December 3, 2012

Ms. Geller popped into my mind the first time I read about the video by the American

Coptic Christian which defamed Muhammed. Yes, that same video the world later blamed for inflaming the Middle East and causing a dozen Muslim deaths after it was translated and sent to Egypt. I was reminded of it again in September when four Americans died at the hands of terrorists in Bengazi (although the GOP denied there was any connection at all to those deaths).

As I read the Village Voice article referenced in this OP, I was again reminded of Ms. Geller and all the questions I had at the time the video first surfaced. The captions are mine; the excerpts are from the article.

Opportunity By Any Name:
“In 2008, she published cartoons of Muhammad from a Danish newspaper. Her readership increased tenfold, she says, because when the cartoons made international headlines, her blog was one of the only websites to run them. It was also helped along because, a couple of times, she video-blogged while in a bikini.”

Obama Makes a Great Enemy:
“Geller, still largely unknown, was hungry for more. … She was firmly a part of the war against what she called an Islamic "world takeover." The only problem is, if you believe you're in a war—an actual war—it's easier when there's a visible enemy to fight.

Then a brown guy whose parents had the lack of foresight to name him Barack Hussein Obama ran for president of the United States. Geller finally had her enemy."

Profitable Untruths:
“We're talking now, of course, about the first time she won Worst Person in the World, when she published, but didn't herself write, an outlandish claim that Barack Obama was Malcolm X's love child.”

And More Untruths (Worth $) for Repeating:
“In October 2008, when it was all but a lock that America would have its first African-American president, Geller took to Atlas Shrugs. "Conventional" birth certificate birtherism had already started a year before, but no one expected what came next. One of her readers, a conspiracy theorist named Rudy Schultz, had conjured a new claim that Malcolm X had impregnated Ann Dunham, a white woman."

"She posted Schultz's ludicrous theory. …The theory took off nationally, and because of that post, she was thrust into the public eye when Olbermann named her Worst Person in the World. Geller's celebrity and readership jumped again.”

"So you kind of indirectly started birtherism even though you weren't the one peddling it," I say. "Kind of, right?"
Geller looks at me, smiles coyly, and nods."

The Tea Party Loves to Hate With Geller:
"It (the Tea Party) was just organic. People got up and said: 'No. No way.' And it didn't have a leadership," Geller says. "I kinda liked that about the Tea Party. Because weak people need a strong leader. Strong people don't need a strong leader."

Geller Attacks Ground Zero:
"Geller got gigs blogging for other sites. Fox News loved her. Halfway through Obama's presidency, her blog was fielding 200,000 unique visitors a month. And then plans for the Cordoba House, an Islamic community center since renamed Park51, were announced. Geller seized her opportunity."

"I thought it was deeply humiliating, wildly offensive. I didn't say they couldn't build it," she says. "I appealed to them not to build it."

“Top Republicans such as Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, John McCain, and Sarah Palin spoke out against the community center, which also had a mosque. Geller teamed with Spencer and other Southern Poverty Law Center–certified hate groups to denounce the $100 million project. She went as far as to say the "Ground Zero Mega-Mosque"—as she liked to call it—was a "victory mosque."

“It earned Geller her second Worst Person in the World award. Olbermann said Geller's rhetoric helped stoke a paranoia that resulted in, among other things, a national spike in anti-Muslim hate crimes and a mosque firebombing in Jacksonville."

"That November, she traveled to Sherman Oaks, California, to receive the Annie Taylor Award for Courage from the ultra-conservative, anti-Muslim David Horowitz Freedom Center. Spencer himself presented her with the award. "You have to understand that we're in a war," Geller said in her acceptance speech. "We are at war now. It's not coming. It's not around the corner. We're at war now. The Ground Zero Mosque is the second wave of the 9/11 attack."

Geller & Friends Inspire Hate in Norway:
“Eight months later, Anders Behring Breivik ignited a bomb in Oslo, Norway. He killed eight people. A few hours later, dressed as a police officer, he traveled to a children's summer camp. He pulled out a gun and slaughtered 69 teenagers."

"Breivik wrote a manifesto in which he stated the purpose of the killings: to prevent a Muslim takeover. He quoted from Geller's Atlas Shrugs. He also cited Spencer, her partner, dozens of times by name."

Obama Changes Game – Profits Slip:
“The president had just won re-election in a landslide. The Tea Party, doomed by the rise of flawed presidential candidates such as Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, and Michele Bachmann, and "Rapey Republican" congressional candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, was on life support. Park51 was still on schedule to open steps away from Ground Zero.

News outlets distanced themselves from Geller. Even Fox News, which had supported her views for years, recently backed away. In a segment on Happening Now, anchor Jenna Lee said Geller's transit ads used "controversial language so inflammatory, we're not going to show it to you."

"You don't think you're inciting hatred?" I ask her. "No," she answers quickly."

Geller Fans the Flames in Gaza:
“A week ago, the New York Post covered the Gaza conflict by showing a full front-page photo of young Hamas men on motorcycles dragging a suspected Israeli spy through the streets of Gaza City. "Savages!" the headline read.”

“Spencer, on Geller's sister blog, jihadwatch.org, posted about it. New York Post admits Pamela Geller is right," he wrote. "Palestinian jihadists are savages."

