JABbering Stooge

I do not think it means what you think it means, Andrew Alexander.

Then again, given his column and blog post on the subject, it seems that this

or this

accurately represent the WaHoPo’s new ombudsman’s view of “ideological diversity.”

Remember when I chastised Michelle Malkin for illogically claiming that the teabaggers were a counterinsurgency, only to walk it back a little bit in light of new evidence that suggested the previously unconsidered possibility that she honestly believes that only conservatives are the legitimate rulers of ‘Murrka?

Well, it’s not just Malkin. On Thursday, John “Spathi” Hinderaker verbally fellated Andrei Zhdanov School of Conservative Correctness founder Andrew Breitbart for courageously teabagging the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s fresh corpse from the safety of Twitter. Wiping Breitbart’s jizz from his chin, Fwiffo concluded thusly:

It’s time for conservatives—mainstream Americans, in other words—to throw off the shackles and get aggressive. Our beliefs are correct, our values are the foundation of any society that doesn’t have a death wish, and our interests, unlike those of the leftists, are legitimate. We deserve to govern this country, and before long, we will.

Yes, you read that right. John Hinderaker believes that conservatives are the only legitimate ruling party in America. Kind of like the Divine Right of Kings™ that the war that gave birth to our country was all about getting away from. If that’s not anti-democratic, then nothing is.

Worse, this isn’t the first time that the Sense of Entitlement That Dare Not Speak Its Name™ has bubbled up to the surface on the right. Let’s not forget that barely two years ago, Rev. Joseph Fuiten famously let slip to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he believes that non-Dominionists are illegal aliens in their own country:

As Sara Robinson noted at the time, Fuiten’s outrageous (but in hindsight, hardly surprising) remarks were ignored by just about everyone in the punditocracy (both mainstream and — to a lesser degree — the blogosphere) in favor of the “sexier” (and thus more “newsworthy” in the eyes of T3h Village Idiots™) “BattleCry” rallies. And now we’re seeing the consequences of ignoring Fuiten’s sentiment as it becomes safe to espouse on the mainstream right, particularly as it seems to come in response to the “horror” of having a black president.

It’s a feat that flows naturally out of the backlash against “Political Correctness” which has done so much to erode the taboo against being nakedly racist (to the point where Rush Limbaugh feels safe suggesting that buses be re-segregated). The further right the Overton Window gets pushed, the more acceptable it becomes to utter certain odious notions — Inciting the murder of abortion providers is a “profile in courage,” digitally teabagging a recently deceased Senator via Twitter makes one “fearless and aggressive,” anyone who doesn’t subscribe to a Christian Dominionist theology is a “secular illegal alien,” heckling the first black president in violation of Hosue rules is perfectly fine, etc.

It is for this very reason that Sarah’s comment at the time was disturbingly prescient:

As I’ve been noting, this kind of remark is hardly an isolated incident. If they’re willing to talk like this on national TV, you know that whatever they’re saying in private among themselves is far, far worse. This is a meme that’s already covering the countryside — softening the ground for those Battle Cry/OSU-trained Christian soldiers, who are actively preparing themselves to take back the country for God, and transform our democracy into a theocratic kingdom by any means necessary.

He said it. Right out loud on CNN, without even trying to make it sound PC.

We’d best start taking these people at their word.

Indeed. However, it brings to mind an even more disturbing thought. If the idea that adherents of a particular political ideology are the only ones fit to rule in America is now so readily espoused on the right, what are they saying in the smoke-filled back rooms NOW that won’t be “safe” to utter in polite company until after the next election cycle passes?

What does it say about the sad state of science in America when a British biopic about Charles Darwin can’t get a distributor here because it would upset the willfully ignorant? I mean, talk about censoring ideas in science!

Reason Magazine’s David Weigel tells us what many already suspected:

Poll: Most South Carolina Voters Back Rep. Joe Wilson

Figures.

Just call them the Teabagger Caucus. I’m pretty damn sure that no Democrat was EVER this rude to The Most Holy George W. Christ The Infallible.

