Politics

Knoxville Terrorist was a fan of O’Reilly, Hannity, Savage

According to the Knoxville News:

Police found right-wing political books, brass knuckles, empty shotgun shell boxes and a handgun in the Powell home of a man who said he attacked a church in order to kill liberals “who are ruining the country,” court records show.

Knoxville police Sunday evening searched the Levy Drive home of Jim David Adkisson after he allegedly entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and killed two people and wounded six others during the presentation of a children’s musical.

Knoxville Police Department Officer Steve Still requested the search warrant after interviewing Adkisson. who was subdued by several church members after firing three rounds from a 12-gauge shotgun into the congregation.

Adkisson targeted the church, Still wrote in the document obtained by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, “because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country’s hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets.”

Adkisson told Still that “he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them in to office.”
Adkisson told officers he left the house unlocked for them because “he expected to be killed during the assault.”

Inside the house, officers found “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder” by radio talk show host Michael Savage, “Let Freedom Ring” by talk show host Sean Hannity, and “The O’Reilly Factor,” by television talk show host Bill O’Reilly. For mental health rehab centers and options, people can check WhiteSands iop rehab and take their services.

The shotgun-wielding suspect in Sunday’s mass shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was motivated by a hatred of “the liberal movement,” and he planned to shoot until police shot him, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said this morning.

Adkisson, 58, of Powell wrote a four-page letter in which he stated his “hatred of the liberal movement,” Owen said. “Liberals in general, as well as gays.”

Continue ReadingKnoxville Terrorist was a fan of O’Reilly, Hannity, Savage

Eliminationist Quotes from Conservative Voices

What, really, is eliminationism?

It’s a fairly self-explanatory term: it describes a kind of politics and culture that shuns dialogue and the democratic exchange of ideas for the pursuit of outright elimination of the opposing side, either through complete suppression, exile and ejection, or extermination.

Liberal Hunting Permit
Liberal Hunting Permit

Source: Eliminationism in America: Appendix

“I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus — living fossils — so we will never forget what these people stood for.” — Rush Limbaugh

“I would have no problem with [New York Times editor Bill Keller] being sent to the gas chamber.” — Melanie Morgan

“”[T]he day will come when unpleasant things are going to happen to a bunch of stupid liberals and it’s going to be very amusing to watch.” — Lee Rogers

“And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.” — Bill O’Reilly

“Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war!”– Michael Reagan

“Let’s start with the following New York Times reporters and editors: Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger Jr. , Bill Keller, Eric Lichtblau, and James Risen. Do you have an idea where they live? Go hunt them down and do America a favor. Get their photo, street address, where their kids go to school, anything you can dig up, and send it to the link above. This is your chance to be famous — grab for the golden ring.” — “The Political Insight”

Ann Coulter

“Some liberals have become even too crazy for Texas to execute, which is a damn shame. They’re always saying — we’re oppressed, we’re oppressed so let’s do it. Let’s oppress them.” — Ann Coulter

“We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens’ creme brulee. … That’s just a joke, for you in the media.” — Ann Coulter

LINDA VESTER (host): You say you’d rather not talk to liberals at all?

COULTER: I think a baseball bat is the most effective way these days.

“My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building.”

“We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too.”

“They are either traitors or idiots, and on the matter of America’s self-preservation, the difference is irrelevant. Fifty years of treason hasn’t slowed them down.”

“I have to say I’m all for public flogging.”

“I think [women] should be armed but should not [be allowed to] vote.”

“Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don’t hate America like liberals do. They don’t have the energy. If they had that much energy, they’d have indoor plumbing by now.”

“My libertarian friends are probably getting a little upset now but I think that’s because they never appreciate the benefits of local fascism.”

“In this recurring nightmare of a presidency, we have a national debate about whether he [Clinton] ‘did it,’ even though all sentient people know he did. Otherwise there would be debates only about whether to impeach or assassinate.”

And Many Many more — read the comprehensive post at Orcinus.

Continue ReadingEliminationist Quotes from Conservative Voices

Terrorist opens fire in UU Church in Knoxville, TN

I’m sure you’ve heard the news by now that the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennesee was the target of a mass shooting. Two people were killed and 5 more are in serious condition after Jim D. Adkisson, 58, walked into a children’s Sunday school play and opened fire on the crowd.

