April 2005 (II): The Month In Family/Amurkan Values

Clever Sister sends some product links [no longer working]. They're a 2005 example of "what those loonies wanted to do in Florida with Schaivo"—to turn her into a "living miracle" product-pushing business opportunity, à la comatose Little Audrey Santo.

Tacky, but only the smallest of small-time opportunism, compared to the theocratic right's wealth and power-enhancing intrusions into politics.

After the Republican leadership's loud bleating that their Schaivo maneuvers were all about the sanctity of life—never (gasp!) political—a memo from the Senate Office of Mel Martinez Senate becomes public. Which outlines the party's talking points for exploiting Schaivo to the max.

Now their media operatives go into gear, promoting the "what's the big deal, and—look over there!—it's the Democrats' fault anyway" line—here, for example.

And in this transcript, much effort is made by Darryl Kagan [for the moment, Mrs. R. Limbaugh] to steer her fellow talking-head in the direction of saying, "but isn't this just icky, nasty politics, and aren't the Democrats worse..." Followed by her changing the subject to the previous night's Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner—addressed by jovial Dick Cheney—a "fun night" enjoyed by all.

While it's not exactly news that opportunism makes strange allies, Max Blumenthal 's portrait of the assorted theocrats, racists, Catholics and anti-Catholics joining forces to rouse the rabble on "Justice Sunday" is here.

The event's only black speaker is a Protestant bishop active in promoting "wedge issues" like gay marriage, to divert blacks from voting Democratic. His stature on the white right has grown, and he's been among black clergy invited to a private White House meeting. But he's frustrated that these issues aren't working because—as he admits in his speech—"Black churches are too concerned with justice."

The immediate goal of the event is to weaken Congressional opposition to Bush judiciary appointments. As part of the long-range goal of destroying judiciary independence.

Digby points out the hypocrisy of the Catholic church's top-level involvement in "Justice Sunday," after previously ruling that priests could not involve themselves in politics—at least, not liberal priests.

And Digby's post goes on to cite Fritz Stern, including this:

Twenty years ago, I wrote about "National Socialism as Temptation," about what it was that induced so many Germans to embrace the terrifying specter. There were many reasons, but at the top ranks Hitler himself, a brilliant populist manipulator who insisted and probably believed that Providence had chosen him as Germany’s savior, that he was the instrument of Providence, a leader who was charged with executing a divine mission. God had been drafted into national politics before, but Hitler’s success in fusing racial dogma with a Germanic Christianity was an immensely powerful element in his electoral campaigns. Some people recognized the moral perils of mixing religion and politics, but many more were seduced by it. It was the pseudo-religious transfiguration of politics that largely ensured his success, notably in Protestant areas.

"Justice Sunday" was a stunt staged for public visibility—satellite broadcast to 400 churches, as well as via radio and internet. But earlier in the month, movement leaders held a more private meeting: a "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" conference—also attended by Max Blumenthal, who reports:

For two days, on April 7 and 8, conservative activists and top GOP staffers summoned the raw rage of the Christian right following the Terri Schiavo affair, and likened judges to communists, terrorists and murderers. The remedies they suggested for what they termed "judicial tyranny" ranged from the mass impeachment of judges to their physical elimination.

While the brains of this movement aim for "plausible deniability" by indulging only in violent rhetoric, there are also the foot soldiers. As of April 14:

Abortion clinics around the US are "bracing for attacks" after convicted murderer and Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph issued a "manifesto" justifying attacks against such clinics and their workers.

Rudolph is able simultaneously to plead guilty; issue his call-to-arms; and prevent the public spectacle of a trial that would shed light on right-wing terrorism.

A Berkshire Eagle editorial [registration required], "An American terrorist," suggests:

...questions will go unanswered that a trial might have resolved. Did Mr. Rudolph think up the idea of becoming a "pro-life" killer all by himself, or did others influence his thinking? He said in his statement he had no ties to the fascist Christian Identiy movement. Is that really the case? Did he build, plant and detonate his bombs all by himself, or did he have assistance and support? It's comforting to think Mr. Rudolph was a lone zealot, unless he wasn't. Without a trial, we'll never know.

Maybe the prosecutors thought they couldn't get him and so opted for an easy plea. but here are powerful people for whom the spectacle of an unrepentant murderer for the unborn, a clean-cut movie star handsome Christian terrorist, posed political problems. Better to defend life in the abstract, keep the focus on the enemy at the gates and keep skeletons like Eric Rudolph locked up in the closet.

And April 19 is the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

I remember well how the first news reports of that day were quickly followed by the judgement of our brilliant pundits: "Islamic Terrorists, striking at The Heartland!"

..."The Heartland"? A region with more than a few heavily armed gubmit haters? A slight awareness of the U.S. sociopolitical environment could have led to the second hypothesis just as quickly as the media jumped to the first.

Driftglass marks the anniverary—and the political course of the subsequent years—

First they came for the File Clerks.
Then they came for the Family Planning Clinics.
Then they came for the "activist" judges.
Happy Anniversary, Moderate Republicans!

In the more mundane attack on what affects "security" for most citizens, the regime's efforts on this front continue:

'Trust fund' is locked in filing cabinet
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY

President Bush's visit Tuesday to a federal agency in West Virginia that holds the Social Security trust fund put the spotlight on a $1.7 trillion promise to the nation's retirees.

...Physically, the trust fund consists of 8-by-11-inch sheets of paper...in a drawer of a four-drawer filing cabinet at the U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt in Parkersburg, W.Va...

The papers in the cabinet are computer-generated replicas of $1.7 trillion in Treasury bonds — the amount the government has promised to repay Social Security for spending payroll taxes that finance the retirement system on other programs such as defense and education...

Bush offered the filing cabinet as proof that "there is no trust fund — just IOUs."

As money, bonds, and such are just ink on paper...just paper...Which could be a silver lining—if driftglass is correct that this is the Bush Secret Chinese Debt Strategy Revealed!

Bush's photo ops staged for the fool-some-of-the-people-all-of-the-time segment of the population are one thing. More stealthy are the continuous assaults in areas like this from PR Watch:

A little noticed proposal in the 2,000 page federal budget "would give the president the power to appoint an eight member panel called the 'Sunset Commission.'" The commission would "review federal programs every ten years and decide whether they should be eliminated. Any programs that are not 'producing results,' in the eyes of the commission, would 'automatically terminate unless the Congress took action.'" Even the Environmental Protection Agency or Food and Drug Administration could be axed, on a "simple vote of five commissioners" not a high bar, since many commissioners would likely be "lobbyists and executives from major corporations." The Sunset Commission is the brainchild of Clay Johnson, who's already "helped place industry champions ... throughout the government." It was first mentioned publicly by the ExxonMobil funded think tank, the Mercatus Center.

Finally, a couple of small items in the perpetual propaganda campaign against the citizenry.

I'm starting to see the new nickels—Jefferson faces right; he's lost the hippy hair; and the "God" of "In God We Trust" has moved from bottom to a more immediately visible position at top (which could be what started Jefferson's head to spinning...) I'm not sure what the extreme close-up and cropping are meant to represent, but they make the face look vaguely threatening, much like Hitchcock's creepy close-ups of Mt Rushmore heads in "North by Northwest."

Or this may be meant to make Jefferson resemble someone else. Clever Sister:

I wonder whose face this really is. I should look at some of the 2008 contenders & see if it's one of them. They have already linked Dim Son to George Washington—that's why Rove came up with the "W" business: "George W..." I've seen ads:

"Learn about the first George W. — George Washington"

For that matter, they've already remade Jefferson into a Republican...