ends up right back in his pocket. And another big difference in these donations is that Soros was open and honest about announcing his largesse, while Murdoch gave in secret and even remarked that he had anticipated that his donations would remain secret.

A fair observer would have to wonder why the munificence of Soros is problematic but the fact that Right-wingers are just as generous to their ideological allies isn’t worthy of discussion. They will never mention, for instance, that uber-rightist Richard Mellon Scaife has given millions to the conservative Media Research Center (which runs several right-wing operations like NewsBusters). And while Soros remains outside of the organizations to which he contributes, Murdoch has moved inside as a board member of the Associated Press.

The hypocrisy demonstrated by the right is world-class. While the left is taking heat for being totally transparent, the right takes pride in enforcing silence about its clandestine activities. Since they have admitted that they aspire to fund their friends in secret, we have no way of knowing what other donations have been made by folks like Murdoch and his billionaire comrades. Murdoch confessed that he gave the RGA money due to his friendship with John Kasich, a candidate for governor in Ohio and a former employee of Fox News. Karl Rove is presently an employee of Fox News. Is he also receiving financing from Murdoch? We don’t know because they are not required to disclose it and they keep it obsessively private.

What we do know is that Fox News has a record of shilling for the right. Their daytime anchor Jon Scott (who, ironically, is also the host of their Fox News Watch) once read an RNC document on the air as if it were his own research. He even displayed a graphic on screen that contained the same typo that was in the original RNC memo.

We also know that Fox News relies heavily on the work of the Media Research Center and NewsBusters. We know this because their top news anchor at the time, Brit Hume, said so in public:

Hume: I want to say a word, however, of thanks to Brent and the team at the Media Research Center […] for the tremendous amount of material that the Media Research Center provided me for so many years when I was anchoring Special Report, I don’t know what we would’ve done without them. It was a daily buffet of material to work from, and we certainly made tremendous use of it.

The left has nothing to compare with the media domination of the right. Only the right has their own cable news network. They rule talk radio in part because of conservative broadcasters who deliberately shut out liberal programming. Independent studies show that even the supposedly liberal segments of the press actually lean more to the right in their editorial positions, their guests and sources, and their staffing.

So it seems curious that all of sudden we have right-wingers going bonkers over a couple of donations that will certainly help those organizations, but will have little impact on the broader media landscape. It just proves that the right is focused on maintaining their competitive advantage, that they know the value of “working the refs,” and that they have no shame when it comes to acting out their hypocrisy.

What If Juan Williams Had Said…

Posted by on October 21, 2010 at 4:41 pm. 3 Comments :

The story du jour throughout the mediasphere is the firing of Juan Williams by NPR for saying that seeing Muslims in the airport makes him “nervous.” The reaction from conservatives, who obviously feel the same way, was instantaneous and brutal. There have been kneejerk calls to defund NPR along with the usual rightist mantra about the “liberal” media.

The problem is that the language used by Williams was not harmless unless you regard Muslims as uniquely deserving of contempt. The question that has to be asked is: What would the response be if a white commentator said that seeing an African American walking down the sidewalk would make them want to cross the street?

Williams may not be a bigot, but what he said was unmistakably bigoted. He defended himself today in an op-ed on Fox News online by saying that he had been “fired for telling the truth.”

“Yesterday NPR fired me for telling the truth. The truth is that I worry when I am getting on an airplane and see people dressed in garb that identifies them first and foremost as Muslims.”

First of all, wearing Muslim garb doesn’t identify anyone as first and foremost anything, no more than wearing a baseball cap identifies someone as first and foremost a sports fan. Isn’t it possible to wear Muslim garb and be first and foremost a neurosurgeon? Or for that matter, first and foremost an American? But the larger problem is that Williams’ excuse suggests that it would be acceptable for Greta Van Susteren to say that seeing Mexicans in the supermarket makes her want to clutch her purse tighter, if that’s what she regards as the truth?

It is not true that people in Muslim garb cause nervousness, only that they make Williams nervous. I don’t have a problem with it. It isn’t enough to assert that a certain segment of society has prejudices and, therefore, when you express those ideas you are simply articulating something that is true for that bigoted segment of society and you’re off the hook.