Like many Unitarian Universalist churches including the Unitarian Universalist Church of Indianapolis, and the church of the minister who married us, Andy Burnette of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Danville, The TVUUC was a “welcoming congregation” that believes all people, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people, deserve respect and support, and are welcome members of the church.

According to the latest news reports, Adkisson chose the church because he wanted to target liberals and gays, whom he felt were responsible for the current economic crisis, and for his particular economic situation. He left a 4-page long note in his car, and was also reportedly speaking out to the congregation as he was firing. He carried 76 rounds of ammunition with him, and intended to continue firing until the police arrive to kill him. Fortunately, he was subdued when one member of the congregation grabbed the rifle and 3 men wrestled him to the ground. The Knoxville News coverage has more information about the victims of the shooting.
My wife Stephanie is a third-generation member of the Unitarian Universalist church.

Continue ReadingTerrorist opens fire in UU Church in Knoxville, TN

It’s a class war, stupid

If you only read one article about the 2008 election, make it this one – Matt Taibbi’s “It’s a Class War, Stupid” in Rolling Stone this month.

Taibbi’s article about the looming economic depression (yeah, you read that right – I didn’t say recession, I said depression) is spot on… and the mainstream media is playing Nero while Rome burns, talking about candidate’s wives dresses while people are beginning a show slide towards homelessness and starvation.

Okay, now, hold that thought. While we’re unable to find $5 billion for this simple program, and Sanders had to fight and claw to get even $250 million that was eventually slashed, here’s something else that’s going on. According to a recent report by the GAO, the Department of Defense has already “marked for disposal” hundreds of millions of dollars worth of spare parts — and not old spare parts, but new ones that are still on order! In fact, the GAO report claims that over half of the spare parts currently on order for the Air Force — some $235 million worth, or about the same amount Sanders unsuccessfully tried to get for the community health care program last year — are already marked for disposal! Our government is buying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Defense Department crap just to throw it away!

“They’re planning on throwing this stuff away and it hasn’t even come in yet,” says Sanders.

According to the report, we’re spending over $30 million a year, and employing over 1,400 people, just to warehouse all the defense equipment we don’t need. For instance — we already have thousands of unneeded aircraft blades, but 7,460 on the way, at a cost of $2 million, which will join those already earmarked for the waste pile.

This is why you need to pay careful attention when you hear about John McCain claiming that he’s going to “look at entitlement program” waste as a means of solving the budget crisis, or when you tune into the debate about the “death tax.” We are in the midst of a political movement to concentrate private wealth into fewer and fewer hands while at the same time placing more and more of the burden for public expenditures on working people. If that sounds like half-baked Marxian analysis… well, shit, what can I say? That’s what’s happening. Repealing the estate tax (the proposal to phase it out by the year 2010 would save the Walton family alone $30 billion) and targeting “entitlement” programs for cuts while continually funneling an ever-expanding treasure trove of military appropriations down the befouled anus of pointless war profiteering, government waste and North Virginia McMansions — this is all part of a conversation we should be having about who gets what share of the national pie. But we’re not going to have that conversation, because we’re going to spend this fall mesmerized by the typical media-generated distractions, yammering about whether or not Michelle Obama’s voice is too annoying, about flag lapel pins, about Jeremiah Wright and other such idiotic bullshit.

…

Our economic reality is as brutal as it is for a simple reason: whether we like it or not, we are in the midst of revolutionary economic changes. In the kind of breathtakingly ironic development that only real life can imagine, the collapse of the Soviet Union has allowed global capitalism to get into the political unfreedom business, turning China and the various impoverished dictatorships and semi-dictatorships of the third world into the sweatshop of the earth. This development has cut the balls out of American civil society by forcing the export abroad of our manufacturing economy, leaving us with a service/managerial economy that simply cannot support the vast, healthy middle class our government used to work very hard to both foster and protect. The Democratic party that was once the impetus behind much of these changes, that argued so eloquently in the New Deal era that our society would be richer and more powerful overall if the spoils were split up enough to create a strong base of middle class consumers — that party panicked in the years since Nixon and elected to pay for its continued relevance with corporate money. As a result the entire debate between the two major political parties in our country has devolved into an argument over just how quickly to dismantle the few remaining benefits of American middle-class existence — immediately, if you ask the Republicans, and only slightly less than immediately, if you ask the Democrats.

