I’m sure you’re as shocked by this as I am (via the GOS):
This last comment was a reference to popular right-wing conspiracy theories about Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)-constructed prisons and concentration camps for U.S. citizens. Such conspiracy theories had long been staples of the militia movement, but received a reinvigorating shot in the arm following the election of Barack Obama as president. Almost overnight, right-wing conspiracists across the country revived all of their 1990s militia conspiracy theories about the “New World Order,” planned gun confiscations, and government plots against the citizenry. Once more, wild speculations about SHTF (“s–t hits the fan”) and TEOTWAKI (“the end of the world as we know it”) scenarios became rampant.
Poplawski bought into the SHTF/TEOTWAKI conspiracy theories hook, line and sinker, even posting a link to Stormfront of a YouTube video featuring talk show host Glenn Beck talking about FEMA camps with Congressman Ron Paul. When the city of Pittsburgh got a Homeland Security grant to add surveillance cameras to protect downtown bridges, Poplawski told Stormfronters that it was “ramping up the police state.” He said, too, that he gave warnings to grocery store customers he encountered (but only if they were white) to stock up on canned goods and other long-lasting foods.
No one could have predicted…
BTW- the first time I ever heard this FEMA trailer stuff was late night when I could not sleep a couple months ago and I turned on Coast to Coast. There was a fellow talking about it who was QUITE exercised.
sgwhiteinfla
Here is that David Shuster clip I was talking about earlier. He really said what needed to be said and thats more than most of our "journalists" are doing with this story. Hell I would take Shuster over Tweety ANY DAY!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#30076341
kid bitzer
typo in your intro line, john. looks like you left out " you’re".
superfly
Hey, no one could have predicted,
aka
NOCHP
Just Some Fuckhead
Oh noes
4tehlulz
The lack of ZOG in this post made me sad.
Lyssophobe
Didn’t the whole "FEMA as concentration camp landlord" thing start with an actual plan from Ollie North’s unit in the Reagan administration as an option for dealing possible with mass domestic unrest in the event of a major Central American invasion? Funny how this stuff morphs over the years…
GSD
Oh God. Remember these dildos had some goofy theory about markings on the back of street and road signs that were going to be used to communicate to the Chinese when they walked over the border from Mexico where the Chinese/UN forces were massing?
That and some map on a cereal box was a clue to the ZOG/UN takeover.
Beckian batshitters are running amok.
-GSD
HyperIon
If any gov dept is going to be in charge, I’d choose FEMA. They seem to be the least competent of our many federal agencies. It’d take ’em forever to get enough trailers.
Jon H
"Hell I would take Shuster over Tweety ANY DAY!"
Is there a better source for that? MSNBC’s video player has the video and audio way way unsynced, and stops playing at 16 seconds into the clip. For me, anyway.
freelancer
Hey, C’mon, the kid just didn’t want his mom to suffer the shame and indignity of ending up in these camps a la Harry Dean Stanton in Red Dawn, while he escaped and formed the resistance. (Suffice to say that shame would obviously be worse than anything like the media attention and stigma one would get by being the mother of an addle-minded, unstable, racist cop-killer).
Laura W
O/T but I’m pretty sure KO just accused North Carolina of launching a missile!
HA! He retracted it. His producers are obviously sharper than Tweety’s, since Tweety usually doesn’t retract or correct himself until after commercial breaks.
gbear
I’ll bet that Beck had an orgasm when he heard that.
Josh Hueco
Cue BOoB dropping by and claiming that that Gottlieb guy kicked Shuster’s ass in 3…2…
Barbara
I am just trying to imagine what I would say as a white customer in a grocery store who had just been warned by another customer to be sure and stock up on canned goods because of an impending invasion. This individual is clearly disturbed.
He lived about a mile from the house that my aunt lived in for more than 40 years, not far from the Highland Park zoo. It’s hard to think about these little pockets of despair and wonder how much more common they will be as the recession deepens.
Paddy
Yeah, but you have to know Frank Gaffney’s code to find out about the camps.
joe from Lowell
You don’t remember this FEMA stuff from the militia people during the 1990s? It was all over the place back then.
Eric U.
I suspected this insanity was going to happen. The part that really disturbs me is that the Red State/Freeper types didn’t panic when the government actually was taking away their rights. The Bush administration was everything these nuts are worried about now, and worse. However, I seem to remember the Stormfront kooks were somewhat worried about the Bush administration. How bad is it when the Nazis are more connected to reality than the republicans?
joe from Lowell
Frank Gaffney isn’t worried about right-wing conspiracy mongering causing domestic terrorism, because Frank Gaffney knows the Iraqis bombed the Murrah Building.
My favorites are the people who think that Muslim terrorists didn’t do the 9/11 attacks, but did do the OKC bombing.
freelancer
@gbear
Probably, but it’s anyone’s guess as to whether his tear ducts are more productive than his prostate.
sgwhiteinfla
Jon H
The video works for me so I don’t know.
joe from Lowell
The collapse of the Fairness Doctrine conspiracy didn’t teach these people anything?
