A pulsating black hole of stupidity threatened to suck St. Louis into its gaping maw last weekend. While Missouri residents narrowly escaped certain death by dumbness when the How to Take Back America conference convened at the Hilton, conference attendees happily wallowed in the muck of ignorant vitriol and conspiracy theories spewed by a panoply of Eagle Forum "speakers", including Zombie Phyllis Schlafly, Michele "I Kissed Killed a Census Worker" Bachmann, and Steve "Idiot" King (R-IA).
It’s not entirely clear what the purpose of this convention was other than to kick off the new season of gay-bashing, Obama-bashing, health care reform-bashing, feminist-bashing and illegal immigrant-bashing. Y’know – just another day at the office for the conservative howler monkeys.
Other speakers at the conservative feeding frenzy included General William Boykin, who appears to be a one-trick pony at this point:
"You need to ask yourself, ‘What price am I willing to pay?," Boykin told the audience. "What are you prepared to give up for America? Are you willing to pay the ultimate price?"
Boykin warned that "there is no greater threat to America than Islam" and asked patriotic Americans to get educated, get involved and pray.
Great. Because if it’s one thing the bugfuck crazies on the Right need is more encouragement to engage in anti-Muslim hysteria.
But the hero of this gathering of delusional troglodytes was not Joe the Plumber, who was awarded a Golden Plunger (erm . . . no comment) for his 15 minutes of fame, or Mike Huckabee, who advocated setting the United Nations adrift in the East River. No, the real hero of the conference was Kitty Werthmann, an 86 year-old Austrian expatriate who heads up the South Dakota chapter of the Eagle Forum. Lecturing on "How to Recognize Living Under Nazis and Communists", Ms. Werthmann tapped into the poisonous wellspring of the Republican zeitgeist — drawing illogical comparisons between President Obama to Adolf Hitler.
“What would you suggest we do,” asked one activist, “if we are asked to give up our guns?”
“Don’t you dare give up your guns!” thundered Werthmann. “Never, never, never!”
“Give them back one bullet at a time!” called out another activist. The tense atmosphere melted a little bit; the room broke up with laughter.
Given that Facebook just today removed a poll asking whether Obama should be killed, this kind of heated militant rhetoric is exceedingly disturbing. And really, not very funny at all.
If ignorance is bliss, why are these people so unhappy?
Related posts:
- Late Night: Mishugeh in Missouri
- Late Night: “Does This AR-15 Assault Rifle Make My Ass Look Fat?”
- Late Night: Guns Don’t Kill People – Tee Shirts Do!
- Late Night: I Asked For Sharks With Frickin’ Laser Beams Attached to Their Heads!
- Late Night: The Teabag Party Makes it Official, But Still Needs a Mascot
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zed really?
Where do these people get their drugs? Can we get Obama to bomb it?
These people are only happy when they are miserable or when they are making someone else miserable.
I understand the concept that Americans need to stand up to their leaders when we disagree, that we do not want to become Nazi Germany, but I really don’t get the Hitler mustache and the sign above. I guess that’s why you called them pinheads.
“I’m only happy when it rains.”
/Shirley Manson
Sadly, it is not drugs, but brain damage from being dropped on their heads, repeatedly, as infants.
It’s okay – they don’t get it either.
actually, i take that back – they don’t want to answer to a black man. they had absolutely no problem blindly following George Bush without question.
Totally. Clueless.
ThinkProgress has the youtube of Kitty Werthmann speaking here.
“How did that happen here…100% Christian Nation…keep your guns and buy more guns…”
Thinking is hard work and gives them headaches.
I was talking to my sonny this afternoon about folks who just have beliefs so utterly different than mine. He told me Mom, they were raised that way. They were raised not to think anything through. They never will. Kind of struck me.
That comes to the heart of what they are upset about. They are angry that the president is a black man. They fear that their money and resources will be taken and given to help black people or Hispanics or someone else that is not just like them. If you promised them that only white people would get welfare or universal health care, they would be fine with it.
