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A plot to destroy America would look like this...

What if the 10 Russian spies weren't the only enemy agents to infiltrate the United States? What if some other alien power has planted a fifth column of pretend Americans to destroy America from within?

How could these hypothetical terrorists undermine the most powerful nation on Earth?

Given America's economic strength, one tactic for destroying America would be to bankrupt the country with massive federal deficits. The easiest way to accomplish this would be to cut the taxes on the rich without cutting the budget.

Given America's military strength, one enemy tactic would be to exhaust the military by engaging in never-ending wars without providing sufficient personnel (draft) and equipment (no money because of the tax cuts for the rich).

Given America's traditional unity, one destructive tactic would be to divide Americans over inconsequential issues such as gay marriage, abortion and religion.

Given America's lead in science, one ruinous tactic would be to destroy America's public educational system by teaching creationism, denying global-warming science and establishing religious schools masquerading as charter schools.

If this sounds like a certain political party and their tea-based shock troops, maybe you should vote them out of office before they destroy America completely."

GARY L. BENNETT

Passed along from Farrell Till's errancy list.

The lefties are kicking butt on this issue:

***
As in the Civil Rights Era, there cannot be a neutral ground.

If I seem harsh, it's because I earned the right to be harsh about this. A few weeks ago I noticed a loss of feeling in three toes of my left foot; this is the latest sign of degeneration from the damage my lumbar spine sustained while serving my country. You'll excuse me if I take freedom very seriously, and not merely my own but that of others. To progressives, there is no difference; to regressives, the rights of one subtract from the rights of another. The relative distance of a mosque or community center or titty bar from 'ground zero' makes no difference to the zero-sum mindset, which is why regressives seem impervious to facts.... [big snip]

From the outer perimeter of [Ground Zero] to 45 and 51 Park Place is almost exactly 99 strides at a marching pace, which makes me want to visit New York City and ask the haters if one more step is far enough for a disabled vet to pray in peace. Even if I'm not Muslim, I suffered injury defending the right of every American to pray (or not) as their god moves them (or not), and I will remain forever inflexible on this point."

Ground Zero and the Zero-Sum Mindset

Bonus:

Yesterday, former Clinton adviser and sucker of prostitute toes Dick Morris, referred to this place as a "terrorist command center." Huff Po

Bonus:

"Arshad Hasan, weaves together his personal history with a detailed explanation of the project's lofty and noble objectives. In a direct but diplomatic touch, he addresses Dean's opposition only by explaining that "well-intentioned" Democrats are "getting caught up" in the anti-mosque hysteria. "It's not helping," writes Hasan.

[L]et's be clear, the subject of the highest profile Muslim structure, 51 Park in New York City, will have a basketball court and a culinary school. Two floors will have a prayer room. The other eleven will host movie nights, performances, group dinners, etc -- it's basically a Muslim YMCA, open to everyone. These moderate Muslims are doing everything we could ask of them. They're trying to build a bridge in the communities they live in, trying to show the world that Muslims are cool and interesting and diverse, and proving that being a Muslim does not equal being a terrorist.

But they're being thrown under the bus by our elected leaders, egged on by some of the ugliest elements of the right-wing. Well-intentioned leaders of the Democratic Party are getting caught up in the fray as well, some of them seeking to find common ground with an implacable opposition. It's not helping.

This isn't just a Manhattan problem. Right now, there is opposition to mosques in Staten Island, Brooklyn, Southern California, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Illinois, and dozens of other locations across our nation. Where would they move? If public pressure can be brought to bear to take down the most high-profile Muslim community center in liberal NYC, then these other places don't even have a chance, Ground Zero connection or not.

Frankly, this isn't about Ground Zero. This is about America. This is about freedom. This is about people and there seems to be no place that Muslim people can go without being harassed.

The harassment has to stop, and that starts with you and me."

LINK

A very thorough review and butt kicking by Frank Rich on the issue of this Islamic Center:

How Fox Betrayed Petraeus.

"If by a “Liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind,

someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions,

someone who cares about the welfare of the people - their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -

someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad,

if that is what they mean by a “Liberal,” then I’m proud to say I’m a “Liberal.”

~ John F. Kennedy, 1960

Al Queda = TeaBaggers - Enough to Eat

Let them run the country for a while and that little red dot will migrate into the smaller circle. The label will change but not much else. What I am getting at is that, though religion does play a part in such terrorist groups, the specific religion is quite inconsequential. There are much more sensitive variables at play. We are rather comfortable in this country. Take away that comfort and we will find ourselves in interesting times.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg reaffirming his commitment to the controversial Islamic cultural center near the former site of the World Trade Center.

"But if we say that a mosque and community center should not be built near the perimeter of the World Trade Center site, we would compromise our commitment to fighting terror with freedom.

