Word.

Stanley Fish:

It is wrong, we hear, to regard the proposed mosque or community center as an ordinary exercise of free enterprise and freedom of religion by the private owners of a piece of property. It is, rather, a thumb in the eye or a slap in the face of the 9/11 victims and their families, a potential clearinghouse for international terrorist activities, a “victory mosque” memorializing a great triumph of jihad and a monument to the religion in whose name and by whose adherents the dreadful deed was done.

But according to the same folks who oppose the mosque because of what it stands for, Michael Enright’s act doesn’t stand for anything and is certainly not the product of what Time magazine calls a growing “American strain of Islamophobia.” Instead, The New York Post declares, the stabbing is “the act of a disturbed individual who is now in custody,” and across the fold of the page columnist Jonah Goldberg says that “one assault doesn’t a national trend make” and insists that “we shouldn’t let anyone suggest that this criminal reflects anybody but himself.”

The formula is simple and foolproof (although those who deploy it so facilely seem to think we are all fools): If the bad act is committed by a member of a group you wish to demonize, attribute it to a community or a religion and not to the individual. But if the bad act is committed by someone whose profile, interests and agendas are uncomfortably close to your own, detach the malefactor from everything that is going on or is in the air (he came from nowhere) and characterize him as a one-off, non-generalizable, sui generis phenomenon.

Now just WHO is it that’s aiding and abetting terrorists?

Why our good old friends in the GOP — people like Newt Gingrich, Pam Geller, and the others trying to score cheap political points off the community center planned for lower Manhattan. THEY are the American terrorist sympathizers:

Taliban officials know it’s sacrilegious to hope a mosque will not be built, but that’s exactly what they’re wishing for: the success of the fiery campaign to block the proposed Islamic cultural center and prayer room near the site of the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan. “By preventing this mosque from being built, America is doing us a big favor,” Taliban operative Zabihullah tells NEWSWEEK. (Like many Afghans, he uses a single name.) “It’s providing us with more recruits, donations, and popular support.”

America’s enemies in Afghanistan are delighted by the vehement public opposition to the proposed “Ground Zero mosque.” The backlash against the project has drawn the heaviest e-mail response ever on jihadi Web sites, Zabihullah claims—far bigger even than France’s ban on burqas earlier this year. (That was big, he recalls: “We received many e-mails asking for advice on how Muslims should react to the hijab ban, and how they can punish France.”) This time the target is America itself. “We are getting even more messages of support and solidarity on the mosque issue and questions about how to fight back against this outrage.”

Zabihullah also claims that the issue is such a propaganda windfall—so tailor-made to show how “anti-Islamic” America is—that it now heads the list of talking points in Taliban meetings with fighters, villagers, and potential recruits. “We talk about how America tortures with waterboarding, about the cruel confinement of Muslims in wire cages in Guantánamo, about the killing of innocent women and children in air attacks—and now America gives us another gift with its street protests to prevent a mosque from being built in New York,” Zabihullah says. “Showing reality always makes the best propaganda.”

Mission accomplished, assholes.

Nation, meet cliff.

It’s official now: The GOP is the Party of Teh Crazee and Teh Stoopid

I don’t know what makes me sadder…to watch an entire political party go completely off its rocker because ZOMG THERE’S A NEGRO WITH A FUNNY NAME IN THE WHITE HOUSE OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!, or because Americans are going to be stupid enough to give this bunch of babbling fools the keys to the car again in November:

A majority of Republicans believe that President Barack Obama “sympathizes with the goals of Islamic fundamentalists who want to impose Islamic law around the world,” according to a survey released on Monday.

That figure, buried at the very end of a newly released Newsweek public opinion poll, reflects the extent to which a shocking bit of smear and misinformation has managed to become nearly commonplace within the GOP tent.

(Read the full poll results here.)

A full 14 percent of Republicans said that it was “definitely true” that Obama sympathized with the fundamentalists and wanted to impose Islamic law across the globe. An additional 38 percent said that it was probably true — bringing the total percentage of believers to 52 percent. Only 33 percent of Republicans said that the “allegation” (as Newsweek put it) was “probably not true.” Seven percent said it was “definitely not true.” The rest (eight percent) either didn’t know the answer or didn’t read the question.