DougJ
Yikes! This is bad. I really hope that this kind of thing doesn’t spread.
mcc
One thing that interested me in one of the news reports about Poplawski is that he had what I believe the report described as "a short-lived internet radio talk show". I do not know if this is a reasonable response, but for whatever reason I find myself extremely curious if any signs of this guy’s "internet radio" show remain on the internet.
srv
1) GAYS IN MILITARY POLICY ANNOUNCED
2) FBI DIRECTOR SESSIONS SACKED BY JANET RENO
3) VINCENT FOSTER’S "SUICIDE"
ALL HAPPENED THE SAME AFTERNOON
CONNECT THE DOTS, SHEEPLE!
Eric U.
they have kicked the gun nuts into a sufficient frenzy that they can leave it alone soon, and use Beck to give it an occasional bump. That will leave the next McVeigh to silently organize the next domestic terrorist attack. Of course, the problem the Republicans have had is they can’t shut up when it’s time.
I do have to admit I first heard of the FEMA camps on a lefty blog in the last couple of years. I guess I wasn’t as tuned in to the right wing conspiracy theories back in the ’90s.
joe from Lowell
Wake up, America!
Library Grape
i for one am disappointed by the creativity being exhibited by the wingnut fringe. fema camps? that is sooo last century.
i hope they can start exposing the obama administration’s secret plans to build a new artificial intelligence overlord named SkyNet, which will soon enslave us using a clone army created from aborted fetuses harvested from unwed nigra women who sold their bodies to a new Axlotyl Tank program administered by the Department of Heath and Human Services.
now THAT would make beck’s head explode!
h8gop
This will not end until one of Glenn Beck’s tools takes a shot at someone….
Hob
@Lyssophobe: Yup. You’re thinking of Rex-84. I’m sure we’ll never know if it would’ve ever amounted to more than a sweaty daydream of the Reagan gang, but based on what came out at the time, it was reasonable to be alarmed about it — neither the hippies nor the Birchers made it up out of whole cloth. However, it’s the Birchers who have been running with it since then; funny though, how they only seem to worry about it when there’s a Democrat in office.
LD50
Pretty good, but it could use some misspellings.
Also, it’d probably work better if *most* of the words were in caps, but not all.
Oh yeah, more scare quotes would help, too.
Otherwise, a worthy effort!
Tim F.
It seems rather disturbing that John and I independently predicted that this guy is a Glenn Beck fan.
TenguPhule
We must cleanse it with fire, it’s the only way to be sure.
TenguPhule
Not really, most of us were predicting this from the moment it broke.
LD50
I recall hearing about those FEMA camps (one in Indianapolis, I think) during GWB’s first term. I guess the wingnuts don’t mind them when they think the folks in the camps will just be liberals and negroes.
srv
@LD50: BIRDZILLA WAS MY LITTLE BROTHER, I NO HOW TO SPELLZ
Litlebritdifrnt
@h8gop:
I agree, and I am very, very sad to say that.
demkat620
You know, you watch these shows and you think, "Nobody takes this seriously, right?" Except they do. That’s the scary part.
Somewhere, in this country, right now, somebody is stocking up on guns, ammo and tuna fish, because Glen Beck has convinced them the end is nigh.
BarneyG2000
It was X-Files the movie that opened my eyes to the FEMA conspiracy. Where is Mulder when we need him? Oh, I forget, he’s up to his elbows in Sully’s snatch.
srv
@BarneyG2000:
Well, it was pretty wet after landing in the Hudson.
Library Grape
@BarneyG2000: hmm, must’ve meant scully
LD50
I assume he meant ‘Scully’.
Laura W
@Laura W: Well I totally suck.
KO’s mom died. Only I could mock a man for making a slip-of-the-tongue when he knew he had to eulologize his mom at the end of the show.
Bleh.
So I guess I’ll go make a donation now to the Susan Komen Breast Cancer Fund to assuage my sucky guilt.
http://ww5.komen.org/
Josh Hueco
@Laura W:
You had no way of knowing.
Litlebritdifrnt
Oh god I am crying, Keith’s Mom died, and his piece just now about her was about perfect as it could be. Shit.
kay
@demkat620:
It’s a little scarier than it was the first time around, because everyone has internet and cable.
In the ’90’s, you had to read the WSJ editorial page to find out THE FRIGHTENING TRUTH about Janet Reno. You had to look for it.
Now it’s faster. Easier. Plus, the elected members of the GOP seem to be actually driving it, so that’s different too. Originally it was "bottom up".
Now there’s a GOP House member who seemingly does nothing else but appear on television and radio and recite the text of crazy-ass
chain emails.
TenguPhule
Shame. Shame. Shame!
AhabTRuler
@Laura W: Sometimes it happens, but everyone knows that there was no ill will intended.
One of the only things that I like about Christianity is its emphasis on forgiveness.
Comrade Kevin
@srv:
Z0DIAC MOTHERFUCKER? Is that you?
Comrade Kevin
@Litlebritdifrnt: It sure was, I don’t know how he managed to do it.
Laura W
@Josh Hueco: Yeah, you’re right, and sweet, as always. But it’s still sad, and I still suck.
So let’s go give some cash, whoever can, in memory of Keith’s mom.
It was a really lovely tribute. Very moving. Especially in light of the baseball opening day connections.
demkat620
@kay: Yes, I remember the 90’s well, this is definitely starting to look worse.
Laura W
@AhabTRuler: You are a very funny, and very evil man, to link to that.