Were you talking to my son also?
I don’t think their head is what they are thinking with.
Republicans remind me of fleas. They bite. They suck your blood. They snap when pinched between the fingernails of the electorate.
America took a flea bath recently and now the little varmints are all headed to where the sun don’t shine. How ironic!
Maybe she owns stock in Smith & Wessen.
I crossed paths with a guy yesterday whose T-shirt had a picture of a person sitting on a toilet. The words said, I kid you not, “The Koran. Now available in 2-ply.” And I wasn’t even in St. Louis. (Yes, I admit it. I was and am in Texas.)
BTW, it sounds very like Gen. Boykin is promoting armed overthrow of the US government. I do believe that constitutes sedition. Seems to me that he also took an oath to support the constitution when he was commissioned. Makes him a forsworn traitor.
And howler monkeys are REALLY loud. It’ll scare you to death if you don’t see them. The sound carries for a mile.
*facepalm*
Boykin gets a pass, because he checked a certain box on his voter registration.
Hey WT!
Praise be Dave Weigel, who reported from the belly of the beast.
And, Ms Tigre, did you hear that jumping an enclosure fence isn’t just for tiger-lovers anymore at the San Francisco Zoo?
Crazy: it’s for bears, too!
(My avatar is one of the Hearst Grizzly lady-bear twins)
But what’s to be done about it? The minute someone tries to reign them in, it’ll just give them juice.
I can’t believe Rush, Glenn and Sean are allowed to lie like they do without being sued for slander.
“Certifiable lunatic.”
Five miles actually. The loudest animals on earth, with the exception of outraged wingnuts.
newtonusr!
Wow!
a republican, no doubt. Guess what? Getting mauled by a grizzly bear constitutes a pre-existing condition!
Wish I knew. Something needs to be done. This see no evil, hear no evil approach Obama has been taking just empowers and enables them.
And then I just saw that my Rep. – Lamar Smith – was one of only 83 Rethugs to vote against extending unemployment benefits for another 13 weeks. I am sure in his world fiscal responsibility trumps all.
And cosmetic surgery isn’t covered.
Well, Gen. Boykin, how’s that My God is bigger than his god thing working in Afghanistan these days?
whoa
Right. Someone they “trusted” ie Mr. Preacher Man told them to follow Bush, so they did. No thinking involved. No anxiety from any ambiguity.
They don’t pause to think that the person and gang they followed screwed them over good. It’s more important to be “correct” and “certain” and stick to your “principles”.
Watertiger !
There were a group of Muslims walking near my home, talkin’ all nice and actin’ all civilized … must be a ruse, cause they’re all born terrists, dontcha know …
Seriously though, didja see the Fundies spewing hate in NYC ? – via NYT
What bothers me (and I suspect the rest of ya’ll too), is the thought that these folks are consciously or unconsciously egging each other on in order to get up the nerve to actually do something.
Like going postal. In droves.
I think we’ve found the polar opposite of Kumbaya.
from my perspective, Boykin is a radical Jihadist.
Can my God be bigger than his God, when they’re both the same God? Oh, dear, we’ve run into a conundrum. Guess we better fire a few missiles and see where they land.
Except to pay for unnecessary tax cuts for billionaires and to fund unnecessary wars of aggression.
You call all jump on me and tell me that I am stupid.
Continue and tell them that they are stupid only continues the problem. Argue with them, only continues the problem.
Talk to them. If they still disagree, walk away knowing you tried.
Conflict only aggravates the problem. Know when you have lost the argument and walk away. You didn’t lose, they just wouldn’t listen.
Talibangelical branch.
I guess he doesn’t have any unemployed people in his district either. They’re all working at W**Mart or fast-food places.
Yeah, good luck with that, Phelps. We New Yorkers don’t take kindly to people trying to stir our melting pot.
It’s really confusing when two Catholic schools play football or basketball etc v. each other.
Who’s side is God on?
Well there’s this good news:
My god(dess) is badder than their god.
