The Real Rainmen

-by Noah

“What a terrible thing it is to lose one’s mind”
          -Former (thankfully) Vice President Dan Quayle

When this whole mosque/cultural center nonsense began to be trumped up out of nothing by the right wing element and their hack media outlets, I wasn’t going to write anything about it because I felt it was getting plenty of exposure, but then, I started thinking it’s not just about the mosque story but also about what this story says about the minds of those who vote Republican. Obviously, this is about more than just a mosque. It’s also more than just a wedge issue. It leads us to the horror of what Republicans are at their core. It’s about people who always need someone to hate. They are addicted to it. The only thing worse than a new mosque to a Republican this week would be a new mosque built by married gay couples who are about to retire and collect their Social Security and Medicare.
 
The mosque insanity is 2010’s Terry Schiavo “crisis,” pushed forward by the usual gang of republikook congressloons and mediagoons. Should we ban Catholic churches being built because of the actions of some pedi-priests? Are ALL Catholics evil because of the actions of a few? Did we send all Germans back to Germany because of the Nazis? No. In fact, after the war, we brought many of them here. To the Republican mind, however, there is a difference. That difference is one of skin tone, beards, burkas, even “strange ways” and stranger sounding names; names like Barack Obama, for instance. The loon squads, all ginned up and infoxicated, say the ground for the mosque is “hallowed ground.” In the first place, the proposed mosque location is at least two blocks away: not even within sight of Ground Zero. It is, in the real reality of us non-Republicans, the location of an abandoned coat factory. This is just another example of the Republican Big Lie Machine. In the second place, the idea of a mosque on hallowed ground gets the loony emotions going but, self-righteous though they may be, they apparently have zero problem with the strip clubs and porn emporiums like The Pussycat Lounge on that same “hallowed ground;” very selective, doncha think?

And, I wonder, how far would be good enough for such people? How far? Try this: The American Family Association is already putting out the idea of no mosques in America, period. What’s next for the Repugs? No temples of any kind. No Synagogues, just Southern Baptist churches? Just Snake Handler churches?
 
What are normal, well-adjusted people to think about the confused mixed signals that emanate from the deranged and damaged minds of today’s Republicans? I’m struck by the idea that we spent billions, sacrificed the lives of thousands of young Americans, and murdered tens of thousands of Iraqi people (Yes, Republicans, if you are lurking and reading this, Iraqis are people) all in the name of liberating them, all in the name of freedom, even allowing many of the dispossessed to come here, even to New York City itself, just as decades ago, we allowed Vietnamese to come here after another ill-reasoned war. When Bush and Cheney were speaking of liberating and flowers and freedom, they said nothing about limiting freedom of religion. Even Bush’s former advisor Mark McKinnon said on Morning Joe on Monday that President Obama did the right thing when he actually showed some leadership and spoke up in defense of our Constitution. So, why do we sacrifice, and liberate and talk about freedoms for people of the Muslim faith, then do a switcheroo and say no to building a mosque? It seems to be an obvious contradiction to me, but, if you are deranged, not so much. Gee, I always heard that Republicans support our troops. A whole lot of good people died so that Americans could have freedom of religion. You might even say that it was one of the reasons this country came to be. This is worth watching again:

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One of the gripes of the loonies is that the Imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf, of the proposed mosque and cultural center, or Dreaded Victory Mosque Spy and Plotting Center, as the wackies think of it, has a fundraising association with Saudi Arabia. The Bush Crime Family’s business associations and the Carlyle Group’s relationships with the same country don’t seem to bother these same people. Nor do Darth Cheney’s or his Halliburton’s relationships with Dubai seem to matter, only the Imam’s.

Republicans seem to have an almost idiot savant talent for focusing obsessively on certain specific minutia to the exclusion of any other pertinent information that might provide a more complete picture or a clear view of reality. That’s easy to do when you are fighting mightily to see the world only as you want to see it. It’s the key to how they do their messaging so well. If something just doesn’t fit the world as they want it to be, they toss it and throw a fit just like a petulant child would when confronted by a parent or sibling doing something that didn’t fit the child’s plan for the day. This is more than just childish behavior, though, because it is perpetrated by adults who have learned just enough to be able to manipulate those who don’t have the time, inclination, or experience to gain or process enough information that would give them a bigger picture. If you want to see something a certain way, it’s easy as long as you can exclude chunks of reality. You start with a preconceived notion that enables your hate, and you ditch any contradictory evidence. You can even ignore all of the American Muslims that died in the towers as though they didn’t exist or, more likely to Republicans, they didn’t matter. It doesn’t even phase these people that, after 9/11 happened, one of the first things George W. Bush did was urge Americans, even Republican ones, to not blame ALL Muslims for 9/11, reaching out to Imam Rauf for help with communication with the American Islamic community. That’s just an inconvenient truth to be tossed away like so many others. This is not to say that the Bush White House wasn’t guilty of the same thing when they went and leveled Iraq. Remember when the Bush White House used to tell us that they weren’t in the reality-based community; that they would create their reality and tell us what that reality is? Case in point: Iraq is full of WMDs with our names on them. Iraqi mushroom clouds, as Condaliza Rice said. To them, it was “real.” Damn the tons of evidence to the contrary. They were arrogant and delusional enough to actually believe it. How’d that work out?

It’s no coincidence that HAMAS said nothing about the mosque issue until President Obama uttered something in support of it. They were strangely quiet. Then, when the President actually for once demonstrated some leadership and spoke up in defense of our Constitution, it looked to the terror world that America might show some tolerance for Islam. That is something that weakens the position of the Arab shit-stirrers. Just as the Republican party needs an enemy in Obama because they have no policies or solutions to our myriad problems other than to continue looting the Treasury for their own personal gain, groups like HAMAS need a big boogie man of an enemy or else they’re out of business too, and the United States fits the bill. Likewise Osama bin Laden needs to show the Arab world that the United States is an enemy not just in the Arab world but in the American homeland as well. Demonstrations of intolerance of Islam by us make his recruiting that much easier. Bin Laden would dearly love for us to forbid the mosque. Obviously, given that, one has to wonder just who those who propagandize the minds of the right are really working for, consciously or not.