Thanks for making me laugh thru my tears, anyway.
Leelee for Obama
The operative word in this sentence is read. Most of the time, these days, the people who are scared of FEMA camps or other such fantasies, can just watch Glenn Beck or Michelle Bachman on regular old cable. No tin-foil or specially implanted devices necessary. On the internet they can just watch the you-tube screeds. No reading needed, and that’s a good thing, cause they don’t want no education….but they do seem to lurve the thought control.
TenguPhule
The War over Releasing Torture Memos Begins
And once again, Republicans are on the wrong side.
NonyNony
Really? Wow. The first time I heard about the FEMA trailer stuff was back around 1993-94. I can’t remember where I first heard it from, but it was probably from some nutter on Usenet.
Admittedly, that was around the time I was collecting conspiracy theories. The ZOG/FEMA/black helicopter stuff was funny at first – until I found out about Ruby Ridge. And then later Oklahoma City happened. Not so funny after that. That’s what this shit with Beck reminds me of – I’ve been wanting to be able to laugh at his "Doom Bunker" crap, but I keep thinking about the 90s and the stupid shit that people believed that made them take shots at federal agents or blow up Federal buildings.
(I still like the one about the Vatican and the British Royal Family fighting a Shadow War that stretches all the way back to King Henry VIII – and that this fight between the Vatican and the Royals is responsible for everything bad that’s happened for the last 400+ years. Almost as good as the one about Reptoids.)
LD50
Is it online anywhere yet?
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s
If you’re stocking up on canned goods, you need to know how to cook with them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6n32r9nt9s
El Cid
There is going to be a difference between the 1990s anti-Clinton right wing extremist / militia rage fest and now.
Now, Americans aren’t going to put up with these f***tard’s shit.
I think these people are cruising for a major ass-whoopin’.
kay
@demkat620:
I won’t give them the satisfaction of any attempt to request they tone it down. That only feeds the beast. They absolutely love claiming censorship, it all but PROVES the conspiracy, and they’re freaking unbearable to me when they adopt victim status.
The good part about ease of access to information (supposedly) is that while this garbage travels faster, so does the fact-based rebuttal.
It’s like a race! The crazies are just winning right now.
Leelee for Obama
@El Cid:
As I always say, from your mouth to God’s ears!
Andre
Just putting this out there, but if idiots like Poplawski are us white folks’ elite soldiers in The Coming Race War (TM), my money’s on the darkies.
Then again, I’m a godless furriner, so what do I know?
kay
@NonyNony:
I remember something about Margaret Thatcher’s son. Bush I and Margaret Thatcher’s son, and a bank account.
PanAmerican
Wheels within wheels, my friends. Wheels within wheels.
Ask A Conspiracy Theorist
LD50
Don’t worry, you still suck much less than Brick Oven Bill.
Brick Oven Bill
More evidence that John Cole does not watch the Glenn Beck show but instead is on some information feed from whoever pulls his strings. Beck was curious about the FEMA rumors and asked/partnered with Popular Mechanics to look into the subject to figure out what the real story is .
On this evening’s show he reported that the videos were actually of an active Amtrak repair shop in Indiana. He then suggested that his audience not spend their time on Internet hype, because there is enough crazy things going on that are real.
I would add like Obama prostrating himself in front of the Saudi King. He is not to do that as head of state as this is a submissive gesture. Perhaps it was his training.
JK
Either Glenn Beck was deprived of oxygen as an infant or he was born paralyzed from the neck up.
Whatever the explanation, Beck is a fricking lunatic.
This guy belongs in a psych ward.
The Glenn Beck show is a super sized, steaming pile of excrement and a bottomless cesspool of lies.
Anoniminous
I honestly can’t tell if this is snark or if the poster is insane.
Hope the former, fear it’s the latter.
Litlebritdifrnt
@LD50:
Its already on youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxD5OFRDK4g
Anoniminous
H’mmm
You can’t have quote marks in a blockquote and I don’t have Permission to edit my own comment.
I blame Clinton and the DARPA Mind Control© experiments.
gex
@gbear: What I’d like to see is several families of the murdered cops file a civil suit against Beck.
Laura W
@LD50:
Your kind words of comfort and consolation mean more to me than you can ever know.
I shall never forget your thoughtful gesture.
John S.
I would add that you are a fucking idiot, BOB.
Bowing is not a "submissive" gesture, nor can any reasonable person (i.e. not Glenn Beck viewers) surmise that it is "prostrating oneself". In most cultures, it considered a sign or respect or politeness. Of course George Bush used to hold hands with Saudi royalty in addition to kissing them, but that’s no biggie.
When you pull your head out of your ass, let us know. Then write a book about how to live with your head up your ass – it would be a huge success.
Andre
I’m glad Beck decided that now was a good time to do so. Sort of a "pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" moment.
Shorter Glen Beck: "Why are you people wasting your time on things I can’t back up like Bigfoot when aliens are abducting your children and ANALLY PROBING THEIR SWEET AMERICAN ASSES!"
Denzell Washington’s casting in The Manchurian Candidate is yet another reason to believe that Hollywood is secretly on the side of the nutbags.
kay
@JK:
The only time I watched his show he gave a long, hectoring lecture about responsible parenthood.