The Newsweek findings add more kindling to the already-heated debate raging around the persistent rumors that Obama is a closeted Muslim (he’s not). In an illustration of just how deeply news outlets have been drawn to the topic, the magazine devoted seven of its 24 questions to Muslim-themed topics, producing, in the process, a number of telling and newsworthy numbers.

Fifty-nine percent of Republicans, for instance, said they believed the president favored “the interests of Muslims over other groups of Americans,” while only 34 percent of said he had been “generally even handed” in his approach. In contrast, nine percent of Democrats said Obama favored “the interests of Muslims over other groups of Americans” while 82 percent of Democrats said he had been even-handed.

In case you thought it was only about proximity to Ground Zero

Apparently even Tennessee is too close to Ground Zero to build a mosque:

Federal officials are investigating a fire that started overnight at the site of a new Islamic center in a Nashville suburb.

Ben Goodwin of the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to CBS Affiliate WTVF that the fire, which burned construction equipment at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, is being ruled as arson.

Special Agent Andy Anderson of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told CBS News that the fire destroyed one piece of construction equipment and damaged three others. Gas was poured over the equipment to start the fire, Anderson said.

[snip]

Opponents of a new Islamic center say they believe the mosque will be more than a place of prayer; they are afraid the 15-acre site that was once farmland will be turned into a terrorist training ground for Muslim militants bent on overthrowing the U.S. government.

“They are not a religion. They are a political, militaristic group,” Bob Shelton, a 76-year-old retiree who lives in the area, told The Associated Press.

Shelton was among several hundred demonstrators who recently wore “Vote for Jesus” T-shirts and carried signs that said “No Sharia law for USA!,” referring to the Islamic code of law.

Others took their opposition further, spray painting a sign announcing the “Future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro” and tearing it up.

Earlier this summer opponents criticized the planned mosque at hearings held by the Rutherford County Commission, as supporters held prayer vigils.

At one such prayer vigil, WTVF reported opponents speaking out against construction.

“No mosque in Murfreesboro. I don’t want it. I don’t want them here,” Evy Summers said to WTVF. “Go start their own country overseas somewhere. This is a Christian country. It was based on Christianity.”

These people see no irony in their fear of shari’a law while calling this a Christian nation. And in case you’re inclined to think this kind of thing is justified, substitute the word “synagogue” for mosque, and then tell me that this is in no way, shape, or form similar to Germany circa 1935.

There has been no spectacular attack. Even when the “underwear bomber” episode took place by someone who WAS a radical Muslim, we didn’t see this kind of response. So why do we see it now?

Why? Because it’s an election year. Because Republicans sense that many Americans have a deep mistrust of Islam that lies right under the surface, and they can exploit it for political gain by reminding them of the mysterious guy in the White House with the funny name. The problem is that when you whip people into a frenzy of fear, it’s hard to control what happens. Of course, the Republicans are sitting there, popcorn in hand, waiting for it to all blow up, certain that when it does, it won’t be in THEIR faces.

Your tax dollars at work

While the teabaggers are getting ready to vote for a Senator from Alaska who believes that unemployment insurance and Social Security are unconstitutional and people delude themselves that these people are ONLY concerned about the national debt, it’s funny how we’ve heard NOTHING from any of these teabaggers and their candidates about the billions squandered in rebuilding Iraq:

A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children’s hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets.

As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. More than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds has been wasted — more than 10 percent of the some $50 billion the U.S. has spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits from a U.S. watchdog agency.

That amount is likely an underestimate, based on an analysis of more than 300 reports by auditors with the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. And it does not take into account security costs, which have run almost 17 percent for some projects.

And this doesn’t even include the $9 billion that mysteriously disappeared in that country during the war.