The Republicans wanted to take Social Security, the signature policy underpinning of the middle class, and put it into private accounts — which is a fancy way of saying that they wanted to take a huge bundle of American taxpayer cash and invest it in the very companies, the IBMs and Boeings and GMs and so on, that are exporting our jobs abroad. They want the American middle class to finance its very own impoverishment! The Democrats say no, let’s keep Social Security more or less as is, and let that impoverishment happen organically.

Continue ReadingIt’s a class war, stupid

McCains Fail to Pay Taxes on San Diego Property

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According to Newsweek, the McCains have been in arrears for four years on taxes on one of the seven properties they own – a beachfront property in LaJolla, California.

Of course as they story broke, they scrambled to get their taxes paid. Mostly. Now if this had been you or me defaulting, we’d be out on our ears.

Mrs. McCain is a beer heiress with an estimated $100 million fortune and, along with her husband, she owns at least seven properties, including condos in California and Arizona.

San Diego County officials, it turns out, have been sending out tax notices on the La Jolla property, an oceanfront condo, for four years without receiving a response. If people are looking out for rental condos and apartments, they can consider Saida Towers South PadreCounty and get the best deals for rentals records show the bills, which were mailed to a Phoenix address associated with Mrs. McCain’s trust, were returned by the post office. According to a McCain campaign aide, who requested anonymity when discussing a private matter, an elderly aunt of Mrs. McCain’s lives in the condo, and the bank that manages the trust has not been receiving tax bills on the property so she planned to find guardianship lawyer naples fl to put an end to her grievances related to property. Shortly after NEWSWEEK inquired about the matter, the McCain aide e-mailed a receipt dated Friday, June 27, confirming payment by the trust to San Diego County in the amount of $6,744.42. County officials say the trust still owes an additional $1,742 for this year, an amount that is overdue and will go into default July 1. Told of the outstanding $1,742, the aide said: “The trust has paid all bills shown owing as of today and will pay all other bills due.”

Dan McAllister, treasurer- tax collector for San Diego County, said that about 3 percent of San Diego’s approximately 1 million property owners default on their property taxes each year. The county assesses a 1.5 percent penalty for each month that goes by unpaid and puts houses up for sale after five years. “We do hear an awful lot of excuses for why people don’t pay,” McAllister said. “Under the law, the property owner is responsible for keeping the address current. We’re only as good as the information we are given.”

Continue ReadingMcCains Fail to Pay Taxes on San Diego Property

Karl Rove’s Country Club

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Karl Rove, the Nixon/Bush auteur of dirty politics, seems to be slipping his his age — yesterday he had this to say at a Republican insider’s breakfast about Barack Obama:

Even if you never met him, you know this guy. He’s the guy at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette that stands against the wall and makes snide comments about everyone who passes by.

What? Karl Rove’s country club allows blacks now? Well. I won’t be going there any more. La di da.

Rove is really confused – because that guy he’s describing is George W. Bush in full glory – check him out:

Continue ReadingKarl Rove’s Country Club

Racist America comes out of the woodwork to attack Barack Obama

Shakespeare’s Sister has an ongoing multi-part “Obama Racism Watch” documenting incidents of racism in the media directed at Senator Obama (similar to their multi-part series “Hillary Clinton Sexism Watch” that is at 106 entries and shows no signs of stopping.)

I won’t go into every incident because they cover it much better than I, but I wanted to note some of the stuff that has happened just in the last few days, because it is just beyond my understanding, and I have to say something about it because it’s so – shocking.

Fox News’ “Terrorist Fist Jab”
Apparently, after introducing her husband to the crowd, Michelle and Barack did a “fist bump” as seen below. Now if you know anyone under 25, they’ve done this — it’s a thing that young people do – an alternative to high-fiving, or shaking hands, specifically done by people when they are awesome. I think I’ve probably done it, although I probably shouldn’t. It’s not a black or white thing, it’s just another way the youths of America are expressing themselves because they are cool.