He then did a piece on how terrorists were going to hijack school buses. The best part? He dragged some unsuspecting school bus official on, who hadn’t gotten the crazy-memo. That guy would not play. He looked completely baffled, and said he thought school buses were safe.
I was really angry. I though "you asshole".
To me, that sort of insane fear-mongering is intended to make people scared to board a school bus. It’s disabling, and weirdly cruel.
To the loonies who are listening to him, I have one question: " why does Glenn Beck want to make your children scared to leave the house? "
Library Grape
@Brick Oven Bill: Does anyone ever wonder why Brick Oven Bill spends so much of his free time here rather than circle jerking over at Free Republic? i suspect it might be something like a closeted priest frequenting gay bathhouses to "spread the gospel". that would of course assume that BOB secretly possesses a rational faculty and an IQ over 60, but I’m an optimist
srv
@Anoniminous:
ONE
TWO
THREE
THERE ARE ONLY THREE DOTS, AND YOU CANT EVEN CONNECT THEM!
kay
@John S.:
I think there’s a picture of Bush bowing, on Lefty blogs. I’m not looking for it.
Not that that will stop the nutters, but there it is.
John Cole
@Litlebritdifrnt: Ok. That made me cry. I talk to my mom 5-10 times a day every day.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Brick Oven Bill:
Get with the program BOB, Laura Ingram is OUTRAGED that Michelle did not curtsey to the Queen, and Barack did not bow, it is tradition and in no way belittles the office of POTUS and FLOTUS, in fact Laura Ingram would be HAPPY to curtsey to the Queen. Like I said it is obvious that Rush and Laura didn’t have their regular talking points phone conference that day cause damn they were so out of wack, Laura is OUTRAGED that Barack and Michelle did not bow/curtsey to the Queen and Rush is OUTRAGED that Barack bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia. Pick a talking point and stick with it for gawds sake.
Comrade Kevin
@Library Grape: I suspect BOB hangs out here because he has a lot of experience being banned from other websites.
Library Grape
@Comrade Kevin: i wonder if john has an IP blocker installed. would be useful
Litlebritdifrnt
@John Cole:
You can tell when he is doing his "goodnight and good luck thing at the end that he is hanging on for dear life. I am not sure I could have done what he did, for weeks after my Daddy died I couldn’t speak his name without breaking down and turning into a blubbering heap. This tonight was an epic triumph of will over emotion. I applaud him for it.
Brick Oven Bill
I hang out here because you guys are my buddies.
Beck announced his partnership with Popular Mechanics probably six weeks ago to investigate if there was any truth to the videos. In another video, the ‘gas chamber’ is exposed to really be a heating retrofit from many moons ago.
Islam teaches that wherever in the world you are, you have to prostrate yourself towards Mecca, because this is where Mohammed, PBUH, came to power, and Mohammed is the perfect man (33:21). The Saudi King owns Mecca, and is emblematic of it. A sign of respectful friendship is a handshake, as this proves you have no weapon in your right hand.
A bow is a sign of submission (Islam literally means ‘submission’, but the way), as it presents your exposed neck to your master for judgment. This was highly inappropriate for an American President. Yes, Bush was a dummy in this regard as well. Both are reasons why we should lift the oil shale ban.
Comrade Darkness
@Brick Oven Bill, maybe Obama was just trying to let him down easy. Can’t break up with a long-time bedmate like that in one date. Bush was kissing and holding hands last date, remember. We’re breaking up, one step at a time.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Litlebritdifrnt: My dad died in 1997 and I still haven’t shed a tear.
handy
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Actually they’re being fully consistent, since they’ve already prejudiced themselves into believing that Obama’s secret agenda is to furl the Muslim flag over the White House and to tear the fabric of America’s culture from its glorious Anglo-Saxon heritage, hence his inability to show proper deference to the nominal leader of said heritage.
You’ve just got to understand the paradigm through which they see the world, then the contradictions go away.
John S.
Of course there is. He also bowed to the Pope. And to the only woman member of the Kuwaiti cabinet, Education Minister Nuriya al-Sebih.
I don’t think that means the United States has pledged subservience to either the Vatican or Kuwait (although it’s possible Glenn beck viewers would not agree).
El Cid
The oil shale ban is cost and pollution.
handy
And just as I posted the above, BOB proceeds to prove my point.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Brick Oven Bill:
So are all those businessmen who bow to Japanese CEOs getting it wrong? Are all those American artists who go to the Royal Variety Performance and who bow to the Queen at the reception line afterwards idiots?
Library Grape
@Brick Oven Bill: ah, so brick oven bill is actually the guy who you kinda knew from a friend of a friend from work who comes to your party and overstays his welcome until the hosts have to call the police to get him out of their bathroom.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Why?
Just Some Fuckhead
@Litlebritdifrnt: Anger issues.
Library Grape
john, seriously, do you keep brick oven bill around as a plaything for us as you would a ball of string for tunch to play with? that seems fine enough but he really seems to distract from a lot of the great conversation here about real arguments grounded in reality.
guest omen
@John S.:
didn’t bush also swap spit with a saudi royal?
Litlebritdifrnt
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Understand.
handy
@Library Grape:
I was thinking he’s more like the guy at the party who corners you and shares his odd conspiracy theories, punctuating his speech with such awkward turns of phrase like, "C’mon…we’re both white people here, let’s be honest, it’s all these damned Mexicans’ fault" or "Are the blacks lazy or what? Am I right or am I right?"