Yeah. He looked like the kind of guy who would not take kindly to my questioning him on the appropriateness of his dress. Or asking him if he even knew how to read.
I wouldn’t be surprised if he thinks that being unemployed is a sign of a person’s moral failings.
You know, it’s the unemployed person’s fault he or she is unemployed.
God is on Notre Dame’s side. Always. It just doesn’t always show on the scoreboard.
Heaven forbid that you should try to explain to them that Allah is the Arabic word for “god” and that is what Arab Christians call their god. Worse still try to explain that “God” is a title and not a name and that the deity’s name is properly YHWH.
I’d like to see an enraged anthropologist go Aztec all over Boykin’s ass. What a show!
TPM has a series of funny sign photos from the protest.
Yep, and her little dog, too.
As Barney Frank aptly observes, conversing with your dining table would be more productive. I grew up with these asshats and am currently surrounded by them. Reason and facts have no meaning or effect on them.
On the bright side, their heads will explode just like the Death Star, emitting a visible two-dimensional shock wave.
unfortunately, he’s retired (fired?). Can’t prosecute him for his sedition anymore (Gonzo tried to prosecute a civilian – a Dem – for sedition but it didn’t work). But, yeah, he’s seditious. Just like the rest of his fellow wingnuts.. And I wouldn’t be surprised that more than a few of these whackjobs are either plotting coups or daydreaming of doing so.
There was a brief reference on Countdown tonight to FDL Action’s ad calling on Rep Ross of Arkansas to stop doing the bidding of the insurance industry.
Good God, Agnes. Baby burgers, no less. Oy!
That or all Xuara. Of course I am not sure that you can shrink that head any further than it already is.
“Noooo! We weren’t done building it yet!”
You’re not stupid!
And I think you have an important point that I’d like to expand on.
Argue with them? Doesn’t work!
Talk with them? Doesn’t work!
Ignore them? Doesn’t work!
Which means that these folks are gonna blow sooner or later.
And regardless of whether Obama wants comity, wants to reach across the aisle, or wants to “look forward, not backward”.
Crazy people gathering together reinforcing each other’s craziness.
A certain recipe for making even more craziness.
Those union people knew exactly what they were getting into.
the argument they present is that free speech should be absolute . . . when they’re speaking.
It’s a whole lot easier to get people in groups to feel – fear, hate – than it is to get them to think.
And it’s a lot easier to create confusion than it is to cultivate orderliness.
That’s part of the problem with politics, which is all about getting people to work together in groups while making sure each individual in each group doesn’t give in to fear and hate or disrupt the group’s clarity of purpose.
Is there a mod in the house for a little technical help offline?
Who paid for the buses to get them to DC, I wonder.
lol. :P
There is.
The batshit crazy Phelps tried to come up here to protest at our Soldiers’ funerals.
I know Max Blumenthal was here earlier talking about Republican Gamorrah (SP?) but Thom Hartmann had an excellent interview with him today on the radio explaining the whole thought process that y’all are talking about. He was so concise, too.
i really recommend the book. it’s a forehead-slapper.
They even managed to piss off our conservatives doing that shit here in Montana. Pretty much ran him out of town they did.
That makes me feel good.
I do not disagree.
But you can do only so much and then you have to walk away.
And, what happened?
I have firsthand experience. but yeah, I plan to read it soon!
Our Border Guards told them that those who peddle hatred are unwelcome in Canada, and turned them back.
We have more than enough racists up here anyways …
And when they shout “Fire!”, they’ll not be talking about the burning kind.
Phelps was on Long Island, NY last week protesting a memorial service for that Yale student who was murdered, on the grounds that the victim was engaged to be married to a Jewish guy. This country can be a scary place.
Good for them! You wouldn’t by any chance have a couple extra of those who understand what’s important that we could borrow?
Who knows what evil that lurks in the hearts of men…
Why, LizBots! That’s who!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09…..=1&hp
Sure Liz, get a gun and go fight. Nimrod has a tower to build too.
