It seems that this…person took the vile and hateful rhetoric of the Right Wingnut bloviators seriously.  He took the rantings of the O’Reillys, Hannitys, Savages, etc. ad nauseum to heart.  Their constant demonization of liberals and their vitriolic screeds against any who do not drink the Kool-Aide of the conservatards seems to have impacted this deranged and pathetic individual.

Bill O’Reilly, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity on Accused Shooter’s Reading List

…”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.” “

He was influenced by the likes of comments from right-wing pundits like Ann Coulter who has said:

“When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors.” address before the Conservative Political Action Conference, Jan. 2002

She said that in front of the Conservative Political Action Conference and got a rousing round of applause…

Or what passes for infotainment from the most despicable  Mike Reagan that feels so strongly about free speech that he thinks certain people that exercise it should be shot as traitors:

He is still on the air.

And  someone that continues to spew his hate on the “public airwaves” , Michael Savage.

Yes, the caller must be ready to “kill someone.”

And of course you have the daily echo chamber of what I call “Hatriots.”  The conservative voices that echo the true Republican ethos of hate and violence while giving the party plausible deniability.  Limbaugh, Beck, Ingraham, Imus, etc.  They’re just “entertainment.”  The daily excoriating of liberals as the root of all of America’s problems must impact the simple minds that find comfort in this inane, bombastic and simplistic view of the issues that they listen to on a daily basis.

The perpetrator of the shooting at the Unitarian church in Tennessee also said:

… “he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them in to office.”

There is a good book that covers the methods and personalities of some of the worst offenders of this genre.  It is called, “Shock Jocks: Hate Speech and Talk Radio: America’s Ten Worst Hate Talkers and the Progressive Alternatives” by Rory O’Conner and Aaron Culter.

The rise of this type of viscous and bellicose “entertainment” can be directly traced back to the ending of the Fairness Doctrine under Ronald Reagan.  Advertisers do not seem to care that their products are being pumped on radio and television stations where killing liberals and other such viscous ideas are put out.  When only five corporations own over 90% of all the media it is difficult to get a counter balance and opposing viewpoint across.

It doesn’t appear that the tone or content of what passes for “journotainers” is going to change.  One only wonders how many more of these followers of Republican Hatriots are out there waiting to go off.

Clearly we do not want our youth going down the road to “Kicksville.”  The Devil Weed makes dark skin people want our white women.  We can’t have our children smoking the rabid reefer and thinking they can fly!  So what evil is Congressman Barney Frank up to?  It must be his “Gayness” that is driving him to this madness:

Gay Congressman Barney Frank Proposes Legalization of Marijuana

Openly gay congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass, announced a proposal on Wednesday to make it legal for pot smokers to light up. The proposed HR 5843 bill would call an end to federal penalties targeting Americans carrying less than 100 grams of marijuana.

“The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government’s business,” Frank said at a news conference on Capitol Hill, CNN reported. “I don’t think it is the government’s business to tell you how to spend your leisure time.”

Frank, surrounded by legislators and marijuana advocacy spokespeople, said that laws aimed at marijuana users place undue burdens on law enforcement resources, punish ill Americans whose doctors have prescribed the substance and unfairly affect African-Americans.

Frank was specific that use—not abuse—of the currently illegal substance, would be decriminalized under his plan.

Perhaps Congressman Frank has been listening to Bill Hicks and has been perverted by the insidiousness of his argument:

Be afraid.  Be very afraid…

To me it seems a lot like Hell.  Especially if you are Palestinian.

After shooting an eleven-year-old boy in the head, the rabid IDF apparently had a bit more to get out of their system:

IDF troops wound 9 at boy’s funeral in West Bank

Israel Defense Forces troops wounded nine Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday in a clash with protesters at the funeral of a 11-year-old boy killed a day earlier, Palestinian medics said.

They said the troops had shot the casualties with rubber bullets while fighting stone-throwing protesters. A 18-year-old Palestinian was hit in the head by a rubber bullet and doctors described him as brain dead.