John S.
It might also prove that you wipe your ass with your left hand.
Presumably you pulled this nugget out with your left hand, too. Bowing is frowned upon in Muslim cultures because all human beings are considered equal and bowing is only supposed to be done towards Allah. That is why "Islaam" means "submission", because it means submission to Allah – not other men. That is why "Muslim" means "one who submits Allah".
I don’t know where the fuck you come up with this shit. Oh wait, yes I do – you must have heard it on Glenn Beck.
Polish the Guillotines
@PanAmerican: I love the Onion, and that’s some funny stuff. But it’s the hinged trying to spoof the unhinged, and no matter how unhinged you think you’re being, it’s never quite enough.
John S.
Yes, but unlike BOB, I can’t get my knickers in a twist over it because much like bowing, pressing noses or a handshake, it considered a polite form of greeting in many cultures.
D-Chance.
BTW- the first time I ever heard this FEMA trailer stuff was late night when I could not sleep a couple months ago and I turned on Coast to Coast. There was a fellow talking about it who was QUITE exercised.
Hell, "a fellow" is probably Alex Jones, conspiracist nutjob supreme, who’s been on Noory’s program DOZENS of times over a period of YEARS.
And, yet, the libs crawl up FNC’s ass while Noory and Jones get a walk.
Fax Paladin
First I heard of the FEMA camps was the left-wing fringe after 9/11 screaming that Bush and Cheney were about to lock us all up…
Oh, and Beck walking the story back now doesn’t excuse the breathless "I can’t disprove this" of earlier weeks.
someguy
Bullshit. He raised the story to get the wingnuts spun up about it. It’s good for ratings.
On the other hand, I’m glad to see that Niewart is brave enough to point out that there isn’t much difference between the conservative"mainstream" and the militia members. It’s about time somebody took notice.
Litlebritdifrnt
Oh and while we are at it, a salute is subservient because it shows to someone that you do not have a weapon in your hand. So Obama should not be saluting the Marine who guards his helicopter cause you know that is subservient. How deep do you wanna go with this shit, cause I can counter your counter all night long.
Bad Horse's Filly
@Litlebritdifrnt: Dammit that made me cry. It’s been such a sad couple of weeks for so many. I have many things to be grateful (both parents still here, though they may make me crazy, can’t contemplate the day they are no longer here to do it, and a brother who made it home from Iraq are on the top of a long list) and in honor of all those who have lost lately, I will count those blessings tonight before I sleep.
TenguPhule
Ah, you must be new to Balloon Juice.
handy
@D-Chance.:
I caught the show a few times years ago when Art Bell was still doing it. It didn’t jump out as particularly partisan, so I always kind of wondered what Bell’s angle was. One minute he would have some "expert" on about the CIA’s nefarious doings in the world, the next it was a guy who claimed aliens were running the show–actually there were a lot of those guys (this was at the height of the X-Files show, Area 51, that fake alien autopsy footage).
Point being, he offered what seemed to be enough fodder for the paranoid regardless of any conventional political identification they might claim for themselves.
Brick Oven Bill
The Japanese had a very militant honor-based society, before the war and I suspect that yes, the bowing is rooted in presenting one’s neck to your master for judgment. Hey, Wikipedia backs up my initial impression:
"Bowing originated as a gesture of subordination, as lowering the head leaves the bower vulnerable. This was particularly the case in Asian cultures such as that of samurai Japan."
Obama does not understand the significance of things like this as he is an academic. He thinks people respond to hugs, window insulation, Section 8 vouchers, and things like that.
In like manner to the handshake, the Western salute proves that you have nothing in your right hand, to be used with someone you might not trust enough to approach for a handshake.
The subject of John’s post, Library Grape, accused Beck of stoking FEMA Camp rumors, when in fact Beck is the man who put them to rest after decades of circulation. Surprise, surprise. This is very topical and I am sorry to interfere with your preconceived notions. Guards! An opposing opinion based in fact. Guards!
nylund
Funny how when the left complained about the growing "surveillance state" and the increasing loss to privacy from all these DHS cctv’s going up, the rightwing’s response was an overwhelming, "why do you hate America? If you’ve done nothing wrong, what do you have to hide! We must do EVERYTHING to stop the terrorists! Mushroom clouds!"
Just imagine if Obama suggested we hand over control of our port security to an Arab nation? Remember that Dubai ports controversy? Surely, if that happened now, Beck et al. would go on about the coming caliphate and the inevitable imposing of Sharia law, etc.
Head of the Class
Well, she certainly has a lot to be proud of. I can haz more family values?
kommrade reproductive vigor
I first heard the Gubbermint Concentration Camps thing from some fellow Dirty Fucking Hippies (Post 9/11 Conspiracy #318). I don’t know the source of the rumor (if there was one) because I tend to say StFu first and ask questions never when I hear that sort of thing.
Library Grape
@Brick Oven Bill: i never pay enough homage to the wise words "don’t feed the trolls"
handy
So you’re not a believer in the "Secret Muslim" theory. Truly, Bill, I apologize for being so presumptuous. No, you opt for the other classic conservative bugaboo: the liberal, all book smarts with a big heart, but ultimately foolish.