But Fox News host E.D. Hill had this to say about it: “A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently.”

Michelle Barack Fist Bump
Michelle Barack Fist Bump

I think the only people interpreting this as a “Terrorist Fist Jab” is Fox News. Now it’s not hugely surprising to me that people at Fox would not recognize how awesome people greet one another, because no one at Fox is actually awesome. But how did the word “terrorist” get inserted in there? Really, anything you don’t recognize done by people who aren’t the same color as you is now terrorism? How old are these old farts anyway? And when do we get to shuffle them off to the retirement home?

The “Obama as Curious George” T-Shirts
Kelly Newcom of Ash Flat, AR made these T-shirts of Barack Obama as Curious George. But he specifically claims that the are “not racist” ignoring the years and years of shameful history where people used monkeys as derogatory images depicting African Americans.

Racist Anti-Obama Shirt
Racist Anti-Obama Shirt

The reason the image in the above shirts has a bag over his head is because just recently Marietta, Georgia bar owner Mike Norman got in major copyright infringement trouble for selling this shirt in his bar:

Racist Anti-Obama Shirt
Racist Anti-Obama Shirt

What’s bothersome to me is the huge number of blog posts out there with the titles of “is this a racist image?” as though there’s really some possibility that it isn’t.

FoxNews declares Senator Obama’s wife is his “Baby Mama”
Fox News does it again with this caption they showed yesterday under a picture of Michelle Obama:

Racist Fox News Caption
Racist Fox News Caption

For those of you who may not be familiar with the term “Baby Mama” it means a woman who is the mother of your children, but with whom you are not in a relationship. It is a term used somewhat in the African American community, but not widely, and it’s denounced by some African Americans.

But Michelle Obama is MARRIED to Barack and is his wife, not his “baby mama.” Fox using the term seem to be trying to imply that Senator Obama and his wife aren’t married to each other.

On the other hand — Now McCain’s first wife, the one he dumped after she was paralyzed in a car accident and had to learn to walk again — she is McCain’s Baby Mama. As is the first wife of any middle-aged white guy at Fox News.

The Obama Sock Monkey
Apparently, someone actually thinks that this Obama Sock Monkey is a viable product for sale and not a unbelievably racist image. Feel free to contact them and tell them they’re douchebags. I can’t even imagine how someone could create this, let alone mass produce it.

Racist Anti-Obama Doll
Racist Anti-Obama Doll

Racism aimed at Senator Obama’s Young Daughters
Even Senator Obama’s young daughters are under attack. Michelle Obama Watch notes that an “artist’ named Yazmany Arboleda in New York produced an “Exhibition” titled “The Assassination of Barack Obama” that was investigated by the New York Police and the Secret Service.

Among the images in this exhibition are a giant picture of Senator Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia Obama, under the title “Nappy Headed Hos.”

Racist Insults to Children
Racist Insults to Children

I don’t even know how to conclude this post, really. I know that racism is, unfortunately, still alive and breathing in the United States, but it still feels like a kick in the stomach to see things like expressed like this so publicly. As if these people actually expect the people around them to nod their head in agreement instead of wanting to kick the crap out of them.

Continue ReadingRacist America comes out of the woodwork to attack Barack Obama

Selections from Hillary’s Concession Speech

selections of Hillary’s Remarks in Washington, DC

This election is a turning point election and it is critical that we all understand what our choice really is. Will we go forward together or will we stall and slip backwards. Think how much progress we have already made. When we first started, people everywhere asked the same questions:

Could a woman really serve as Commander-in-Chief? Well, I think we answered that one.

And could an African American really be our President? Senator Obama has answered that one.

Together Senator Obama and I achieved milestones essential to our progress as a nation, part of our perpetual duty to form a more perfect union.

Now, on a personal note – when I was asked what it means to be a woman running for President, I always gave the same answer: that I was proud to be running as a woman but I was running because I thought I’d be the best President. But I am a woman, and like millions of women, I know there are still barriers and biases out there, often unconscious.

I want to build an America that respects and embraces the potential of every last one of us.