The situation there has been left to simmer for the past eight years of the Bush administration.  Paying only lip service to the peace process while doing nothing constructive to ease tensions and stop the double standards of policies applied to the region has been GW’s legacy there.  The Annapolis Peace Talk handjob that only served as a photo-op for Dear Leader, who after an opening comment didn’t even stay for the conference, has done nothing.  The blather of a “Two State Solution” is proving only to be political rhetoric with no steps closer to being a reality.

Just another dead child.  Just another day in the “Holy Land.”  Just another day in Hell…

I always picture Rove in a peaked Nazi hat and sporting the black SS uniform, a sycophant rewarded for his slavish loyalty. A person who, if not for politics, would probably be delivering pizzas for a living and pulling wings off of flies for fun and relaxation. It seems as if the teflon is wearing off of him and maybe…just maybe, he may be held accountable for some of his many transgressions:

House Panel Votes to Find Rove in Contempt

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. congressional panel voted on Wednesday to find former presidential adviser Karl Rove in contempt for defying a subpoena to testify in its probe into the firing of federal prosecutors.

On a party-line vote of 20-14, the Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee approved a contempt citation against President George W Bush’s former deputy chief of staff and political adviser and sent it to the full House of Representatives for needed concurrence.

Rove has done everything he can to avoid testifying under oath. One wonders if he has done no wrong why the fear of swearing to tell the truth? This should be interesting to see what the House does. Squeal like a pig, Turd blossom…They’re coming to get you.

As C&L points out today, during the 2004 election this bit of neocon nonsense was ejaculated by GW and swallowed by the drooling sycophants in the crowd:

Some are skeptical that the war on terror is really a war at all. Senator Kerry said, and I quote, “The war on terror is far less of a military operation and far more of an intelligence-gathering law enforcement operation.”

AUDIENCE: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: I disagree. I disagree. Our nation followed this approach after the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993. The matter was handled in the courts and thought by some to be settled. The terrorists were still training in Afghanistan. They’re still plotting in other nations. They’re still drawing up more ambitious plans. After the chaos and carnage of September the 11th, it is not enough to serve our enemies with legal papers. (Applause.) With those attacks, the terrorists and supporters declared war on the United States of America — and war is what they got. (Applause.)

Yeehaw!!  The only thing is, the military option was always the stupidest and least effective.  History makes for a great educator.  The perpetrators of the WTC bombing in 1993 were apprehended through police procedures, convicted, sentenced and are still in prison.

The Rand Corporation is a non-partisan research think tank.  They did a significant amount of research on what we call the Pentagon Papers.  Their research then showed the futility and ineffective nature of our Vietnam adventure.  The information was just suppressed and thanks to Daniel Ellsberg we got to see what our government definitely did not want we the people to be aware of.  It lifted the veil and showed us what a charade the whole sordid, bloody affair of our many years in Vietnam truly was.

They have cast their eye towards our “War on Tair” (that’s Crawford Texican for “War on Terro”):

U.S. Should Rethink “War on Terrorism” Strategy to Deal With Resurgent Al Qaeda

Current U.S. strategy against the terrorist group al Qaida has not been successful in significantly undermining the group’s capabilities, according to a new RAND Corporation study issued today.

Al Qaida has been involved in more terrorist attacks since Sept. 11, 2001, than it was during its prior history and the group’s attacks since then have spanned an increasingly broader range of targets in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, according to researchers.

In looking at how other terrorist groups have ended, the RAND study found that most terrorist groups end either because they join the political process, or because local police and intelligence efforts arrest or kill key members. Police and intelligence agencies, rather than the military, should be the tip of the spear against al Qaida in most of the world, and the United States should abandon the use of the phrase “war on terrorism,” researchers concluded.

“The United States cannot conduct an effective long-term counterterrorism campaign against al Qaida or other terrorist groups without understanding how terrorist groups end,” said Seth Jones, the study’s lead author and a political scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. “In most cases, military force isn’t the best instrument.”