For its part, NPR explained their action by saying that Williams had “undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.” They further asserted that his dismissal was not due solely to this incident, but that he had violated the ethical standards of NPR on numerous occasions and had been counseled many times in the past. However, we can expect those facts to be ignored as the right-wing hypocrites defend Williams and castigate NPR. Where were these stalwart defenders of free speech when Rick Sanchez was terminated by CNN for making similarly inappropriate comments? The same people hoisting Williams on their shoulders had laughed at Sanchez and cheered his misfortune. Ditto Helen Thomas. Ditto David Shuster.

It’s ironic that this affair, which will ignite conservatives’ accusations that public broadcasting is hopelessly liberal, is breaking now, just a few days after a report that shows how conservatively slanted PBS is.

This isn’t really hard, people. If you do not want to be punished for being a bigot, stop being a fucking bigot. Because if you don’t stop it is going to affect your career. Unless, of course, you work for Fox News (see Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Megyn Kelly, etc.)

And lest anyone try to frame this as a free speech issue, please note that Williams still has all of his civil rights. In fact, Fox News just made him a full time employee and gave him a big raise. If anyone has a right to complain about suppression…well….when was the last time you saw a network pundit in Muslim garb?

[Addendum:] The frantic calls to defund NPR have materialized, including an announcement that Sen. Jim DeMint (SD-Tea Party) will introduce legislation tomorrow to do so. But DeMint’s bill may be difficult to implement because there are no direct federal funds to NPR for DeMint to take away.

Also, on Fox News today, anchor Jon Scott defended Williams by explaining that his feelings were perfectly understandable because, “the terrorists wanted to scare us and they have achieved their aim.” That’s comforting.

But it was Bill O’Reilly who managed to put it all into perspective by asserting that…

“Juan Williams wasn’t giving his opinion of Muslims on airplanes. He was simply stating what he felt.”

See? Two completely different things. Thank God O’Reilly cleared that up. And leave it to O’Reilly to sum up his defense of hate by inviting violence with this this talking point: “NPR puts itself in the kill zone.” Hear that dog whistle, Tea Party Militia?

Glenn Beck’s Acute Paranoia Revue: George Soros Edition

Posted by on October 20, 2010 at 11:48 pm. 5 Comments :

Just when you thought Glenn Beck had gurgled his most surreal delusional nightmare, he amazes everyone by surpassing a measure of insanity that was previously thought to be impossible. He’s just that good.

In response to the news that George Soros (whom Beck mocks as “Spooky Dude” in an embarrassing but typical display of childishness) donated a million dollars to Media Matters, Beck embarked on a journey stretching the boundaries of sanity, even for him. He begins by explaining to his flock that the donation is all about him. He actually thinks that Soros watched his show yesterday and was so rattled that he woke up and wrote a million dollar check this morning.

On Yesterday’s show Beck sketched out another of his blackboard jumbles that tied numerous unrelated people and organizations together with each other, with socialists, with Kevin Bacon, with alien Shapeshifters, and … oh, you lose track after a while. Then he challenged Soros to come on his show and debate him for an hour (see Top 10 Reasons George Soros Should Refuse To Debate Glenn Beck). Don’t hold your breath, Glenn. There isn’t much more chance of that happening then of your prop phone to the White House suddenly ringing.

Beck’s Soros hysteria has led him to find meaning in the press release announcing the Media Matters donation that no sane person could muster on a dare. He views it as a mortal threat aimed at him personally.

Beck: You know what’s weird? This press release is almost like a “Wanted: Dead or Alive” poster, isn’t it? Gee Mr. Soros. You’re not inciting violence over there towards me? You’re not making me public enemy #1 are ya? I hope not, Mr. Soros. But I’ll make sure to track down all of that violence. I’m worried. Somebody says something like this and some nutjob could go violent and just … Am I safe in here? (deep sigh). […] He’s putting up a million dollar bounty on my head.