Then you shout, “DUCK!”
We need all the help we can get ourselves, the NeoCons are growing in number up here and the stoopid opposition parties won’t toss them out of office.
Time for me to toddle off. Young minds to corrupt and all that. Take care all.
Was he in uniform?
Lizard Cheney (MadDog’s clever name) is something. She really is articulate, which sets her apart from any other republican I can think of. What she articulates, of course, is total bs, but I see her moving on up the ranks really quickly.
VP on the repub ticket in 2012?
G’nite Sir ! I’m out as well … G’nite all !
hey.. isn’t Bible Spice’s 400 page opus supposed to be out soon? “Going Rogue” or “Making of a Wingnut” or “The Gaming of the Shrew” or something like that….
The dude that jumped into the bear cage has bi-polar disease. His grandma said on the radio machine. Poor bear. Poor man.
Nighters DD and Petro.
honk honk!
weeeeeeeee!
;~P
Then, he jumped into the wrong bear cage, didn’t he?
Mob Psychology 101:
1. Organize gatherings of individuals, who on their own, would not or could not act.
2. Individuals when gathered together as a mob feel released from constraints of law, personal morals, even simple human decency, and most importantly from responsibility!
3. Leaders of mobs (Glenn Beck, Lizard Cheney, Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin, etc.) add fuel and fan flames not to encourage rational thought and behavior, but to encourage the opposite; irrational thought and behavior.
4. The ultimate goal of Mob Psychology is the oxymoron Mob Rule!
I’ll see your Cheney and raise you a Bush! — Jeb/Liz 2012.
Kind of a cross between Jeebus and Jizz.
[Don’t worry… Liz’l lose.]
O O O! A blood do-over!
Let me make two points. There was a post on Alternet.org about the 10 ways that the US military is just asking for trouble by trying to Christianize Moslems in Iraq and Afghanistan. Can you think of a better way of helping al Qaeda with any recruitment problem? Boykin was one of the stars mentioned.
Werthmann needs to check up a bit on recent history. At one point the Cheney/Bush regime was asking ministers to prepare their congregations to turn in their weapons by pointing out how they should render onto Caesar and respect the government that God gave them. The idea was that if C/B ever had to declare martial law, they didn’t want a bunch of gun waving 2nd amendmenters disagreeing with the decision.
Is anyone else ejoying the wonderful series by Ken Burns? Stunning.
My my my, Can liberals ever respond without name calling? Please try logic. Why is what conservatives so bad? What is wrong with expressions of ideas? People of logic founded this nation.
New kid on the block.
Expression of ideas…
Logic
If you can’t ridicule these ideas, this logic, you are not having enough fun.
And welcome.
Good grammar helps, too.
Nice entry, says it all.
Oh my, that wouldn’t have gone over well at all here in this nook of Appalachia.
There is nothing logical about your bugfuck crazy ideas.
Is it not the case that some of the same people holding the “OBAMA = HITLER” signs and calling Nancy Pelosi a Nazi will go home after the Tea Party to attend white supremacist events where they will dress up like Nazis and salute photos of the actual Hitler?
Let’s be tolerant of those with differing ideas…
At least until we are sure they are not interested in a real dialog.
Right!! Sounds like the new ReBushLicken drink of choice —
“Hey barkeep, how’s about a Bloody Mulligan whatchyacallit — a Jebblizzie! — on the rocks!”
Also. Hey… name calling is catharsis for my cynical point of view. It inflates my sense of self-worth and belonging. It vilifies the perceived evil that our country has endured for the last eight years. It frees my consciousness of the foul odor of tyranny that all but permeated the great institutions which were conceived and created created through the insight and hard work of generations of freedom loving Americans only to be sullied and sodomized by the rapacious lust of right wing idealogs.
Why do Republicans hate freedom? Because they can’t own it; it has to be earned…. and defended from self-righteous bigots and charlatans who seek to usurp the vital bodily fluids of our founding fathers.