The comprehensive study analyzes 648 terrorist groups that existed between 1968 and 2006, drawing from a terrorism database maintained by RAND and the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism. The most common way that terrorist groups end — 43 percent — was via a transition to the political process. However, the possibility of a political solution is more likely if the group has narrow goals, rather than a broad, sweeping agenda like al Qaida possesses.

The second most common way that terrorist groups end — 40 percent — was through police and intelligence services either apprehending or killing the key leaders of these groups. Policing is especially effective in dealing with terrorists because police have a permanent presence in cities that enables them to efficiently gather information, Jones said.

Military force was effective in only 7 percent of the cases examined; in most instances, military force is too blunt an instrument to be successful against terrorist groups, although it can be useful for quelling insurgencies in which the terrorist groups are large, well-armed and well-organized, according to researchers. In a number of cases, the groups end because they become splintered, with members joining other groups or forming new factions. Terrorist groups achieved victory in only 10 percent of the cases studied.

It goes on and clearly points to our failed strategy from the pathetic “War on Terror” slogan to our militarization as a response to the threats of terrorism.  And of course, John McBush wants to continue the same stupid, costly and counter productive policies of his soul daddy.

It is time for a change.  We know we will not get it from McCain.  I only hope that we do from Obama.

Also, I apologize to Greg Mitchell for stealing the name of his most excellent book for the title of this post.  it just seemed so… appropriate.

Or…just another corrupt Republican in a long line of corrupt Republicans:

Ted Stevens Indicted On Corruption Charges

U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens was indicted this morning by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., on seven counts of filing false financial disclosures

With the felony indictment, Stevens, an icon in Alaska politics, becomes by far the most powerful politician charged in a broad, four-year investigation into corruption of Alaska public officials that has so far led to convictions of three state legislators, with two others awaiting trial.

Yes, I know that Republicans are not the only ones to be thieving sharks living large off of their positions.  The just seem to have perfected it.

When the Republicans say they are the “Family Values” Party I am reminded of the line in The Princes Bride when the one fellow is always saying “Inconceivable” about something that is plainly happening:

Yes, I think that the term “Family Values” does not mean what they think it does.  You know, closeted gay, putting a For Sale sign in you Congressional seat, preaching the word while stealing the dollar, talking traditional marriage while practicing something else and on and on…

The thing is…if they weren’t so hypocritical and in your face holier-than-thou and constantly trying to legislate morality I would not take such glee in their never ending falls.  As it is, it makes great entertainment.  I mean, Wide Stance never had so many great applications…

Gone to deficits every one.  When will they ever learn?  When will they ever learn…Republicans leave deficits.  Huge ones.  Clinton left a huge surplus.  George the Lesser has followed in his father’s footsteps with vodoo economics and tax cuts for the top tiered incomes coupled with record borrowing to leave a legacy of the larges deficit in US history.

The deficit clock is not kind to Dear Leader’s legacy of ashes.  The BBC has this to say:

Record Deficit for Next President

The next US president is expected to face a record federal budget deficit of almost half a trillion dollars.

The White House has lifted its deficit forecast for 2009 to $482bn (£242bn) up from $407bn.

The budget deficit measures how much more the government is spending than it is raising through taxes.

Yeah, and the other thing is:

And it takes no account of the potential costs of a full-scale Federal bail-out of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who have been given a Federal guarantee in the housing bill that has just passed Congress.

And while the next administration and the American people are trying to dig themselves out of the hole, Bush and his no-bid corporate cronies will be laughing all the way to the bank.