I predict soon you’ll mention how Obama lacks "moral clarity" and doesn’t comprehend evil. That he’s blinded by his multicultural liberal education, yes?
Again, folks, this is very simple stuff. Understand the paradigm and everything else falls into place. And, Bill, don’t mistake that for arrogance. I’m just a longtime student.
srv
@Library Grape: great, conversation, real, arguments, grounded… reality.
All these words are yours, except reality. Attempt no landings there.
guest omen
@Brick Oven Bill:
that or you enjoy being the skunk at the party?
JK
If Republicans had some ORIGINAL FRICKING IDEAS, they wouldn’t need to waste time on tinfoil nonsense and BS like Obama’s bowing, Obama’s gift giving, Obama’s birth certificate, and Obama’s teleprompter.
Michele Bachmann, Michelle Malkin, Glenn Beck, Glenn "Instadouche" Reynolds, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh deserve their own private wing in a psychiatric hospital where they can receive all the electro-shock therapy and anti-psychotic drugs they richly deserve.
El Cid
The right genuinely doesn’t know what to do. They’ve spent the past 40 years on an ascendancy where it was assumed by them, by the media, by most ordinary people that they represented the ‘real’ values of America. Now, their every project has turned into absolute, horrifying failure, and their every attempt to regain the allegiance of the public seems to fail.
trizzlor
@Brick Oven Bill: ARGH, I can’t take it. A handshake or salute is just as much a gesture of subordination because it puts you in a situation where you cannot draw your weapon. All of these little cultural tics stem from the same source – place yourself in a weaker position to show that you come in peace.
Of course, things get a bit more complicated when (as was mentioned above) it’s a cultural norm to wipe with your hand – and a handshake becomes an insult. King Abdullah bowed to Obama and Obama bowed back in a simple exchange of friendliness between two allies. Only a fucking wingnut would turn something so simple into a jingoistic clusterfuck.
Hoya
I feel bad for these people who have completely checked out from reality. Who picks White Supremacy in this day and age? It’s goddman Afghanistan Bananastand.
LD50
How did you feel about it when Bush KISSED King Fahd?
So how about it John? Who pulls your ‘strings’?
Anoniminous
@srv:
Alas, my fear was true.
I humbly suggest you:
1. Increase the dosage of your meds
2. Turn off the consumer electric or electronic device that you use to listen to whatever Right Wing nutjob you listen to
3. Step away from the keyboard
4. Read a book – you CAN do it! – on casual correlation. John Stuart Mill’s System of Logic, fer instance. It was originally published in 1865 so you may rest assured you can peruse the contents without getting liberal cooties.
LD50
Are we through the looking glass here?
FoxinSocks
I used to roleplay online and one of the people I played with turned out to be one of these conspiracy theory nuts. Funny thing was though that his conspiracy theories weren’t just limited to the real world. He was convinced I was trying to make secret peace treaties with the enemy races in the game and that I’d let them into the village to ‘co-exist.’ I kept having to tell him, "We have no plans to let the trolls move into the village. They’d eat us."
bvac
Funny how a good 90% of the paranoid conspiracy/9-11 inside job/armed revolution stuff starts out in the fringe rightwing feverswamps, but is all idle talk until a Democrat is elected president.
handy
Once again proving you can’t let inconvenient facts get in the way of a good conspiracy.
Brick Oven Bill
Trizzlor makes a good point, which does not contradict mine, however. Handshakes are friendly respect, as both parties must prove good will at the same moment. A salute is a superior/subordinate interaction, just like a bow.
The bow is used in Asia, because both the Arabs and the Samurai were sword based cultures, while the salute is the sign of subordination in the West because our Western ancestors were more likely to get you with a dagger, or later a pistol.
By bowing, one offers his head. By saluting, one gives his superior additional time to draw, but no more than probably one half of one second. The bow is thus a greater act of submission, as vision is surrendered during the offering of the subordinate head. A President should not bow.
Ed Marshall
He didn’t fucking bow, watch the video, he leaned into to hear something and everyone else did to. I wouldn’t give a shit if he did if that’s protocol, but I’m about sick of this bullshit. The world is going to hell and you mouthbreathing morons keep pimping this idiotic, warmed over from the 30’s, new and improved, Muslim version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Grow up and be a real opposition.
El Cid
Obama should not have bowed to the Saudi. There are many forms of submission in the animal kingdom. Some bacteria manage to use proton-driven stator-rotors for locomotion. This is why we cannot afford to avoid the need for universal translators. I once had coffee on a train.
LD50
But you were cool with it when Bush kissed King Fahd?
Where did you stand on Bush giving Merkel a massage?
OriGuy
Anyone here ever square dance? Does "Bow to your partner, bow to your corner" sound familiar? I do Scottish Country Dance; before every dance, the men bow to their partners and the women curtsy. It’s not a gesture of subservience, whatever the origins of the action.
handy
@El Cid:
Once again, as he does all over the innerwebs, El Cid brings the hammer and isn’t afeared to use it. Bravo!
Anoniminous
@JK:
In order to have original ideas the GOP would have to have some grasp of the tenor – and I ain’t talking about Pavarotti – of modern thought. If they brought their intellectual basis up to … oh, say, 1910 (year the first volume of Principia Mathematical by Russell and Whitehead was published) … they might – might – morph into something other than buffoons.