I wonder where in the press release Beck is reading this. It must be carefully hidden between the lines, written in invisible ink, and in an alien language that only Beck can decipher. There is much that is hard to fathom in his Soros rant. For example, He makes an ambiguous allegation that “Their system is built on lies. If it were not, Soros would not be out in the open.” That is patently nuts. Why does Beck think that Soros being “out in the open” is evidence of a system of lies? Wouldn’t a system of liars avoid being in the open?

Beck continues up the crazy tree by making the claim that Soros is “The most powerful man in the world.” For the record, Soros is only 35th on the Forbes list of billionaires, and above him are Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud (a major shareholder of News Corp at #19) and the Koch brothers (conservative activists and Tea Party financiers at #24). But he’s still not done. In response to an effort aimed at Fox News advertisers, Beck warned his adversaries that he is omnipotent and not to be fooled with:

Beck: You don’t get it. You were in Stars Wars, you should watch. Remember when they did whooosh to Obi-Wan? Strike me down, you will only make me more powerful.

That ought to set the Soros progressives to trembling. Who knew that Beck has actual Messianic powers? And it’s a good thing too, because of the way he is being attacked by imaginary enemies too numerous and powerful to list. This is reminiscent of a previous claim by Beck that he can rise like Jesus from the dead:

“They can take my job and they can take my wealth but that’s okay…even if the powers to be, right now, succeed in making me poor, drum me out, and I’m just a worthless loser… which I’m just about that much above that now… I will only be stronger for it. I will use American ingenuity and my ingenuity to pull myself up, and I will find another way to get my message out on a platform that will be a thousand times more powerful!”

This begs the question, if he has a platform that is a thousand times more powerful, why isn’t he using it now? Perhaps because it’s just another hallucination over which he has no control. Like the many visions he has of enemies out to destroy him. For instance…

“If I show up, you know, in Thailand, dead from auto-erotic asphyxiation, don’t believe it.”

[…and…]

“If I’m ever in a weird car accident, or I commit suicide or something, after the media stops celebrating my death, could they check into it? Because I’m not suicidal. And I’m a pretty good driver.”

Beck even asserted that the Mighty Soros had it in for him in the past. On another show where he was merrily bashing Soros, Beck paused to alert him that he has a bullet proof car. And let’s not forget the time Beck accused President Obama of murderous intent, telling him that he had already broken three commandments and warning him not to go for a fourth: Thou shalt not kill.

Beck spent the majority of his program today spewing paranoid fantasies about threats on his life and his supernatural ability to overcome them and emerge stronger. It would have been even more compelling if any of the threats had any basis in reality. So I’ll leave you with this final quote that demonstrates his confidence in his holiness and immortality:

“Things are changing and there is no bad news here. Because what I am feeling in myself, and what is happening to my physical body, to some extent, and what is happening to me mentally, is not a depression, is not a death. It is a transformation. It is a transcendence.”

And with that he ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Lord. Or at least that’s what he thought. He must not have noticed that his “lord” had horns and a long, pointy tail.

Fox News: Architects Of The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

Posted by on October 20, 2010 at 1:54 pm. 3 Comments :

When Hillary Clinton coined the term “Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy” twelve years ago, many members of the VRWC ridiculed her and denied their own existence. Now Think Progress is in receipt of a private memo from the billionaire Koch brothers inviting some of the country’s wealthiest and most powerful individuals and companies to a clandestine meeting last summer where they would strategize for the upcoming midterm elections. It’s a fascinating story that includes in-depth research on the participants in this cabal and their connections to political players and institutions.

The part I’m most interested in is the presence of the media in the group. Take a look through the list of participants and you can’t help but notice one name that keeps repeating: Fox News. Here is a list of the Fox News affiliated members of the Koch Klan:

  • Michael Barone
  • Glenn Beck
  • Charles Krauthammer
  • Steven Moore
  • Nancy Pfotenhauer

What’s striking about this is that these people are not attending the secret meetings as journalists. They are participating in the brazenly partisan campaign planning conducted by the biggest business special interests in the world. These media players are not bystanders. They are the architects of the conservative agenda. They join their boss, Rupert Murdoch, in this endeavor. Murdoch, it was recently revealed, has donated millions to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Republican Governor’s Association.