Yes, and John Kerry didn’t worry about the Swift Boat Liars either

I really and truly think this guy would just as soon go home and collect his markers in a form of a nice eight-figure job in finance:

President Barack Obama said Sunday he isn’t worried about a recent poll showing that nearly one-fifth of Americans believe he is a Muslim. “The facts are the facts,” said Obama, who is a Christian. In an interview broadcast on “NBC Nightly News,” the president blamed the confusion over his religious beliefs on “a network of misinformation that in a new media era can get churned out there constantly.”

A poll released earlier this month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center showed that 18 percent of people believe Obama is Muslim. That was up from 11 percent who said so in March 2009. Just 34 percent said Obama is Christian, down from 48 percent who said so last year.

“I’m not gonna be worrying too much about whatever rumors are floating on out there,” Obama said Sunday. “If I spend all my time chasing after that, then I wouldn’t get much done.”

Asked about persistent accusations that he wasn’t born in the United States, the president responded, “I can’t spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.”

Who knew that Beckapalooza would feature a civil rights movement theme park?

Children of teabaggers on the “Experience Birmingham 1963” ride

(More photos and commentary at the Great Orange Satan.)

87,000 does not an American majority make

The media have really enjoyed painting the Tea Party movement as some kind of national, majority sea change in attitude, a revoluationary force bound and determined to change our government. Of course as lazy as the media has become, if a few thousand people stood on a street corner screaming that the second coming of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is nigh, Chuck Todd would talk about how the President ignores the FSM-ers at his peril.

So this giant groundswell took to the Mall in Washington DC today — all 87,000-ish of them.

The population of the United States is 310,110,640. About 228,000,000 of these are adults. Of those, 87,000 showed up to demonstrate their support for Glenn Beck today. That is 4/100 of one percent of the American adult population, or about the attendance at two Mets games at Citi Field, if the Mets were playing something resembling credible baseball.

So can we please stop talking about these people as if they represent some huge sea change in American attitudes, and leave them to their ‘zines and e-mail spam where they belong?

(LGF has photos.)

Hey Barack Obama…aren’t you glad you sold out health care to the insurance companies?

I wonder if Obama was naïve enough to actually believe that if he just manipulated health care reform so that it would result in a huge windfall for the insurance companies, they’d stick with the Democrats.

Another wrong guess by Team Capitulation:

Health insurers led by WellPoint Inc. are backing Republicans with campaign donations by an 8-to- 1 margin, favoring the party that’s promised to repeal President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul if it wins back Congress.

WellPoint, along with Coventry Health Care Inc. and Humana Inc., gave Republican candidates $315,000 from May through July, according to U.S. Federal Election Commission records. That compares with $41,000 given to Democrats by the three companies as the parties near November elections that will determine who controls the U.S. House and Senate next year.

While Republicans aren’t likely to win the large majorities necessary to override a presidential veto and repeal the health law Obama signed in March, they may be able to slow or stall its implementation, said James Morone, a political science professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. At the same time, the turn to strongly favor Republicans may anger Democrats who had been receptive to insurers’ concerns, he said.

“It surprises me that they would make such a definitive move,” Morone said in a telephone interview. Focusing donations heavily on Republicans threatens to unite Democrats on policy issues that have divided them, including how strictly to control insurers’ business decisions about rates, he said.

Who are all these “experts” and “experienced people” who are surprised at this? The Democrats have been folding like cheap cars for the last thirty years every time the name “Ronald Reagan” is mentioned. What made anyone think that corporations would change their allegiances?

It’s like the town in which I love. A council member of 28 years standing — a crony of the retiring regime that everyone hated, ran as the “candidate of change”. And people believed it. And now the old geezers in town hang out at the Dunkin’ Donuts and whine about how sorry they are that they voted for these people.

What do people expect? Do we all have to be Mets fans to recognize what futility is?

David Neiwert went to Beckapalooza, so you didn’t have to

David Neiwert wasted a day for our sins, and lived to tell the sorry tale.

But as expected, the quote of the day is over at Wonkette:

And here is their Idol, a hunchbacked fishmouthed monstrosity who will burst out of the hell-depths whenever anybody baits a hook with $100,000.