When that video first came out, I seriously wondered if Geller had something to do with its funding or distribution. Today I continue to wonder if she did. Or do you think she just used the opportunity of the video to further profit from her hate mongering?

December 2, 2012

It's another GOP shell game.

They intend to lie that keeping the Bush cuts for lower wage earners is a GOP goal = GOP heroes

while bashing dems for protecting Medicare/Medicaid (the "takers" in their dictionary) = DEMS villans

The spin has become more obvious this past week as a few republicans (pretending to be moderate) have had the "courage" to step out and be "responsible" by acknowledging tax cuts for the 98% are necessary AND SO ARE MEDICARE CUTS.

Just listen to Bob Corker today. Or Lindsay Graham:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/02/graham-i-think-were-going-over-the-cliff/
CNN) – Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was blunt in his assessment Sunday of where negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff are headed. "I think we're going over the cliff," he said.
"It's pretty clear to me they've made a political calculation," the South Carolina senator said on CBS' "Face the Nation," calling the administration's initial proposal offered Thursday "a joke" when it comes to entitlement reform. Graham, like other Republicans, has said he's willing to accept new tax revenue, but only if it comes with significant changes to entitlement programs like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

They haven't had a change of heart. They just intend to shift the blame onto Obama if he refuses their deal and we go over the cliff.

December 1, 2012

Thanks for catching that - and my apologies to Mr. Pitt!

December 1, 2012

He also thinks God is sad because we don't eat all the endangered animals.

God is insulted because they all taste like chicken.

Only God and Bryan Fischer know this now.

Bryan Fischer will tell us as soon as God says it's OK to tell.

November 27, 2012

Thank you for this post, WilliamPenn!

The "fiscal cliff" is The Shock Doctrine in action.

We knew it was coming.

Are we shocked?

November 24, 2012

When he was running against Obama, I mentioned to my son that he

graduated 894th out of 899 in his class at the naval academy.

My son's comment: "No wonder he got captured."

I thought that pretty much said it back then. NOW I KNOW that pretty much says it.

Dumber than a bag of rocks......

November 24, 2012

It's just a matter of time until your Philadelphia story begins to unfold here.

The first jack-out-of-the-box here, the former mayor (who lost re-election just before the posse was let lose) announced he was applying for 90+ charter school licenses. He had been heavily implicated in dozens of nefarious "deals" during his too many years in office. Tried his best to cut a deal to sell our utility company, profited from real estate sales made possible by rezonings and city redevelopment plans..... it went on and on.....

So he was just among the first to smell the money and jump in.... I think he wound up with several licenses but not the huge number he intended to.

I've no doubt there's a substantial number of other crooks we just don't know about yet, but I've no doubt his will surface as problems soon. It's that old "leopards and their spots" thing.


Help me remember. Did we really have a problem with teachers before Bush's No Child Left Behind? Seems that's when teachers and their unions became demons as the Republicans created a problem to sell their "fix".

I'm just afraid a large number of our citizenry doesn't understand how vital public education is to this nation.

November 24, 2012

Critics said the formula artificially inflated charter schools' performance for political reasons.

Or was that for profit reasons? Silly me - same difference!

November 22, 2012

Right! Eisenhower would have made a better Democrat than some Democrats today!

And 1956 was indeed probably the last time the GOP platform actually sought to govern in accordance with the needs of the people and the future of the nation as priority. The message was palatable to both Republicans and Democrats at that time so Eisenhower won - even in a fair and honest election.

(By the way, looks like Mr. Drat has been making mischief---he was banned from posting just after he posted here. That's why I never responded to his comment.)

Glad to learn about your blog! I'll be checking it out!

November 22, 2012

An Illuminating Document, AND more timely than meets the eye.

from the link above, excerpts from Eisenhower's 1956 GOP platform:

“We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs—expansion of social security—broadened coverage in unemployment insurance —improved housing—and better health protection for all our people. We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people.”

“We hold that the major world issue today is whether Government shall be the servant or the master of men. We hold that the Bill of Rights is the sacred foundation of personal liberty. That men are created equal needs no affirmation, but they must have equality of opportunity and protection of their civil rights under the law.”

“Under the Republican Administration, as our country has prospered, so have its people. This is as it should be, for as President Eisenhower said: “Labor is the United States. The men and women, who with their minds, their hearts and hands, create the wealth that is shared in this country—they are America.”

Today we are watching the incredible assault of GOP henchmen on the social safety net, organized labor, the poor and the middle class of our nation. Compare today's rightwing ideology with the platform of Eisenhower. In large degree, those henchmen represent the interests of capitalism at its ugliest and we see (in real time) how far they are willing to go to accomplish their aims and regain power.

Interestingly, just a few hours ago I viewed a Thom Hartmann video which stated Eisenhower was the last Republican President elected in a fair/legitimate election. To support his claim, he pointed to the same issues above which were supported by a majority of the electorate at the time. (I provide the link in order to make his statement about Eisenhower readily available - not to provoke or evoke more debate over the proof of stolen elections, which was his main topic). The frequently heard lament about Reagan not being electable today pales in contrast to the electability of Eisenhower.