We would undercut the values and principles that so many heroes died protecting. We would feed the false impressions that some Americans have about Muslims. We would send a signal around the world that Muslim Americans may be equal in the eyes of the law, but separate in the eyes of their countrymen. And we would hand a valuable propaganda tool to terrorist recruiters, who spread the fallacy that America is at war with Islam.
Islam did not attack the World Trade Center -- Al-Qaeda did. To implicate all of Islam for the actions of a few who twisted a great religion is unfair and un-American. Today we are not at war with Islam -- we are at war with Al-Qaeda and other extremists who hate freedom.

[snip]

The members of our military are men and women at arms -- battling for hearts and minds. And their greatest weapon in that fight is the strength of our American values, which have always inspired people around the world. But if we do not practice here at home what we preach abroad -- if we do not lead by example - we undermine our soldiers. We undermine our foreign policy objectives. And we undermine our national security."

LINK

Congressman Ron Paul today... on the controversy concerning the construction of an Islamic Center and Mosque in New York City:

Read it here.

Quite good.

Darrel wrote:Congressman Ron Paul today... on the controversy concerning the construction of an Islamic Center and Mosque in New York City:

Read it here.

Quite good.

This was a good read. And to a great extent, he is absolutely right. 9/11 was far more a politically motivated attack than religious. However religion was the mechanism employed to manipulate those men into a state of mind where they were ready, willing, and able to suppress their instincts of self preservation and fly a plane into a building killing themselves and thousands of other men, women, and children. From my perspective, however, it is not Islam in particular which is to blame but rather irrationality in general. Stick the Tea-Baggers into that social/political climate for a couple generations and it would have been christians hijacking the planes. I assure you there is a place set aside to pray ON GROUND ZERO. It was likely set aside with overwhelming christian support. I am offended by this. How are we going to pay lip-service to the very same kind of irrationality that facilitated this attack in the first place! Yet, it would seem, that almost everyone in this country strongly disagrees with me. In fact I have been told this sentiment is "ridiculous" and that I am just "trying to get a rise out of them". At the end of the day, the fact that I am offended is a moot point. I defend the right of my fellow americans to have their place to pray if they must. But I can not help but gawk at the irony that, at the same time as they kneel on the very place where so many dead will never be found, they harbor such resentment for the plans to build a community center and a place of worship SEVERAL BLOCKS away for entirely unrelated reasons. How is it that they can be so blind to not see this entire "controversy" is a blatant and transparently engineered distraction...just dangle the pretty keys in front of their face...like a baby mesmerized by the mobil above the crib.

From the Beck rally:





Rev C.L. Jackson said this in his intro for Beck.

"God brought us here through this bright young — I call him — servant of God, son of God, Glenn Beck. … God sent his son to this Earth so that we could all gather. And I think that’s the dream and the vision of Glenn Beck."

Yes, he called him "son of God." Non Christians may not know the code speak going on here.

Media matters does an excellent 3 minute video clip showing Beck's fear mongering, contradictions and insanity.

As seen on http://www.bartcop.com/



"One in five Americans believe Obama is a Muslim...one in five also believe in alien abductions,
they can't find the U.S. on a map, and they think George W. Bush was a great president."
-- Daniel Kurtzman

"People aren't recognizing his version of Christianity," --Beck, a Mormon, speaking about Obama

“Glenn Beck often speaks about faith on his radio show and Fox News program, but he almost never mentions his own faith — Mormonism.” Bill Keller, the leader of the world’s largest interactive Christian website, said earlier this year, Beck “lies to people” by trying to portray himself as a Christian. “The fact is, the beliefs of the satanic Mormon cult are totally inconsistent with Biblical Christianity,” Keller said. It’s politically convenient for Beck to be attacking Obama’s religion, while rarely ever mentioning his own." --LINK

"In a rather curious and confused way, some white people are starting almost to think like a minority, even like a persecuted one. What does it take to believe that Christianity is an endangered religion in America or that the name of Jesus is insufficiently spoken or appreciated? Who wakes up believing that there is no appreciation for our veterans and our armed forces and that without a noisy speech from Sarah Palin, their sacrifice would be scorned? It’s not unfair to say that such grievances are purely and simply imaginary, which in turn leads one to ask what the real ones can be. The clue, surely, is furnished by the remainder of the speeches, which deny racial feeling so monotonously and vehemently as to draw attention." --Hitchens, White Fright

Do realize that many rightwingers aren't even capable of understanding that paragraph. Hitchens doesn't dumb it down.

Candidate Brewer, Governor of Arizona. Here's a woman they should run against Obama.

What an astonishing performance.

One minute clip.