All of the usual suspects were present at the secret meeting, from the Chamber of Commerce to Big Oil to the pharmaceutical giants to defense, real estate, Wall Street, and the top right-wing think tanks. The attendees even included a couple of Supreme Court Justices, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Talk about your activist judges. After attending these meetings (which reportedly occur biannually, with the next one set for Palm Springs in January), these media hucksters return to the airwaves to promote the agenda they helped to fashion. And, of course, there is no disclosure that they had a hand in the policies they are peddling.

Tea CrusadersThis is another example of a phenomenon that is increasingly confounding to me. How can the Tea Party, who describe themselves as average, middle-class, Americans who are seeking to restore Constitutional principles and make Washington accountable to “We the People,” continue to follow an elite assembly of wealthy corporatists whose interests are so far removed from those of the Tea Party? Why doesn’t the Tea Party, who fancy themselves as revolutionaries, revolt against these upper-crusty impostors who are so obviously trying to manipulate their movement to the benefit of their elite and wealthy friends? What sort of revolutionaries align themselves with the entrenched establishment?

If the Tea Party had any sense they would be repulsed by Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Fox News and the business-allied GOP. They would reject these phonies who are perverting the movement they claim belongs to the people. They would refuse the dirty money flowing from the Koch brothers, the AstroTurfers (i.e. FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, et al), and foreign financiers like the Chamber of Commerce and Rupert Murdoch.

But then again, if the Tea Party had any sense they wouldn’t be the Tea Party as we know it. They are a sad crowd of gullible malcontents, and the more I contemplate their role in contemporary society, the more I pity them. I just wish their pathetic endeavors and delusions didn’t also cause the rest of the country suffer.

Megyn Kelly’s Kangaroo Court: Anita Hill Edition

Posted by on October 20, 2010 at 12:29 pm. 6 Comments :

On today’s episode of Megyn Kelly’s Court the subject was a bizarre phone call to Anita Hill from the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Virginia.

Hill received a voice mail on her office phone purporting to be from Ginny Thomas and asking that Hill apologize for “what you did with my husband.” That’s an odd phrasing that implies they did “something” together. Thomas also asked that Hill give a “full explanation,” as if several days of senate confirmation hearings about pubic hairs and Long Dong Silver weren’t sufficiently detailed.

Kelly and her panel took on this raging twenty year old scandal from a uniquely Fox News perspective. They didn’t address the possible motivation of Thomas reigniting this controversy after two decades. They didn’t discuss the propriety of the wife of sitting Supreme Court justice (and herself a Tea Bagging AstroTurf activist) making such a phone call in the first place. No, the issue that got Kelly fired up was that Hill had “called the police” on Thomas.

Well, as usual, Kelly is either lying or ignorant of the facts. Had she read the report that originated with ABC News she would have known that Hill “initially thought it was a prank.” And if it was “thought the authorities should know about it.” Hill clearly did not call the police on Thomas, she was concerned that it was somebody else. Yet Kelly’s Court was all over the phony notion that Hill had overreacted and turned Thomas in to the FBI.

Kelly then concluded the segment with her “ruling” on the case. Not surprisingly, Kelly exonerated Thomas and closed by stating, with typical Kelly indignation, that Thomas had done nothing wrong but that Hill had. This was an obvious allusion to Hill’s testimony regarding Justice Thomas’ alleged sexual harassment. So Kelly has now taken it upon herself to rule that Hill’s testimony was false despite having nothing to affirm that position.

In this one segment Kelly has impugned the integrity of Hill and asserted that she committed perjury. Kelly also misstated the course of events surrounding the phone call and how the authorities were notified. Consequently, my ruling is that Kelly is disreputable and dishonest purveyor of propaganda and should not be regarded as credible in any respect. Case closed.

Top 10 Reasons George Soros Should Refuse To Debate Glenn Beck

Posted by on October 20, 2010 at 2:57 am. 5 Comments :

In a challenge dripping with sarcasm and scorn, Glenn Beck pretended to invite George Soros onto his show for a one-on-one debate. Of course, it was just another of the phony clown shows Beck puts on to the delight of his fans who think his act is real.