And a small understanding of Informal Logic and/or Critical Thinking would help as well.
Some vague intersection with Reality would be nice but I’m not holding my breath.
Laura W
@OriGuy: The only square dance call I know is to pivot upon the foundation of the Constitution.
I think the relevant stuff starts about #32.
Library Grape
omg! bush bowed his head before the saudi king! bush was offering himself up for a muslim beheading! wtf!
Image here: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FqXD7nfEOzk/R-CNO-klpfI/AAAAAAAABF8/TX2ayYmGYeA/s320/BushBows.jpg
oh noes! an american president expresses subservience to a sand nigra leader! pearls! where are my precious pearls of sanctimony? must clutch!
El Cid
@handy: I too once read Letters From A Nut.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Tunch iz teh Master of Puppets.
Anoniminous
@El Cid:
ROTFLMAO!
A Thing of Beauty, wonderful to behold.
Fencedude
@sgwhiteinfla:
BAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
Shuster looks and sounds like he wants to reach out and smack that "Alan" guy.
Oh man, he and the other guest made "Alan" look like a complete moron.
guest omen
@Brick Oven Bill:
but according to you birthers, obama is not really the president. so he’s off the hook. no harm, no foul.
LD50
Game, set, match.
jcricket
So we’ve got the McCarthy hearings and internment camps for Japanese Americans, and exactly how many instances of left-wingers in the US rounding anyone up and putting them anywhere?
It’s all fracking projection man, simple as that.
But seriously, I welcome Bachmann, Beck, Malkin, Coulter, Limbaugh, etc. being more public, more visible, more encouraged and "accepted" by the official GOP party. All these idiotic screeds get a small and declining segment of America lathered up and crazy, while turning off all large and growing population segments. Plus it tends to be self-reinforcing (once the crazies have hold, they don’t let go easily, and the primary system pulls the party to the right).
The only downside, and it is a biggie, is the lone gunmen types who take the GOP too seriously. That, and the danger of ODing on lulz and schadenfreude.
Mike S
All you need to know about brick shithouse bill is on his blog:
Billy got all moist because Becky "wrapped himself in the military."
As opposed to John Cole who was actually IN the military.
It’s a perfect example of just how pathetic these new Republicans are.
Brick Oven Bill
I have previously mentioned that Bush looked foolish too and I think he held Fahd’s left hand. I should also add that Arabs wipe their asses with their left hand, which would not interfere with Western-style salutations per Trizzlor’s allusion.
This picture confirms Fahd’s left hand and is a huge insult to Bush in the Arab world, it appears that Bush caught on to the trick a little too late. This had not occurred to me until just this moment. Wipe with the left, eat and potentially greet with the right.
Here is a protocol link, I can also personally attest that they do not use toilet paper at the Jeddah Mall. This is why if an Arab waves at you with his left hand, he is not being friendly. The Jeddah Mall is a fancy place relative to the rest of Saudi Arabia.
Library Grape
@jcricket:
i find the general sentiment more than a little distasteful. Yay! Bachmann/Beck/et al’s prevalence on the national stage will help the progressive cause (but, oh, p.s. some innocent people may likely be gunned down in a hail of right-wing-inspired bullets)!!
gex
@Head of the Class: I’ve not yet heard any talk of this guy’s father. Did the gays destroy this family?
El Cid
Glenn Beck was also the guy who for days on his radio show kept claiming that the DC snipers (before they were caught) meant that "this is the day America changed", meaning that now various radicals and sleeper agents would be shooting at you from around the corner, everywhere, across America.
He said this shit repeatedly, in that same super serious tone like he’s communicating directly to you the reptilian-grey alien communications he’s just intercepted in his thigh, over and over.
And never once did I hear him after the 2 sniper knuckleheads were caught say, ‘Hey, that thing about all America changing and sleeper agents and radicals erupting from around every bend? Yeah, I was wrong about that, and gosh, I was stupid.’
Library Grape
@Brick Oven Bill:
Dirty nigra savages! I bet you’re upset because the color of the bathroom matter on their hands is the same color as their dirty sand nigra skin, right BOB?
Curious to know what you think of this picture of GWB bowing in front of the Saudi king and exposing his lily white neck to the fecund sword of the dirty sand nigra king? http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FqXD7nfEOzk/R-CNO-klpfI/AAAAAAAABF8/TX2ayYmGYeA/s320/BushBows.jpg
El Cid
‘That’s because I walked around for two hours with my left hand coated in my own shit and yet no one talked to me to say that I was somehow mistaken for doing so. They were very unfriendly and avoided me due to their evolutionarily prepared prejudices against Westerners, given the still-untranslated texts found from the Harappan cities in India.’
Library Grape
@El Cid: dude, the DC shooters were discovered to be dirty nigras! so obviously this couldn’t represent the pure aryan grassroots revolt he was expecting!
jcricket
First off, did you not notice the phrase "and it’s a biggie". That’s some serious caveat there, Mr! And second, these people will find some reason to go ape-shit anyway. These types have been pushed by things like the Turner Diaries, the "pro life" movement, etc. for years and it’s resulted in some ugly shit. But the more out there it is, the more law enforcement can be aware and on top of it. That’s what happened in the early 90s and it’ll happen again now.