For the Republicans, this can be seen as yet another example of their vision of a tiered class-divided society where some have rights that others do not. This is also a game of political gain for them, and, financial gain from the corporate swine that invest in them with lobbying bribes and “campaign contributions." As I write this, Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp (FOX) has just given the Republican Party $1,000,000. For the Republicans, a loss of our security is their gain as much as a ruinous tax code that benefits the top 2% while enslaving the middle and working classes. For Arab terrorists, this is a game of advancing an agenda and growing their size and power. Strange bedfellows? 
 
What of the chief spokescreeps in all of this? Newt Gingrich is a coward. He’s an educated man. He even has a PhD in history, but he’s a sick man, as evidenced by the way he treats the women in his life and the way he distorts history to fit the world he wants to control in more ways than one. He can even separate what he says from what he does. He doesn’t like just being in the passenger seat telling Tom Cruise “I’m a very good driver.” He wants the wheel soooo bad. Better put him in the back seat. Better yet, put him in the trunk, and do it on a very hot day. Sarah Palin? It would be easy to dismiss her as some 14 year old who pipes up at a family get-together and says something excruciatingly embarrassing to those who know better, something that, if she remembers later on in life, may really embarrass her. Yeah, it would be easy to dismiss her if not for the fact that so many people hang on her simpleton words as if she were a bad guy version the Peter Sellers character in the great movie Being There. Rush Limbaugh? What can you say about someone who is such a blowhard that he thinks the Japanese are Hindus? Eric Cantor? Here he is on the far right’s National Review Online site:

“Everybody knows America’s built on the rights of free expression, the rights to practice your faith, but come on…”

Glenn Beck? The pied piper of crazy? When he finally starts speaking in tongues one day on live TV and can’t stop as he falls to the floor spinning around faster and faster and foaming at the mouth, maybe then some of his deluded followers, at least, will realize they’ve been foolish to the max. Some, of course, will proclaim it a miracle and deify him. Sean Hannity? There’s enough smoke of white supremacy connection to indicate a 7 alarm fire, but it seems that most Republicans are right comfy with that. I won’t even begin to describe Michelle Bachman. Just look at her eyes. You don’t even need to have the sound on. Then there’s Pam Geller, a stone crazy New York answer to Orly Taitz, and then some. She’s a birther, a deather, runs her own blog.

She is also a blogger for the laughable Newsmax and is one of the Republican Party’s shrillest 360 head-spinning spokescreeps. It’s hard to read any of her scribble without quickly realizing that you are in the presence of someone who is truly unhinged. It was Geller who started the whole anti-mosque crusade, even buying anti-Islam ad space on New York City buses. Crazy is as crazy does. But hey, let me just go back to Newtie. Compared to Geller, he almost seems sane or maybe only evil. Newt Gingrich, for all of his education, is, as I said, a coward. Why? Because he knows the Constitution that the others in this sad troop blithely mention every damn day. He knows it, but he lacks the guts to stand up for it. He’d rather pander. That’s no surprise for a man who can’t even face himself. Just ask his ex-wives.
 
Republicans like to say they support the troops. That seems to go double for Republican politicians who avoided putting on a uniform because they have “other priorities” to quote Dick Cheney. Then Republicans turn around and do things like deprive vets of benefits and dishonor those who did go to fight for The Constitution and all of the rights it holds. Republicans like to carry around their pocket Constitutions and wave them for the cameras like they used to wave flags to say they were more patriotic than thou back in the Reagan and Nixon eras. But, when the President of the United States speaks out in defense of a Constitutional right like President Obama did, they go all hissy fit. Al Qaeda can’t tear up our Constitution in the name of hate, but we can if we follow the Republican lead. Hey, Repugs! Repeat after me, President Obama! Say it again, even draw it out, P-R-E-S-I-D-E-N-T OBAAAAMA. Does it give ya chills? Good.
 
Republicans also like to spout off about state’s rights, “it’s a local issue,” etc. Here in NYC, the city community board voted in favor of the mosque, 29-1. I bet the board even sees it as a good real estate development deal for the immediate neighborhood. So, dear Repugs, butt out. Stop your political carpet-bagging and butt out. Take your Stalinism elsewhere. In fact, why not shove it up your ass? If that’s too damn harsh for you, you wouldn’t last a day in New York City.
 
The whining right is even asking where the money for the center is coming from. New York Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, who twice got elected as a Republican, then ran as an Independent when it became apparent that being a Republican and carrying all that crazy baggage again would doom his chances at a third term.

“I don’t know and government shouldn’t-- do you really want every time they pass the basket in your church and you throw a buck in, they run over and say, ‘Okay, now, you know, where do you come from? Who are your parents? Where’d you get this money?’”

Well, of course, the Republican mind does want to know. Let’s face it, if they are so obsessed with who you are sleeping with, who you want to marry, what kind of music you’re into, what books you read, and which PC god you worship, they’ll certainly want to know everything else about you, too. The irony for the Repugs is that, with all their whining, they have guaranteed that the money to build the center will now be flowing in like a tide of BP’s best hitting the shores of Louisiana. Money will be coming from everywhere. Nice work, loonies! Can I hire you next time I want to raise some cash? Please, say something bad about me so I can hang my sign out, too! What a bunch of losers; a whole damn party of whining, pathetic, mental defective, dumbass losers. I mean, come on!