But just in case Soros had an afternoon free and, in a moment of weakness, thought it might be a hoot to jostle Beck’s diseased brain around for hour, I offer the following:

Top 10 Reasons George Soros Should Refuse To Debate Glenn Beck.

  1. Why would he waste an hour arguing with a third rate Muppet imitator?
  2. He’s already booked on The Lying Weasel Crybaby Hour.
  3. Sarah Palin and Byron Williams are hiding in the Green Room with chloroform and duct tape.
  4. He wants to see Beck debate Keith Olbermann first.
  5. Rupert and the other billionaires would make fun of him.
  6. The cast of Jersey Shore would be more challenging.
  7. He’s afraid of catching something before Obamacare kicks in.
  8. His facts are no match for Beck’s delusions.
  9. Being called a socialist 12 times a minute isn’t really a debate.

And the #1 Reason George Soros Should Refuse To Debate Glenn Beck…

  1. Glenn Beck will be there.

😉

Sign The DROP FOX Petition From Media Matters

Posted by on October 19, 2010 at 4:07 pm. 5 Comments :

Glenn Beck - There Will Be BloodMedia Matters is partnering with People for the American Way to apply some of that free market pressure on the companies who are sponsoring Glenn Beck’s crusade of terror.

Petition to tell major advertisers to DROP FOX!

This petition is in response to a recent event wherein a Beck fan, Byron Williams, was taken into custody after a shootout with police. Williams told the officers that he was on his way to kill people at the ACLU and the Tides Foundation after having been “informed” by Glenn Beck of their evil, un-American activities.

Subsequent to Williams’ arrest Beck has actually escalated his attacks on the Tides Foundation and others despite the obvious risk that his rhetoric poses. As David Brock of Media Matters says…

“Instead of recognizing the danger and taking appropriate action, Fox News is allowing and encouraging Beck’s violent rhetoric, abdicating the responsibility the public expects of a powerful broadcaster. That is why targeting Glenn Beck’s advertisers is no longer enough — we need to hold the entire network accountable.”

It is time to tell major advertisers to DROP FOX!

Please take a moment to sign the petition and then tell your friends. The campaign to get advertisers to stop placing ads on Beck’s show has been phenomenally successful with respect to persuading almost 300 advertisers to pull their ads. He is now sponsored by a motley crew of Gold peddlers, senior services, disaster profiteers, and other News Corp enterprises (who, of course, don’t pay).

However, there has not been much effect on Beck’s bosses at Fox News and News Corp who are arrogantly ignoring the voice of their viewers and their advertisers in order to persist in broadcasting irresponsible and dangerous content on their programs. That’s why it is so important now to make our voices heard in the upper floors of the Fox hierarchy. Don’t put it off. Sign the petition now. It could literally save lives.

PBS: A Bastion Of Conservative, White, Corporatist, Men

Posted by on October 19, 2010 at 12:49 pm. 3 Comments :

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has just released a study detailing the diversity, or lack thereof, on PBS programs. The narrow scope of opinion and representation is pretty disturbing. Here are some of their findings.

PBS Be More

  • The NewsHour’s guestlist was 80 percent male and 82 percent white, with a pronounced tilt toward elites who rarely “go unheard,” like current and former government and military officials, corporate representatives and journalists.
  • Viewers were five times as likely to see guests representing corporations (10 percent v. 2 percent) than representatives of public interest groups who might counterweigh such moneyed interests–labor, consumer and environmental organizations.
  • While Democratic guests outnumbered Republican guests nearly 2-to-1 in overall sources, Republicans dominated by more than 3-to-2 in the program’s longer format, live segments.
  • On segments focusing on the Afghan War, though polls show consistent majorities of Americans have opposed the war for more than a year, not a single NewsHour guest represented an antiwar group or expressed antiwar views.

PBS is a frequent target of right-wing critics who attempt to spread the myth that the media is liberal. The proof of the contrary is evident in statistics like these. And further evidence is found in the leadership of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the source for the majority of oversight and funding of PBS. The CPB’s President is Patricia Harrison. She is a former chair of the Republican National Committee and was personally selected for the job by the former chairman of CPB, the irrepressibly corrupt Kenneth Tomlinson.