Fascinating:

I’m seriously just sick of lunatics. I really am. I simply can not believe people are freaking out over Obama addressing schoolchildren. As unhinged as I thought some on the left were in the early Bush years, they have nothing on the right-wing noise machine. They’ll just say or do anything. They have no shame. And I’m sick of reading “respectable” Republicans who fail to call their own party out on this crap. They sit by and feed this nonsense, but I’m supposed to get my knickers in a twist because a liberal blogger said the “f” word of [sic] Van Jones called Republicans “assholes?”

Can we just start the civil war now so it might be over by the 2012 election?

Heh. Indeed. The only problem is that, if the last civil war is any indication, Civil War 2.0 would last past the 2012 election (which Obama would win handily), and Obama would be assassinated less than a week after the official end of fighting.

David “Dean of the Beltway Press Corpse Corps” Broder, gleefully shoving the Overton Window* rightward on torture:

In times like these, the understandable desire to enforce individual accountability must be weighed against the consequences. This country is facing so many huge challenges at home and abroad that the president cannot afford to be drawn into what would undoubtedly be a major, bitter partisan battle over prosecution of Bush-era officials. The cost to the country would simply be too great.

When President Ford pardoned Nixon in 1974, I wrote one of the few columns endorsing his decision, which was made on the basis that it was more important for America to focus on the task of changing the way it would be governed and addressing the current problems. It took a full generation for the decision to be recognized by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and others as the act of courage that it had been.

I hope we can avoid another such lapse. The wheels are turning, but they can still be halted before irreparable damage is done.

Mind you, this is the same David Broder who called for Bill Clinton to resign during Monicagate. So now we have a glimpse of Broder’s moral calculus (such as it is): Oval Office hummers are worse crimes than flagrant human rights abuses. I wish I were making this up.

The cake is a lie!

* Cf.

Eric Boehlert has a must-read article on the “librul” media’s treatment of the DFH’s who wisely foresaw the disaster awaiting us in Iraq vs. its treatment of the Teabaggers over at Media Matters.

Check it out.

Please tell me this isn’t true:

PHOENIX — The White House, facing increasing skepticism over President Obama’s call for a public insurance plan to compete with the private sector, signaled Sunday that it was willing to compromise and would consider a proposal for a nonprofit health cooperative being developed in the Senate.

The “public option,” a new government insurance program akin to Medicare, has been a central component of Mr. Obama’s agenda for overhauling the health care system, but it has also emerged as a flashpoint for anger and opposition. Kathleen Sebelius, the health and human services secretary, said the public option was “not the essential element” for reform and raised the idea of the co-op during an interview on CNN.

Mr. Obama himself sought to play down the significance of the public option at a town-hall-style meeting on Saturday in Grand Junction, Colo., when a university student challenged him on how private insurers could compete with the government.

Seriously, Mr. President, if you and the Congressional Dems pull a France in this fight and surrender without a shot being fired, you deserve to lose in 2010 and 2012. We are dangerously close to losing this country to the fascists, and the health care reform battle is probably the make or break point. This is how Germany slid into fascism: a weak government all too willing to make concessions to an opposition that would be satisfied with nothing less than the utter destruction of the ruling party.

We are in the river, Mr. President, and the scorpion is rearing back to strike. Do the right thing. If you fail, I will be watching the death of the America I was raised to love and defend from north of 49^th parallel.

Ah, those Teabaggers. When they’re not infecting everyone around them with Stupid Cooties™, they’re taking up the role of Mafia enforcers:

ALEXANDRA FENWICK, COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW: You mentioned the crowd taking control of the event. There have been memos circulated online from organizers on both the right and the left about trying to get into the news media lens and approaching reporters proactively. Were people media savvy at this event? Were they coming up to you?

DAMON WINTER, NEW YORK TIMES: I get the feeling that people at this point, this far into it, realize there’s a lot more media scrutiny at these events, and I think they’re much more aware that there are a lot of eyes on them and what was happening there. So I get the feeling that people were a little more careful. I don’t think we were necessarily warmly greeted as journalists covering the event. Especially a few times, once people found out I was working for The New York Times, I would get really kind of nasty remarks and these kind of things that were making assumptions that I myself or we as a newspaper had preconceived notions about them. Another photographer working for the times that day, a freelance photographer, Jessica Kourkounis, got pushed by an audience member once they realized she was working for The New York Times.

So tell me, “librul” media, how’s all that pandering to these far-right loons working out for you?

(h/t, TS at InstaPutz)