I ran as a daughter who benefited from opportunities my mother never dreamed of. I ran as a mother who worries about my daughter’s future and a mother who wants to lead all children to brighter tomorrows. To build that future I see, we must make sure that women and men alike understand the struggles of their grandmothers and mothers, and that women enjoy equal opportunities, equal pay, and equal respect. Let us resolve and work toward achieving some very simple propositions: There are no acceptable limits and there are no acceptable prejudices in the twenty-first century.

You can be so proud that, from now on, it will be unremarkable for a woman to win primary state victories, unremarkable to have a woman in a close race to be our nominee, unremarkable to think that a woman can be the President of the United States. And that is truly remarkable.

To those who are disappointed that we couldn’t go all the way – especially the young people who put so much into this campaign – it would break my heart if, in falling short of my goal, I in any way discouraged any of you from pursuing yours. Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you’re knocked down, get right back up. And never listen to anyone who says you can’t or shouldn’t go on.

As we gather here today in this historic magnificent building, the 50th woman to leave this Earth is orbiting overhead. If we can blast 50 women into space, we will someday launch a woman into the White House.

Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it. And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time. That has always been the history of progress in America.

Think of the suffragists who gathered at Seneca Falls in 1848 and those who kept fighting until women could cast their votes. Think of the abolitionists who struggled and died to see the end of slavery. Think of the civil rights heroes and foot-soldiers who marched, protested and risked their lives to bring about the end to segregation and Jim Crow.

Because of them, I grew up taking for granted that women could vote. Because of them, my daughter grew up taking for granted that children of all colors could go to school together. Because of them, Barack Obama and I could wage a hard fought campaign for the Democratic nomination. Because of them, and because of you, children today will grow up taking for granted that an African American or a woman can yes, become President of the United States.

When that day arrives and a woman takes the oath of office as our President, we will all stand taller, proud of the values of our nation, proud that every little girl can dream and that her dreams can come true in America. And all of you will know that because of your passion and hard work you helped pave the way for that day.

So I want to say to my supporters, when you hear people saying – or think to yourself – “if only” or “what if,” I say, “please don’t go there.” Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward.

Life is too short, time is too precious, and the stakes are too high to dwell on what might have been. We have to work together for what still can be. And that is why I will work my heart out to make sure that Senator Obama is our next President and I hope and pray that all of you will join me in that effort.

To my supporters and colleagues in Congress, to the governors and mayors, elected officials who stood with me, in good times and in bad, thank you for your strength and leadership. To my friends in our labor unions who stood strong every step of the way – I thank you and pledge my support to you. To my friends, from every stage of my life – your love and ongoing commitments sustain me every single day. To my family – especially Bill and Chelsea and my mother, you mean the world to me and I thank you for all you have done. And to my extraordinary staff, volunteers and supporters, thank you for working those long, hard hours. Thank you for dropping everything – leaving work or school – traveling to places you’d never been, sometimes for months on end. And thanks to your families as well because your sacrifice was theirs too.

All of you were there for me every step of the way. Being human, we are imperfect. That’s why we need each other. To catch each other when we falter. To encourage each other when we lose heart. Some may lead; others may follow; but none of us can go it alone. The changes we’re working for are changes that we can only accomplish together. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are rights that belong to each of us as individuals. But our lives, our freedom, our happiness, are best enjoyed, best protected, and best advanced when we do work together.

That is what we will do now as we join forces with Senator Obama and his campaign. We will make history together as we write the next chapter in America’s story. We will stand united for the values we hold dear, for the vision of progress we share, and for the country we love. There is nothing more American than that.

And looking out at you today, I have never felt so blessed. The challenges that I have faced in this campaign are nothing compared to those that millions of Americans face every day in their own lives. So today, I’m going to count my blessings and keep on going. I’m going to keep doing what I was doing long before the cameras ever showed up and what I’ll be doing long after they’re gone: Working to give every American the same opportunities I had, and working to ensure that every child has the chance to grow up and achieve his or her God-given potential.

I will do it with a heart filled with gratitude, with a deep and abiding love for our country- and with nothing but optimism and confidence for the days ahead. This is now our time to do all that we can to make sure that in this election we add another Democratic president to that very small list of the last 40 years and that we take back our country and once again move with progress and commitment to the future.

Thank you all and God bless you and God bless America.

Continue ReadingSelections from Hillary’s Concession Speech