These Bush appointees formed the cornerstone of the most politicized public broadcasting infrastructure in its history. They presided over the accumulation of conservative programming and made the work of legendary journalists like Bill Moyers infinitely more difficult. Moyers is no longer with PBS. So perhaps it shouldn’t come as surprise to see the stark imbalance that is now ingrained in the network’s core programming.

Harrison’s tenure will be ending next year. Let’s hope that President Obama appoints a more credible and fair steward for our public broadcasting system.

Newsweek Nails Tea Party Constitution Worship

Posted by on October 18, 2010 at 9:41 am. 9 Comments :

Tea CrusadersThis may be the best Conventional Media article of the year: How Tea Partiers Get the Constitution Wrong. It was written by Andrew Romano for Newsweek and is a fairly comprehensive look at how the Tea Party sanctifies the Constitution while simultaneously basking in their ignorance of it. It is worth reading in its entirety, but here are some choice excerpts:

“Tea Partiers engage with the Constitution in such a selective manner, and for such nakedly political purposes, that they’re clearly relying on it more as an instrument of self-affirmation and cultural division than a source of policy inspiration.”

This is demonstrated every time a Tea Bagger makes the fatuous claim that [fill in the blank] doesn’t appear in the Constitution. This can refer to anything from separation of church and state to gay marriage to income taxes. However, it never refers to the FAA, workplace safety, the minimum wage, or corporate welfare like farm subsidies or incentives to ship jobs overseas.

“In the current Congress, conservatives like Michele Bachmann have suggested more than 40 additions to the Constitution: a flag-desecration amendment; a balanced-budget amendment; a ‘parental rights’ amendment; a supermajority-to-raise-taxes amendment; anti-abortion amendment; an anti-gay-marriage amendment; and so on. None of these revisions has anything to do with the document’s original meaning.” […]

“The truth is that for all their talk of purity, politicians like Palin, Angle, and Miller don’t seem to be particularly concerned with matching their actual positions to the Constitution they profess to worship. For them, the sacred text serves a higher purpose.”

Tea Baggers are quick to gush their reverence for the original intent of the Constitution – slavery, sexism, and all. And they are just as quick to disparage it and rush to desecrate it with oppressive and irrelevant amendments that are contrary to its underpinnings of freedom.

“Like other fundamentalists, they seek refuge from the complexity and confusion of modern life in the comforting embrace of an authoritarian scripture and the imagined past it supposedly represents. Like other fundamentalists, they see in their good book only what they want to see: confirmation of their preexisting beliefs. Like other fundamentalists, they don’t sweat the details, and they ignore all ambiguities. And like other fundamentalists, they make enemies or evildoers of those who disagree with their doctrine.” […]

“The point is always the same: to suggest that the Constitution, like the Bible, decrees what’s right and wrong (rather than what’s legal and illegal), and to insist that only they and their ilk can access its truths. We are moral, you are not; we represent America, you do not. Theirs is the rallying cry of culture war.”

Umm…..Are you listening, Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, et al?

“Thomas Jefferson put it best. In a letter to a friend in 1816, he mocked ‘men [who] look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the arc of the covenant, too sacred to be touched’“

The effort to transform the Constitution into a divinely inspired, holy document, and its authors into saints, is not new. I wrote about this last June in an article about the right-wing movement to advance the theory of American Exceptionalism, which is nothing more than warmed-over American Supremacy and just as repulsive as Hitler’s conception of a Master Race.

“[Beck] has declared that the Constitution was the result of divine inspiration and is as immutable as holy scripture. He regards the nation’s founders as saintly. One of those founders, Thomas Jefferson, expressly disagrees with Beck. On the matter of Constitutional immutability, Jefferson wrote that ‘…with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times.’ That’s hardly an argument for strict constructionalism. And with regard to the divinity of himself and his contemporaries, Jefferson spoke disparagingly of the arrogance of one generation dictating the terms of existence to their heirs, castigating those who would ‘…ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human.’“

It is encouraging to read an article like Romano’s in Newsweek. Hopefully it will be read and heeded by many more and this fallacious notion that the Tea Party has been ordained by God to restore our Constitution will be discarded for its arrogance and complete disconnection with reality.