Hmmm… one of these things is not like the other one…

The current “common wisdom” is that the media is in love with Obama and is a big collective meany head to McCain. The Los Angeles Times says:

In Study, Evidence of Liberal-Bias Bias

Cable news talking heads accuse broadcast networks of liberal bias–but a think tank finds that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Barack Obama than on John McCain in recent weeks

Why that goes against the rantings of Bill O’Lielly O’Reilly! That flies in the face of the flatulent Laura “i’m meaner than Ann Coulter and I don’t look like a vampire” Ingraham! That is a direct distortion of the Doctor of Dementia, Rush “anybody got any hillbilly heroin” Limbaugh! Yet…here it is:

The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University, where researchers have tracked network news content for two decades, found that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher on Obama than on Republican John McCain during the first six weeks of the general-election campaign.

You read it right: tougher on the Democrat.

During the evening news, the majority of statements from reporters and anchors on all three networks are neutral, the center found. And when network news people ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of the statements were positive for Obama and 72% negative.

Imagine that. As the picture above shows (oh, and the answer to the quiz is that Jon Stewart is the anomaly in the group) , the “liberal media” seems heavily tilted towards the conservative side. From the right-wingnut echo chamber of the AM talk radio ditto-heads to the punditocracy of the “Main Stream Media” the voices of the true left is indeed deafening in it’s silence. Here is an interesting piece on the myth of the “Liberal Media” with Noam Chomsky:

But hey, when you say the media is “Liberal” fast enough, long enough and loud enough, I guess it sounds plausible to the masses. Or at least those that wish it to be…

Yes, that damned “Liberal Media” is at it again.  In a sad testimony to a) what passes for journalism and b) the complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of the cause of this “Kabuki Theater” we have CNN’s bimbo brigade parodying journalists and showing them and their station to be the asses they are:

Yes, a “real waste of taxpayer’s money.”   Never mind the wasted taxpayer’s money poured down the deep, black hole of eight years of Bush mismanagement and abuse.  Never mind the “stagecraft” of the whole charade of this administration as they played politics while raping this country, shredding our constitution and wreaking havoc in other parts of the world.  How about the “stagecraft” of FEMA under this cartel err…administration as the Bubble Ensconced  Dear Leader  fiddled (played guitar…whatever) during  Hurricane  Katrina?  Or the “Kabuki Theater” of this junta. administration as they played us for fools and marched us into war?  Or the “stagecraft” that went into over drive to distance GW from Enron and “Kenny Boy” Lay?

Yes, and where was CNN during all of this?  Facilitating the march to war and hosting whatever pentagon shill was foisted on them.  Wasting valuable airtime and opportunities to inform by letting the racist hatemonger Glenn Beck spew his party schpiel.  Turning a platform to inform and educate into just another tabloid TV rag following with breathless anticipation the latest white girl gone missing, Paris Hilton or Anna Nicole shenanigans and, oh don’t forget…those live breaking police chases!  Yes, let’s talk about charades and stagecraft.

Ha-ha and giggle!  Erica Hill and Campbell Brown..what can’t get a job in the porn industry so imitating journalists is your only gig?  I guess you have to ride that pony as long as it runs…

Party hacks only need apply.  Qualified but married to a Democrat?  You’re outta here!  Helped with the Florida election recount for GW? Step right up and join the DOJ.  Qualified and experienced career legal employee but think abortion should stay legal?  Get another job!  Yes,  nothing like having the “adults back in charge”:

DOJ: Former aides broke law in hiring scandal

Former Justice Department officials broke the law by letting Bush administration politics dictate the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, according to an internal investigation released Monday.

For nearly two years, top advisers to then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales discriminated against applicants for career jobs who weren’t Republican or conservative loyalists, the Justice report found.

At times, their search for GOP activists delayed filling judgeships and threatened to clog immigration courts, the report said.

One way to stop dissent within the ranks of the Justice Department is to stack it with partisan hacks. One way to control investigations is to stack the DOJ with party loyalists. This investigation shows what has been obvious for too long:

The investigation was one of several examining accusations that White House political meddling drove prosecution, policy and employment decisions within the once fiercely independent Justice Department. Those charges were spurred initially by the firings of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006 and culminated with Gonzales’ resignation under fire as attorney general last September.

Ein Volk! Ein Party! Ein Reich!