Yes, if I had a choice, I’d prefer none of the people I mentioned would have the views that they do. I’d prefer a GOP that wasn’t hurtling full-speed no-brakes-needed into the wingnut abyss. While I don’t buy the idea that we need two equally opposing parties, assuming we have two national parties, I’d like them both to be sane.
But since I can’t "choose" my GOP, and it’s not up to me what idiocy they latch on to/promote, I greatly prefer them out in the open to being in the hiding or hiding behind "centrist" rhetoric while secretly espousing hate.
Sunshine is the great disinfectant. And if the flap from when Limbaugh made fun of Michael J. Fox is any example, when these commenters cross the line (arguably already happening) they’ll eventually get booted from the air. That might further the really crazies, but their impact will be shrunk into nothingness when the advertisers walk away.
Mike S
I hate this blogs comment section. I bolded the fact that there were women there and that Billy got moist about the military thing.
El Cid
By the way, Glenn Beck had a nation-wide suckfest [last summer] wherein his live ‘comedy show’ was to be simulcast in HD in movie theaters around the country. I saw the trailer for this in the previews for a real movie. I thought it was a joke. Say, can anyone find any statistics for what must have been record-setting attendance? I envision hundreds of millions of people interested in going to a movie theater and paying $12 to see Glenn Beck live in HD doing a comedy show. He must have made trillions.
Laura W
@El Cid: @El Cid:
Christ. You’re good. And relentless. And fast. How do you do that at this hour of the night? (Unless you are on PST or a vampire. Then never mind.) I mean, how beautiful is this:
Bubblegum Tate
Ouch!
I too learned about the FEMA camp/militia stuff back in the 1990s, but I learned about it from reading Behold a Pale Horse, which is freaking awesome because it has all the militia stuff plus aliens, UFOs, time travel, and the solving of the Kennedy assassination (apparently, the limo driver did it). I highly recommend that book; it will crack you up.
El Cid
@Laura W: I am only able to keep up this output by saving up all the energies not spent bowing. Also, I used to actually listen to those militia / conspiracy / fundamentalist nuts in the 1990s on their shortwave radio programs, so I got the crazy unfiltered.
Brick Oven Bill
El Cid;
One does not need to walk around with crap on his hands at the fancy Jeddah Mall. They have this long trough with a rusty perforated pipe above it with water dripping into the trough. I had mistaken this to be the urinal and met a Saudi friend who was washing his hands after using the hole in the ground.
Library Grape
@jcricket: yes, this rightwing end of days shit has been espoused forever and ever. yes, it will always be there. but, ultimately, i find that far too many people fail to fully appreciate the gravity of the innocent people that get killed by this cesspool of fear, paranoia and hate. we too often allow our apathy, pessimism and fatalism to grease the way for the blood of innocents to be spilled while we antiseptically snark at the caricatured silliness of people like Glenn Beck and Brick Oven Bill
El Cid
I know, I’m sure you chose to do so purely as an expression of individual inititiative.
I’ve been to places in the 3rd world too. There I saw different things, some of them quite gross. I tried not to make them into stupid analogies to justify weird stories and non sequiturs.
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
@Brick Oven Bill:
Really? Well, we are just in a cool-down period after the heated ardor of the Bush family, which not only kissed the Saudis but did it on camera. Who else but someone who hangs with Babs Bush would have themselves filmed while having mouth sex with the Saudi Royal family?
When Obama sucks face with those Saudi turds, call me.
Until then, why don’t you find a different blog to jerk off to?
poopsybythebay
@El Cid:
I very rarely ever post anywhere–I’m just a reader. I had to tell you how funny you were. Thanks for the laughter.
Brian J
Maybe I’m thinking of something else, but wasn’t it George Bush who created the only thing in recent years that could be described as anything remotely resembling a concentration camp with miles and miles of trailers than sunk into the ground after Hurricane Katrina? I don’t expect these people to think rationally, but assuming that we even need to delve into their nutty world, exactly how else do they expect the construction of these camps to go unnoticed? There are vast parts of the country where few people live, but really, with news spreading so quickly, even if the government wanted to do it, how could it start this process without being noticed?
Mike in NC
The same twenty people who enjoyed "An American Carol" attended.
Hob
Bill is an ardent naturalist, and tends to describe all human endeavors as if he is narrating Wild Kingdom, with an almost exclusive focus on power games and domination/submission. If Hillary were president, he’d be telling us how she adopted a lordotic mating posture in front of the Saudis.
R-Jud
@El Cid:
I now have coffee on my keyboard. Win.
dslak
I think BOB makes a good point, which we can apply to other daily situations. The word ‘pencil,’ for example, also shares an etymology with ‘penis.’ This means that anyone who writes with a pen or pencil is masturbating.
Deep thoughts from Brick Oven Bill.
marge
I heard about the camps several years ago. I was told they were for illegal immigrants and were being built for the Bush administration. I thought it was the right trying to lock up the left, not the other way around. Funny how extremists on both sides are on the same side.
Anon
Perhaps it was the fact that 0bama said ON HIS WEBSITE that he intended to institute a permanent “Assault Weapons” ban that made him think 0bama planned to institute an “Assault Weapons” ban. Ya’ think? Maybe?