"From December 2007 to July 2009 - the last year of the Bush second term and the first six months of the Obama presidency, before his policies could affect the economy - private sector employment crashed from 115,574,000 jobs to 107,778,000 jobs. Employment continued to fall, however, for the next six months, reaching a low of 107,107,000 jobs in December of 2009. So, out of 8,467,000 private sector jobs lost in this dismal cycle, 7,796,000 of those jobs or 92 percent were lost on the Republicans' watch or under the sway of their policies. Some 671,000 additional jobs were lost as the stimulus and other moves by the administration kicked in, but 630,000 jobs then came back in the following six months. The tally, to date: Mr. Obama can be held accountable for the net loss of 41,000 jobs (671,000 - 630,000), while the Republicans should be held responsible for the net losses of 7,796,000 jobs."

Robert Shapiro -- Who’s Really to Blame for High Unemployment, and What to Do About it

From:

Craigslist Pulls Hooker Ads

"I've never understood why sex work between consenting adults isn't legal.

ZhyKitty replies:

“Maybe because then the cops couldnt pretend to bust the working girls (and sometimes boys) when what they're really after is a free ride? Then they go on and harass you and try to get info from you once they know how to track you down because they assume that just because you're in the trade you somehow have underworld street contacts. As if.
Fairly common problem.
The only time the law ever works in your favor is if you land in a courtroom in front of a judge you've seen as a client.
It's a disgrace.
Right now sex workers are targets - open season for bigots - it's considered morally/socially acceptable to denegrade and persecute them. Of course, just like with outspoken homophobes, most of the politicians doing the finger pointing and grandstanding are also regular "patrons of the arts" so to speak.
I'd even bet most of them have kink they wouldnt want hitting the papers as it was my experience over the years that the more "conservative" the client the more twisted the kink - not always (of course) but often.
They get on their soap boxes to try to make themselves look good to the people they want votes from - and no one speaks up for sex workers or their rights, freedoms, and protections on either side...so it's just plain open season every election year.
It's not just escorts and independants who catch hell either - they fuck over the dancers and massage workers too when it comes time to rally the the xtianists to the polls.
It makes me sick, it's so unfair.

Darrel wrote:Candidate Brewer, Governor of Arizona. Here's a woman they should run against Obama.

What an astonishing performance.

One minute clip.

I honestly think I would vote for Abel over her....

Rabid Dog Briefly Mistaken for Tea Party Candidate

Receives Standing Ovation at Missouri Rally



JEFFERSON CITY, MO (The Borowitz Report) – A rabid Doberman Pinscher jumped on stage at a Tea Party rally in Missouri on Labor Day and barked at the crowd for nearly twenty minutes before people realized he was not a candidate.

The dog, later identified by its owner as “Mister Buster,” held the crowd spellbound as he barked, growled, and frothed at the mouth, eventually receiving a standing ovation for his exertions.

Gwendolene Thomason, 42, a Tea Party supporter from Jefferson City, was one of the hundreds on hand who were convinced that the Doberman was a Tea Party candidate until he was outed as a dog.

“I liked what he had to say,” she said. ”He reminded me of Glenn Beck, only furrier.”

The rest here.

You can also sign up and receive the Borowitz reports regularly via email. I just did.

"Despite wavering from many in his own party, at a time of record income inequality and massive budget deficits, Obama refused to join the Republican $700 billion club Paul Krugman recently described as "eager to cut checks averaging $3 million each to the richest 120,000 people in the country."
--Crooks and Liars

"...in a blind taste test the only way you’d be able to tell the difference between the GOP and Taliban philosophies would be beard hair.”
—Sam Seder, author, F.U.B.A.R: America’s Right Wing Nightmare, in reference to the book "American Taliban" by Markos Moulitsas LINK

Product Description

“We all agree with the Taliban.”—Rush Limbaugh, October 9, 2009

America’s primary international enemy—Islamic radicalism—insists on government by theocracy, curtails civil liberties, embraces torture, represses women, wants to eradicate homosexuals from society, and insists on the use of force over diplomacy. Remind you of a certain American political party? In American Taliban, Markos Moulitsas pulls no punches as he compares how the Republican Party and Islamic radicals maintain similar worldviews and tactics. Moutlitsas also challenges the media, fellow progressives, and our elected officials to call the radical right on their jihadist tactics more forcefully for the good of our nation and safety of all citizens."

From a review:

"The central point of the book is that - in spite of their anti-Taliban rhetoric - the representatives of the fanatical religious fringe of the American society share most of Taliban's beliefs. Both kinds of Taliban are equally preoccupied with violence, guns, hatred of sex, rejection of democracy, hatred of homosexuality, and their burning desire to keep women in a state of permanent subjection.

Both the Christian and the Muslim fundamentalists are driven by their fear and rejection of modernity. The idea that the world is changing is intolerable to them. They lash out in violence against a world that has become incomprehensible and confusing. The segment of the American society that turns to religious fanaticism because it's terrified of change is not that huge. However, members of the American Taliban are very loud and active. They insist that they speak for all Americans, even though it's patently untrue. Markos's book is an important milestone on the path of resistance to religious fanaticism in this country and everywhere in the world."