Besides, it is easier to make up names than reload spent rounds. Both smell however, but the former will always work more reliably than the latter.
Liberals don’t engage in simplistic “conservative = bad” absolutism. We’re more of the “bad = bad” school. For example, since America works best when we work together, rather than when we think of one another as competitors in some giant game of dodgeball, liberals and progressives are unsympathetic towards anyone who wants to corrupt government into a tool for helping them to advance their own personal fortunes, since that’s not what the government’s for.
So when a liberal criticizes KBR or Custer Battles or Blackwater, and is ridiculed and mocked and caricatured and his character is impugned and destroyed by a coordinated effort to do so on the part of conservative luminaries backed by defense contractor money, it is not easy to be charitable towards conservatives.
But, again, that’s individual people who demonstrate their character with actual deeds and professions, not conservatism in the abstract. Liberals don’t really see political philosophy as that black-and-white. So relax.
Let’s start asking conservatives how they will PAY FOR a war with Iran. Watch their heads explode.
“Why is what conservatives so bad?”
Please ’splain the engrish that’s based on. I don’t grok it.
*smart salute*
You’re right.
New
kidvillage idiot on the block.Just a grammar thang adjusted . . . ;-)
I think the first post was a pretty good indication of the intent, hoss . . . . ;-)
Aside from the sadness and reality of that, I now have Merlot spewed on keyboard.
Thanks. *G*
I’m curious as to why you would be so worried about liberals name-calling, when the right is calling Obama a Nazi, a communist, a socialist, etc.
Loo Hoo, yer curious like a cat with a cornered mouse. *G*
I pity the phool if it answers ya . . *G*
Hard, inglorious entrances are not uncommon in here, and not all of them end badly.
Meooowwww.
Shucks, even the Bushies are crying about the spilt milk…
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09…..38;emc=rss
So here’s a Communist country who went from dead last to a stunning second place in the panoply of world powers during the Bush regime. Commies cum capitalists eh? You can trust the Communists! Besides they own us now. Thanks to The Republicans “just go shopping” mandate!!! Barry Goldwater would puke on today’s so-called republican party. It is really disgusting to consider how incredibly inept our so-called loyal opposition has become. What an embarrassment! Plus it just sucks to have a conversation with a piece of dilapidated furniture. Republicanism has all but vanished from the face of the earth. What passes for a conservative viewpoint isn’t worth the paper it is printed on. Not that there are enough fish left to wrap with it.
Wait until Vegan Action hears about this! They’ll start believing in killing dumb animals, and eating the meat, maybe even raw.
*G*
I have NO idea what you are talking about, and it’s certainly NOT related to my comment you quoted.
But thanks for sharing the OTopic thoughts . . .
Although calling China a dead last anything since the 50’s is a bit, erm, inaccurate.
I owe you an explanation. Thanks for helping me clarify.
I should have replied to wrinkles directly but choose instead to amplify on your response. You’re right to call me on the China claim although here is a link that shows China at the bottom of the G8 before 2001 and right near the top today. This supports my thesis.
http://www.waseem.com/wp-conte…..-trade.png
Another interesting reference is this on China’s success story…
http://democracyforum.blogspot…..story.html
It shows a simpler evolution of China’s gdp growth. To be fair, it took off in ‘92, paused when our tech bubble popped and zoomed up after that. Must have been all that sheet rock.
As an aside, here’s a piece from ‘96 on FDI — Foreign direct investment:
http://www.wto.org/english/new…..r057_e.htm
Think about what an extraordinary opportunity China has using their great financial reserves in a program of targeted FDI throughout the world. It kind of boggles the mind.
Just go down to the unemployment office and hand out the news release to everyone there. Tell them to copy it and give one to their friends, and to hand it to the new folks in line.
Some of the same people holding “OBAMA = HITLER” signs will go home after the rally to dress in neo-Nazi outfits and attend white supremacist meetings where they salute actual photographs of Adolph Hitler.
Thank goodness the corporate media gives them constant fawning attention.